“Wanted: Antwerp residents who want to place a strawberry plant on their windowsill to measure air quality.” It must have been ten years since this post caught my attention in my Facebook feed. It was my first conscious introduction to citizen science. More than a thousand citizens participated in this project by bioengineer Roland Samson.
It piqued my interest as a science journalist. Residents who conduct research with the scientist: Great! I started following the topic, and from here came the idea of Every Scientist, the platform where you will find dozens of scientific projects since 2015 that everyone can participate in.
When the citizens’ movement Ringland launched the idea of measuring nitrogen dioxide in Antwerp in 2016, I, as a resident, jumped on the bandwagon. Soon there was a large real estate sign hanging in my window, along with two measuring tubes. This was followed by participating in another study to measure the impact of air pollution on my health, and installing the ObsIdentify app, through which I can report animals and plants to Natuurpunt scientists. He’s busy at my bedroom window. There is already Telraam, which counts traffic on my street, and a noise meter will be added soon, via the De Cause project. The effect of noise on my sleep quality will also be measured.
I live in a crowded city and am disturbed by traffic, noise and dirty air. When another cyclist dies under the wheels of a truck, I feel helpless grief.
Citizen science offers me the opportunity to do something. Because measurement is knowledge, and knowledge can lead to change. Research with citizens also ensures greater publicity. The greater the number of participants, the greater the pressure on governments and other agencies to take the results into account effectively, adjusting street layout, for example.
By measuring, you can also get a lot of ideas yourself. For example, from 2016 measurements, I learned that the level of air pollution drops very quickly the further you get from the highway. I estimated that my street, which is a few hundred meters from the ring road, would be dirtier. On other streets, especially if they are narrow and have tall buildings, smog actually lingers. I also now know that trimming trees with a chainsaw, even if you do it in the middle of nature, creates a shot of dirty air that could be sucked up by a slightly heavy truck.
The idea that activists are “shouting something” can be thrown in the trash. Thanks to citizen science, you can wave away the hard numbers. Your arguments are given more weight. Isn’t this also what many academic scholars want? That their research leaves the “ivory tower” and changes the world?
