Authors:
Jens Ingensand
1
;
Marion Nappez
1
;
Stéphane Joost
2
;
Ivo Widmer
2
;
Olivier Ertz
1
and
Daniel Rappo
1
Affiliations:
1
University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Switzerland
;
2
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Keyword(s):
Citizen Science, Crowdsourcing, Participatory WebGIS, Social Media, Urban Biodiversity, VGI.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Web Applications
Abstract:
Geospatial crowdsourcing applications are emerging systems that enable researchers to collect important information
that otherwise would be difficult to obtain. In biodiversity monitoring, crowdsourcing is a promising
approach as it benefits from a large group of people with an often underestimated biodiversity and taxonomy
knowledge. Despite its huge potential, crowdsourcing approaches are still underrepresented in biodiversity
monitoring. We here evaluate a participatory crowdsourcing web mapping platform that was developed to get
information about geographic locations and biodiversity characteristics of urban ponds in the Geneva crossborder
region. An important fraction of urban ponds is assumed to be located on private grounds, which
makes the participatory crowdsourcing approach very valuable. A media campaign was initiated, encouraging
citizens participate and to digitize ponds. In this paper we a) evaluate and discuss the impact of the media
campaign on the usage behaviour and
history of citizens using the crowdsourcing platform and b) assess the
quality of the digitized data that has been collected. This study shows that through media campaigns, citizens
can be mobilized and motivated to participate in biodiversity crowdsourcing projects. Results indicate that
large quantities of users were recruited through social media. However, only a small fraction of about 3% of
the mobilized people digitized ponds on the platform. The majority of these users (68%) digitized one pond
while 32% digitized two or more ponds. This study shows that it is important for crowdsourcing platforms
to be designed and planned in order to facilitate its usage. However, it is crucial for the success of such campaigns
to offer something in return to the users and to encourage them to interact among themselves. We
suggest that future crowdsourcing biodiversity mapping campaigns should have mobile-optimized interfaces.
Mobile devices have the potential to e. g. automatically register coordinates for biodiversity sighting and for
uploading respective pictures directly in the field.
(More)