Citizen Science and Citizens’ Observatories: Trends, Roles, Challenges and Development Needs for Science and Environmental Governance

This chapter explores growing and important trends within citizen sensing, especially those linked to major initiatives that form citizens’ observatories and address novel ways to engage citizens in science and environmental policy-making. On the basis of providing an overview of existing and planned citizen science and citizens’ observatories programmes, this chapter identifies areas where citizen science and citizens’ observatories have actively contributed to, and can be expected to see further development in, the formation of various policies in Europe. Furthermore, this chapter considers the motivations for developing citizen science and citizens’ observatories and how these initiatives can contribute to awareness raising and decision support systems. We address key challenges and development needs for policy- and decision-making within the context of widespread and accessible citizen science and of the activities of citizen observatories.