Project Page Views: [ 621 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Citizen Observatory Web |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | COBWEB |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Gregory O'Hare (IE) |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | University College Dublin (UCD) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.30859, -6.22577 |
| Lead Funding Entity | European Commission |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 01/11/2012 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 31/10/2016 |
| Project Website (if any) | www.cobwebproject.eu |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR); Citizens; Environmental information; Geographic information |
| Project Abstract | COBWEB will leverage the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). Focusing on the Welsh Dyfi Biosphere Reserve, a citizens observatory framework will be developed as well as validating work within the context of the UK National Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and internationally, within the WNBR; specifically, within Greek and German Reserves. A developed infrastructure will exploit technological developments in ubiquitous mobile devices, crowd-sourcing of geographic information and the operationalising of standards based SDI such as the UK Location Information Infrastructure. This project will enable citizens living within Biosphere Reserves to collect environmental information on a range of parameters including species distribution, flooding and land cover/use. A main driver of this project will be the opportunity to participate in environmental governance. Data quality issues will be addressed by using networks of people as sensors and by analysing observations and measurements in real-time combination with authoritative models and datasets. The citizens observatory framework will integrate with evolving INSPIRE compliant national SDIs and allow the fusion of citizen sourced data with reference data from public authorities in support of policy objectives. Implementations of COBWEB will act as models for how technology may be used to empower citizens. To maximise impact, COBWEB will work within the processes of the standards defining organisations. They will specifically focus on improving the usability of Sensor Web Enablement standards with mobile devices, develop widespread acceptance of the data quality measures and develop and maximise the commercial appeal of COBWEB outputs. The main aim of this project is to develop a toolkit and a set of models that demonstrably works in different European countries and which is accepted as a core information system component of the WNBR. |