Citation:

Barzyk, T., H. Huang, R. Williams, A. Kaufman, AND J. Essoka. Advice and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Citizen-Science Environmental Health Assessments. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland, 15(5):960, (2018). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050960

Impact/Purpose:

This paper presents two citizen science EHAs and reflects on a decade of collaborations. This work culminated in three lessons learned and a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), focused on public communication for citizen science projects. This work is not intended as a framework or conceptual approach, a step-by-step method, or a roadmap. It provides advice to translate research into action, and help manage expectations, facilitate understanding, and target resources.

Description:

Citizen science provides quantitative results to support environmental health assessments, but standardized approaches do not currently exist to translate findings into actionable solutions. The emergence of low-cost portable sensor technologies and proliferation of publicly available data provide unparalleled access to supporting evidence, yet data collection, analysis, interpretation, visualization, and communication are subjective processes that need to be tailored to an audience capable of making decisions to improve environmental health. A decade of collaborative projects and two citizen-science projects contributed to three lessons learned and a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to address the complexities of environmental health and interpersonal relations often found in multi-partner citizen science efforts. While data can characterize environmental health conditions, people are the impetus for change. These lessons and FAQs provide advice to translate citizen science research into actionable solutions in the context of the diverse range of environmental health issues and local stakeholders.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details: