Citizen science for environmental
and health issues in conflict zones
Katerina Zourou, Stefania Oikonomou
Web2Learn
ECSA 2022

Scope
Critically address citizen science (CS) in areas affected by armed conflict by
emphasizing environmental and health issues (in Ukraine)
objectives
● Map initiatives that belong to a broader understanding of citizen
science by taking the Ukrainian war as a case study.
● Analyze the initiatives based on a) monitoring domains b) monitoring
tools, c) levels of participation
● Address issues such as technology, advocacy and politicization

Plan
Short literature review
Data analysis
Synthesis
Openings for CS and the way forward

Literature review: Citizen science in
environmental projects

Environmental/climate justice and CS
● Environmental monitoring historically at the essence of CS (cf. Buckets of
resistance)
● Environmental justice movements (since 80s) triggered by human-induced
environmental and health catastrophes.
● Since 2000: climate emergency => environmental justice > Climate justice
movements
=> commonly addressed issues: community engagement, accountability, cultural
impact, inequalities.
(Schlosberg, D., Collins, L. 2014, Ottinger, G.2010, Schaefer,T. Kieslinger,B., and Fabian, C.M. 2020)

Armed conflicts’ consequences on the wellbeing of
communities
Conflicts pose a serious threat to the natural and cultural heritage of war-torn
communities.
Areas affected by war often face: illegal deforestation, mining, toxic hazards,
damage of water networks, human displacement.
However, environmental and health issues are rarely addressed in political
discourses about the war.
(Weir, D., McQuillan, D. and Robert A.F. 2019, Cottrell, L. 2020)

Critical points for CS during war
During armed conflicts:
● Different values in power relationships (political use of data, data as
“political weapon”) in citizen-driven environmental and health data.
● Responsibilities? who is accountable for affecting the environment?
● Security reasons impede the recruitment of volunteers
● funding and support from interested parties limit research scopes.
(Schulte to Bühne, H., Weir, D. 2022, Cottrell, L. 2020)

Methodology
Mapping of initiatives that belong to a broader definition of CS
Analysis of 3 main features:
a) monitoring domains (Palacin-Silva et al., 2016, Gold, 2018)
b) monitoring tools,
c) levels of participation (Haklay, 2011)
Critical appraisal (Goodfellow, 2008): reflections on
a) (remote) citizen communities,
b) The role of technology and
c) politicisation

Overview of projects analyzed

#1 Safecast; #2 Clean air for Ukraine

#3 SaveEcoBot

#4 Ecodozor

#5 Water monitoring in Ukraine

Citizen Science in Ukraine
Analysis by
● Citizen science type
● monitoring domain
● monitoring tool
● levels of participation in Citizen Science

Citizen Science type
Differences in terms of
advocacy and degrees of
citizen engagement

Monitoring domains of Citizen science (Palacin-Silva et al., 2016: Gold, 2018)

Monitoring domains in Citizen Science projects in Ukraine

Categorisation by monitoring tool

Levels of participation

Synthesis
● Among all environmental fields, the analyzed projects focus mostly on
air quality
● Despite war, there are still initiatives for collecting, aggregating,
curating data
● Levels of participation → remain low in CS environmental projects
● Data sources: in-situ data very limited; very small number of human
agents to monitor activity on the ground yet abundant remote
sensing data

Citizen science in armed conflicts: now what?
Citizen Science in armed conflicts generates new understandings because:
● it challenges standard practices in environmental monitoring:
=> less citizens on the ground, massive displaced populations, diaspora
and volunteers eager to help with remote participatory actions.
● it empowers communities in the absence of State support facilities.
● it catalyzes technology: DIY/low cost sensing tools & of citizen-based
sensing networks due to high costs of current air quality stations
● it urges for a joint understanding of health/ environmental issues along
with socio-political ones (war).
(Schaefer, T. Kieslinger, B., and Fabian, C.M. 2020, Schulte to Bühne, H., Weir, D. 2022, Ottinger, G. 2010)
Repercussions on behaviors and policies

Citizen science (in an armed conflict) as enabler of open
innovation?
Innovation
capital (products,
services, etc.)
Various uses of citizen-
enabled datasets
!!! Diaspora; remote volunteers; user participation outside conflict zones

An example of a UA CitSci project w/ level 3
participation (participatory science)
In-situ data:
geotagged
pictures taken
by citizens-
reporters
https://mkip.notion.site/e9a4dfe6aa284de38673efedbe147b51?v=f43ac8780f2543a18f5c8f45afdce5f7

Another CS domain (cultural heritage) with vivid
participation of citizens remotely
SUCHO : Saving Ukrainian Cultural
heritage online
● over 1,500 international
volunteers since March 2022
● Online collaboration to digitize
and preserve Ukrainian cultural
heritage.
https://www.sucho.org/

Thank you!
Questions?
info@web2learn.eu
https://web2learn.eu/
@web2learn_eu