DIY meteorology: Use of citizen science to monitor snow dynamics in a data-sparse city

Author:

Appels Willemijn M.1,Bradford Lori2,Chun Kwok P.3,Coles Anna E.4,Strickert Graham5

Affiliation:

1. Centre for Technology, Environment, and Design, Lethbridge College, 3000 College Drive South, Lethbridge, AB T1K 1L6, Canada

2. School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada

3. Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Office: AAB 1235, 12/F, Academic and Administration Building, 15 Baptist University Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

4. Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK S7N 3H5, Canada

5. School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Room 323, Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C8, Canada

Abstract

Cities are under pressure to operate their services effectively and project costs of operations across various timeframes. In high-latitude and high-altitude urban centers, snow management is one of the larger unknowns and has both operational and budgetary limitations. Snowfall and snow depth observations within urban environments are important to plan snow clearing and prepare for the effects of spring runoff on cities’ drainage systems. In-house research functions are expensive, but one way to overcome that expense and still produce effective data is through citizen science. In this paper, we examine the potential to use citizen science for snowfall data collection in urban environments. A group of volunteers measured daily snowfall and snow depth at an urban site in Saskatoon (Canada) during two winters. Reliability was assessed with a statistical consistency analysis and a comparison with other data sets collected around Saskatoon. We found that citizen-science-derived data were more reliable and relevant for many urban management stakeholders. Feedback from the participants demonstrated reflexivity about social learning and a renewed sense of community built around generating reliable and useful data. We conclude that citizen science holds great potential to improve data provision for effective and sustainable city planning and greater social learning benefits overall.

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Cited by 1 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Smart sustainable cities evaluation and sense of community;Journal of Cleaner Production;2019-12

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