iResponse: Social Responsible Crowdsourcing for Environmental Research and Decision-Making (iResponse )

The iResponse project will develop and study social responsible ICT-based crowdsourcing tools for environmental research and decision-making processes based on citizen participation and engagement (crowdsourcing). Two crowdsourcing tools will be developed in the project following the principles of responsible research and innovation (RRI);

1) an interactive platform to assess citizen acceptance and involve them in co-creation of water drainage solutions and

2) an application (mobile app/web) to collect data about wood consumption for house heating for estimating emissions.

Three main case studies in urban environment will be carried out to test and evaluate the two developed crowdsourcing tools and an existing one, a public participatory map based questionnaire for urban planning (Mapita). The case studies will address different research questions and learning cases regarding the urban environment and citizen participation;

1) sustainable water drainage,

2) air pollution and

3) effective urban planning.

The ITC crowdsourcing tools will enable citizens to influence urban planning by expressing their preferences, providing observations or user information. Different participatory ways are therefore foreseen with the use of the different crowdsourcing tools, involving different concerns and challenges. Social concerns will be mapped out and addressed, and possible solutions to overcome them will be proposed based on implementation and testing processes. The project aims at designing tools in a liable way towards responsibility, transparency and openness to the public, without compromising the quality of the research and user needs. In the last phase of the project, recommendations for the development and use of crowdsourcing as tools for environmental research and decision-making (including urban planning) will be elaborated as good practices within the ICT sector.