CitiObs – Enhancing Citizen Observatories for healthy, sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities
from 01/01/2023 until 31/12/2026
CitiObs seeks to revolutionize urban environmental governance by empowering citizens to become active contributors to the observation and management of their local environments. The project’s core objective is to consolidate and scale up Citizen Observatories (COs) as tools for fostering sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity in urban areas across Europe. By integrating citizen-generated data with advanced environmental observation systems, CitiObs aims to bridge the gap between local action and global environmental goals, including the European Green Deal.
The project addresses the urgent need for innovative and inclusive approaches to mitigate urban environmental challenges such as air pollution and climate change. By leveraging low-cost sensors and wearable technologies, CitiObs empowers diverse communities to monitor key environmental parameters while actively contributing to policy development and local decision-making processes.
CitiObs employs a co-creation framework, working closely with five Frontrunner cases, 30 Alliance cases, and 50 Fellow cases to develop, test, and scale its tools and methodologies. This multi-level engagement ensures that COs are adapted to diverse socio-political contexts while promoting horizontal and vertical governance models. Activities such as needs assessment workshops, capacity-building sessions, and strategic roadshows ensure the broad participation of stakeholders, from local citizens to EU policymakers.
The project’s outcomes include the development of a comprehensive knowledge platform and the CitiObs Cookbook, which will serve as resources for cities worldwide to establish or enhance their own Citizen Observatories. By formalizing the role of citizen-generated data in environmental management, CitiObs not only legitimizes but also elevates the contributions of individuals and communities to achieving sustainable urban futures.
Through
collaboration, innovation, and community engagement, CitiObs envisions a future
where cities are not only more resilient and sustainable but also deeply
reflective of the collective input and aspirations of their citizens.
Aim
CitiObs aims to enhance COs so that they can serve as a vehicle for societal transformation towards sustainable development, increasing awareness and actions to reduce the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation to the health of the citizens and the planet. To do so, CitiObs proposes a socio-technical approach to deal with the prevailing challenges that limit the uptake of COs in multi-level governance. CitiObs will connect, support, enhance and scale up COs so they can provide the locus for jointly monitoring the environment, and for initiating and undertaking citizen-led actions protecting the urban environment, alongside (typically slower) changes in policy.
About funding
Funding bodies: Horizon 2020
Funding program: HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01
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