Laura Criscuolo

A linguistic decision making approach to assess the quality of volunteer geographic information for citizen science

The paper analyses the challenges and problems posed by the use of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in citizen science and a proposal is formulated for assessing VGI quality based on a linguistic decision making approach so as to allow its feasible use for scientific purposes. VGI quality is represented by indicators at distinct levels of granularity which take into account the distinct components of the VGI items. The quality indicators represent both the extrinsic quality, depending on the characteristics and reputation of the sources of information; the intrinsic quality, depending on the distinct accuracy and precision of information; and, last but not least, the pragmatic quality, depending on the user needs and intended purposes. In order to assess the pragmatic quality of VGI items, a linguistic decision making approach is defined that allows users to rank and finally filter the VGI items based on the satisfaction of distinct criteria expressed by means of both linguistic terms, defining soft constraints on the distinct quality indicators, and linguistic aggregators, defining fuzzy operators which combine the satisfaction degrees of the soft constraints at distinct hierarchical levels to yield the final satisfaction of the VGI items. Finally, an example of quality assessment in a glaciological citizen science project is discussed.

Can VGI and Mobile Apps Support Long-Term Ecological Research? A Test in Remote Areas of the Alps

Long-term ecological research (LTER) is performed in many countries across the globe by scientists that gather and analyse multidecadal ecological observations and data, to support understanding and management of the environment. LTER data are used to describe the state and dynamics of an ecosystem. This valuable research is in charge of experts in ecology, and it is performed in the so-called LTER networks (for Europe, see http://www.lter-europe.net), usually organized at a national level; they consist of sites covering different ecosystem typologies, each one with research and monitoring facilities. In summer 2015, researchers of the Italian LTER network (LTER-Italy) have created a set of naturalistic trails, connecting sites of LTER-Italy (http://www.lteritalia.it/cammini), aiming to transfer and share the research results with citizens, through public events and informal science communication. Along one of these trails, performed on the Alps, the organizers proposed the use of two VGI apps to collect either biological or abiotic observations (http://www.lteritalia.it/it/content/citizenscience). The apps were chosen according to crucial characteristics, i.e. offline usage, operative system independence, strong development and support community, customization of user interfaces. This paper reports on this first test, discussing lessons learned and, in particular, the impact on the practice of research communities of participative, innovative tools, often neglected in the analysis of mobile application effects.