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Smart Citizen

Citizen action in environmental monitoring.

smartcitizen.me


The Challenge

Generate real-time data and awareness about pollution in urban areas and empower communities to seek solutions.

Our Solution

Creating tools to build smart cities with smart citizens.

Type of Project

The Smart Citizen project is a self-funded project by Fab Lab Barcelona.

Achievements

The Smart Citizen platform comprising the Smart Citizen Kit 2.1. +9000 registered users. +1900 unique sensors deployed in +40 countries


The rapidly increasing global urban population will necessitate new methods of participatory mediation in which urban citizens should be entitled to collect and gather their own data on their environment. Smart Citizen is a platform which connects people, data and knowledge through sensory data which empowers communities to know about and own their urban spaces to ensure the collective development and ownership of cities. 

Smart Citizen

Smart Citizen offers an alternative to the centralised data production and management systems used by the large corporations that constitute the driving force behind the smart city concept. The project empowers ordinary citizens to gather information on their environment and make it available to the public. 

Smart Citizen began in 2012 in Fab Lab Barcelona at IAAC. The project develops tools for citizen action in environmental monitoring and accompanying methodologies for community engagement and co-creation. We believe data is critical to inform political participation at all levels. The project involves customised sensing hardware – the Smart Citizen Kit, and a custom online platform with more than 9000 registered users and more than 1900 unique sensors. In 2019 it launched the latest hardware generation, the Smart Citizen Kit 2.1. The new Kit includes sensors such as particulate matter, noise, temperature, humidity. Smart Citizen’s software and hardware is free and released under open source licenses. Over the past years, Smart Citizen has been part of multiple EU funded research projects such as Making Sense, iSCAPE, Organicity and GROW Observatory.

Smart Citizen Kit 2.1 is open source and also available to purchase on the Fab Lab Barcelona market. The Smart Citizen platform is open online as is all project documentation and a community forum.

Who is it for?

Any citizen wishing to be involved in a local sensing initiative that connects to a global community.

Citizens and local communities

Any citizen who feels empowered to start collecting environmental data and founding communities on the premise of making urban habitats better.

Policymakers

For policymakers who want to use participatory design, citizens and real-time data in their decision making.

Researchers

Looking for open data capture and analysis tools to understand the relationship between people, environment, and technology through real-world measurements.

2012 - Ongoing