Smart Citizen: Open Tools for Environmental Monitoring
Empowering citizens, educators and researchers to monitor the environment with open-source technologies
Area
Sense Making
Type of Project
Tailored sensor solutions for researchers and educators; Environmental data visualization and sharing; Open-source tools for citizen science.
The Challenge
As climate and environmental challenges become increasingly complex, access to reliable, open and local environmental data is more critical than ever. Yet, most environmental monitoring remains centralized, opaque or inaccessible to those most affected.
How can we democratize data and enable communities to take part in shaping more sustainable futures? How can open source tools provide reliable data for researchers, without locking them in?
Our Approach
Smart Citizen is an open-source platform for environmental sensing, education and citizen science. Created and maintained by Fab Lab Barcelona, Smart Citizen develops hardware, software and participatory methodologies that empower anyone to collect, analyse and share environmental data. Smart Citizen connects people, data and knowledge, providing tools to visualize environmental phenomena, foster awareness and trigger action. The platform offers an alternative to corporate-controlled smart city models, putting agency back in the hands of citizens and local communities.
What we do?
- Design and build affordable, modular sensor kits for monitoring indoor and outdoor air quality, noise pollution, as well as environmental variables such light, temperature, humidity, and many more.
- Maintain an open-source platform to collect, visualise and share real-time environmental data.
- Collaborate with citizens, educators and researchers across the globe to provide fit for purpose tools that work for them, accessible and replicable.
- Provide tools, guides and curricula for participatory sensing and active learning.
Enable customisation and integration with third-party tools and open data infrastructures.
Who is it for?
- Researchers
Access a robust ecosystem of open data and customizable hardware/software for urban, social and environmental research. No vendor lock. No fees. - Educators
Use Smart Citizen as a hands-on STEAM education toolkit for environmental awareness, data literacy, and experimentation. - Citizens and Communities
- Start a sensing initiative, monitor your neighbourhood, and share data with the local or global community.
Global Reach
Smart Citizen has been part of numerous international research and innovation projects, including:
- EU-funded projects: CitiObs, more4nature, Making Sense, iSCAPE, Organicity, GROW, TwinAIR, and MINKE. Visit our funding page for more information.
- Local collaborations with cities, makerspaces and citizen science initiatives.
- Used in schools, universities and research centers around the world.
Achievements
- Thousands of kits deployed across six continents.
- Open data platform with real-time environmental monitoring with +10 years of history.
- Active community forum and global knowledge exchange.
- Fully modular and extensible ecosystem for customization and research.
Kits available through Seeed Studio and international distributors.
Project Team
Óscar González. Sense Making Lead
Adai Suriñach. Digital Fabrication Expert
Rebecca Anne Peters. Sense Making Technician
Tim Cowlishaw. Web and Back-end development.
Guillem Camprodon
Open source contributors
Partners
Want to start sensing your environment?
Join the Smart Citizen community or bring it to your classroom, lab or neighbourhood. The tools are open, the data is yours, and the impact is collective. [email protected]