Is Citizen Environmental Sensing Valuable?

Citizens initiate or participate in science has existed for a long time. Mostly, citizens are involved in data collecting. Due to the technology development, environmental sensors are becoming smaller, cheaper and more advanced. This brings more opportunities to citizens to conduct environmental monitoring. Especially when they are not satisfied by official environmental monitoring data. However, is it difficult for citizens to create/use sensor devices to monitor the environment? Is this citizen environmental sensing valuable? Can citizens rely on the data produced by themselves using these sensors? How experts think about these data? According to the case studies conducted in Amsterdam and a perceptions survey of experts and citizens, the citizen environmental sensing data is expected to complement official data. However, due to still largely unknown accuracy and other hurdles, citizen environmental sensing is still far from fulfil its potential.