 To promote the sound use of data in community and citizen science, EPA will convene a multi-stakeholder, invitation-only virtual workshop this fall. The virtual workshop will leverage the expertise of attendees to define a common roadmap to improve data management approaches. Among other areas of support, the E-Enterprise Leadership Council (EELC) will help to identify participants and to prepare suitable background materials for the fall workshop. In addition, EPA will produce case studies on how states and tribes are managing data generated by community and citizen science efforts.
This spring, the EELC heard an overview of community and citizen science use cases and data management challenges from Jay Benforado of EPA’s Office of Research and Development; Richard Allen of the EPA Office of Mission Support; Meghan Smart of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality; Andy Putnam of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment; EELC Tribal Co-Chair Kari Hedin of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; and Cynthia Naha, former EELC member and Director of Natural Resources, Santo Domingo Pueblo. The discussion touched on topics including open data standards, top-down/bottom-up approaches, regulatory monitors compared to sensors, and information that can be drawn from data sets.
Related to this effort and as reported in the December 2020 edition of the E-Enterprise Bulletin, EPA previously released two publications that assess community and citizen science programs in environmental agencies. The first set of documents features 15 citizen science case studies in various media from states, tribes, and local governments that advance public education, capacity building, research, monitoring, or enforcement. The second document highlights best practices for using citizen science in tribal environmental programs, based on case studies that explored how tribes use citizen science in environmental protection and management. It also identifies ways that EPA, states, and other organizations can support future tribal citizen science activities.
For more information on the upcoming workshop, contact Jay Benforado of EPA. |
