Thinkpiece 2014: Slawson & Fradera

Thinkpiece summary: Exploring the Nexus through citizen science.
Authors: David Slawson, Roger Fradera, Imperial College London.
Citizen science could provide powerful opportunities for citizens, businesses and policymakers to come together to tackle the environmental and social challenges at the nexus.
Technological advances (such as the ubiquity of smartphones) have led to a significant increase in the capability of citizens to collect and share environmental data. Citizens can now contribute meaningful data to answer research questions,support regulatory monitoring and is increasingly being integrated into policymaking.
This think piece will explore the opportunities – and challenges – for citizen science at the nexus.
These include extending the benefits of citizen science (which is normally conducted at local levels) to regional and global scales, optimising the collection of data through better coordination between practitioners, and empowering citizens and businesses to take more control of the conception and design of citizen science activities relating to trade-offs between food, water and energy.
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This is just a taster: the full thinkpiece will be published in Autumn 2014.