Enabling citizen science in rural environments with IoT and mobile technologies

Lopez, Unai, Morgan, Jeffrey, Jones, Kathryn, Rana, Omer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3597-2646, Edwards, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6034-1948 and Grigoletto, Fabio 2019. Enabling citizen science in rural environments with IoT and mobile technologies. Presented at: 1st Workshop on Cyber-Physical Social Systems, CPSS 2019, Bilbao, Spain, 22-25 Oct 2019. Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cyber-Physical Social Systems. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. , vol.2530 CEUR Workshop Proceedings, pp. 50-56.

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Abstract

Citizen Science focuses on engaging and incentivising individuals to collect, categorise and sometimes analyse scientific data. Over the last few years, many of these projects have contributed to relevant scientific discoveries, but bringing them to successful completion is often full of challenges and complexities. In this paper we present our progress in the creation and deployment of a Citizen Science project in Guapiruvu, a village located in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. We propose an IoT communications platform based on LoRa- enabled Raspberry Pis, which act as network hubs, and which can communicate directly with smartphone hosted applications. This platform is used to run a messaging app that allows two or more smartphones to exchange text over a LoRa network. We tested the platform in the village and results show that communication was possible up to 220 meters, even if one of the hubs was located in an area densely populated with trees. We also discuss how Sapelli Collector, a popular Citizen Science-enabler app, can be used over our developed infrastructure, and mechanisms that can used to increase adoption.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item - published (Paper)
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Computer Science & Informatics Schools > Business (Including Economics) Research Institutes & Centres > Data Innovation Research Institute (DIURI)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) T Technology > T Technology (General)
Publisher:	CEUR Workshop Proceedings
ISSN:	1613-0073
Funders:	Data Innovation Research Institute, Global Challenges Research Fund
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 May 2026
Date of Acceptance:	11 October 2019
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2026 02:05
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/126324

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