Digital Citizen Science for Responding to COVID-19 Crisis: Experiences from Iran

Hossein Vahidi, Mohammad Taleai, Wanglin Yan and Rajib Shaw
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Hossein Vahidi: EcoGIS Lab, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa 252-0882, Kanagawa, Japan
Mohammad Taleai: Spatial Decision Making & Smart Cities Lab, Faculty of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran 15433-19967, Iran
Wanglin Yan: EcoGIS Lab, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa 252-0882, Kanagawa, Japan
Rajib Shaw: Global Resilience Innovation Laboratory, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa 252-0882, Kanagawa, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-34

Abstract: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has so far been the most severe global public health emergency in this century. Generally, citizen science can provide a complement to authoritative scientific practices for responding to this highly complex biological threat and its adverse consequences. Several citizen science projects have been designed and operationalized for responding to COVID-19 in Iran since the infection began. However, these projects have mostly been overlooked in the existing literature on citizen science. This research sheds light on the most significant online citizen science projects to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in Iran. Furthermore, it highlights some of the opportunities and challenges associated with the strengths and weaknesses of these projects. Moreover, this study captures and discusses some considerable insights and lessons learned from the failures and successes of these projects and provides solutions to overcome some recognized challenges and weaknesses of these projects. The outcomes of this synthesis provide potentially helpful directions for current and future citizen science projects—particularly those aiming to respond to biological disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: citizen science; crowdsourcing; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); user-generated content (UGC); volunteered geographic information (VGI); public health monitoring; public health promotion; emergency management; mobile health (mHealth); digital contact tracing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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