Disparate Environmental Monitoring as a Barrier to the Availability and Accessibility of Open Access Data on the Tidal Thames

Julia Lanoue
Additional contact information
Julia Lanoue: Thames Estuary Partnership, The Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK

Publications, 2020, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Open Access data plays an increasingly important role in discussions of environmental issues. Limited availability or poor quality data can impede citizen participation in environmental dialogue, leading to their voices being undermined. This study assesses the quality of Open Access environmental data and barriers to its accessibility in the Thames Estuary. Data quality is assessed by its ability to track long-term trends in temperature, salinity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. The inconsistencies found in the data required analyses and careful interpretation beyond what would be expected of a citizen. The lack of clear documentation and centralized database acted as a major barrier to usability. A set of recommendations are produced for estuarine monitoring, including defining minimum standards for metadata, creating a centralized database for better quality control and accessibility, and developing flexible monitoring protocols that can incorporate new hypotheses and partnerships. The goal of the recommendations is to create monitoring which can encourage better science and wider participation in the natural environment.

Keywords: citizen science; data quality; estuary; monitoring; open data; Thames (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 D83 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/8/1/6/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/8/1/6/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:8:y:2020:i:1:p:6-:d:311509

Access Statistics for this article

Publications is currently edited by Ms. Jennifer Zhang

More articles in Publications from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().