title: Awareness and learning in participatory noise sensing.
abstract: The development of ICT infrastructures has facilitated the emergence of new paradigms for looking at society and the environment over the last few years. Participatory environmental sensing, i.e. directly involving citizens in environmental monitoring, is one example, which is hoped to encourage learning and enhance awareness of environmental issues. In this paper, an analysis of the behaviour of individuals involved in noise sensing is presented. Citizens have been involved in noise measuring activities through the WideNoise smartphone application. This application has been designed to record both objective (noise samples) and subjective (opinions, feelings) data. The application has been open to be used freely by anyone and has been widely employed worldwide. In addition, several test cases have been organised in European countries. Based on the information submitted by users, an analysis of emerging awareness and learning is performed. The data show that changes in the way the environment is perceived after repeated usage of the application do appear. Specifically, users learn how to recognise different noise levels they are exposed to. Additionally, the subjective data collected indicate an increased user involvement in time and a categorisation effect between pleasant and less pleasant environments.
authors.affiliation: Department for Artificial Intelligence and Applied Computer Science, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany ; L3S Research Center, Leibniz Universität, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Saverio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caminiti
authors.affiliation: CSP Innovazione nelle ICT, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Donato
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fiorella
authors.affiliation: Extreme Citizen Science Research Group, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gravino
authors.affiliation: Extreme Citizen Science Research Group, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mordechai Muki
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Haklay
authors.affiliation: Department for Artificial Intelligence and Applied Computer Science, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany ; L3S Research Center, Leibniz Universität, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hotho
authors.affiliation: Complex Networks and Systems Lagrange Laboratory, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Turin, Italy ; Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Loreto
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany ; L3S Research Center, Leibniz Universität, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: CSP Innovazione nelle ICT, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Ferdinando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ricchiuti
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vito D P
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Servedio
authors.affiliation: Complex Networks and Systems Lagrange Laboratory, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sîrbu
authors.affiliation: Complex Networks and Systems Lagrange Laboratory, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tria
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness; D003256:Community Participation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise; D009656:North America