Humans as Sensors

Participatory, citizen-centered planning processes are a necessary, but still less acknowledged approach in the development of urban and spatial planning. The proactive involvement of citizens, coupled with the latest technological processes, in these planning activities is the subject of the Urban Emotions research project, funded by FWF. In this bottom-up development process, "sensor" technologies (wearables and social media) are used as tools for crowdsourcing-based information generation, thereby promoting an inductive form of spatial and urban planning. In this generation process, contributions from social media with geographically and semantically relevant context and from physiological sensors are used for the extraction of emotion information. Thus, for example, the stress and relaxation potential of different spaces with different purposes of existence (for example, tourist veins, living spaces and recreational areas) can be evaluated. Consequently, not only planning experts but also citizens can participate in planning and designing their living space. The integration of this participatory science approach goes hand in hand with the investigation of a variet y of complementary issues with high societal relevance. In addition to technical and geographical backgrounds, communication-related, ethical and legal aspects play a decisive role in the usage of personal data in the project. The multidisciplinary approach toward this topic opens up new opportunities for science communication with a high degree of participation. In the Humans as Sensors project, communication strategies are explicitly developed for secondary school students and teachers. We will create a multi-media experience for participants through leveraging innovative didactic methods to understand the backgrounds, technologies and methodologies of the underlying Urban Emotions approach in various event forms. Depending on the type of school and the school level, participants are invited to different forms of knowledge transfer, for example, interactive discourse on urban emotion perspectives, edutainment-oriented stations with augmented reality implementations, or even active field studies including data acquisition, evaluation and interpretation. The most important component of these forms is the continuous participation character and learning-through-mediation by the students. Communication takes place both at the location of the department, in the course of larger external events or at schools itself. If pupils show deepened interest, a wide range of topics in existing science platforms offers access to independent research, which can be conducted within the context of pre-scientific works (VWA) or in internships. Sustainable awareness raising for participatory science and participatory urban planning aims at offering joint lesson planning with teachers as well as establishing long-term cooperation with regional educational, governmental and societal institutions.

The science communication project "Human Sensors" offers tailored educational opportunities designed to acquaint high school students with the analysis of social media data and human sensor measurements within the context of research-based, experiential learning. Science communication activities are available both centrally at the iDEAS:lab at Science City Itzling and as pop-up labs, for instance, as part of holiday programs. Communication takes place on site at University of Salzburg's Department of Geoinformatics, during larger external events, or directly at schools within the region. Research topics are interactively explored through small tasks related to social media analysis or experiments with human sensors, thereby simulating methodological and technical foundations. Easily understandable questions lie "Where can we identify stress moments in the city?" or the evaluation of social media posts concerning location, emotions, and keywords in disaster scenarios, foster an understanding of the potential of geoinformatics in urban planning or disaster relief. An essential aspect of these endeavours is the consideration of ethical issues through collaborative discussions. Students exhibit a keen interest in matters of data protection and privacy in the context of information sharing via social media, location data, and personal sensor data. Promising, in-depth results were generated through two intensive exploratory formats: In summer 2022, a student from the Christian Doppler Gymnasium in Salzburg engaged in an internship, investigating stress moments while walking through Salzburg. The independent execution of a guided research project aimed at identifying particularly stressful areas in pedestrian traffic in Salzburg's old town. Data collection took place on selected pedestrian routes. The internship encompassed all components of a small-scale research project, from data collection using physiological sensors to analysis, visualisation, and interpretation of results. Another independent research efforts was a pre-scientific thesis ("vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit" - VWA) on the topic of "Stress Detection Using Biometric Sensors" for students in Salzburg's Flachgau region. The students were able to examine their personal living environment (school routes, trajectories of daily routines) with respect to stress-inducing locations, categorised by mode of transportation (active vs. passive mobility), and develop suggestions for improving the mobility infrastructure. In various event formats, participants gained insights into research processes using innovative didactic methods: interactive discussions on "Urban Emotions" perspectives, edutainment-oriented booths incorporating augmented reality, or by actively conducting experiments, within a "Participatory Science" format. A key feature of these formats is the continuous participatory nature and learning facilitated by the students themselves. Sustainable awareness-raising about "Participatory Science" and participatory urban planning was ensured through the establishment of long-term collaborations with regional STEM stakeholders. Consequently, the "Human Sensors" project outputs are firmly integrated in a long-term strategy of the iDEAS:lab and can be booked upon request or accessed through the "MINTwoch" of the "MINT:labs" Salzburg in a regularly recurring format.