Behind the scenes of planning for public participation: planning for air-quality monitoring with low-cost sensors

We report from an environmental monitoring project planning for public participation to evaluate low-cost air pollution sensors. With an ethnographic approach, we studied how challenges were expressed and negotiated in discussions among project members when planning to involve the public in monitoring with low-cost sensors. Data was collected through participant observation of project meetings. Our analysis shows that perceived challenges involve data quality (i.e. reliability and validity), support, creating a sense of ownership and trust, as well as how to handle a possible rearrangement of power between authorities and the public. In order for the project to have control over different parts of the process when planning for public participation, they cannot stay true to all of the goals. This study contributes to the understanding of factors that foster the use of community-based data, and on the barriers for engaging the public in policy issues.