🌍 Webinar: Integrating Citizen Science Data into Official Statistics for Air Quality Monitoring
đź“… Date: Monday, 16 June 2025
🕛 Time: 12:00–13:30 UTC\
đź“Ť Online | Free registration required: https://tinyurl.com/47tajavdÂ
Citizen science is emerging as a powerful tool to complement official statistics particularly in air quality monitoring driven by increasing demand for high-quality, timely, and locally relevant environmental data. This 90-minute webinar brings together global experts to explore how citizen-generated data can be better integrated into national statistical systems to address data gaps, strengthen policy action, and promote inclusive, participatory approaches to environmental monitoring.
This session will feature experts from the UN, research institutions, and the citizen science community sharing:
- Limitations of current air quality data and where citizen science fits in
- Successful and practical examples of citizen-led air quality monitoring projects
- FAIR principles and metadata to make CS data (re-)usable and trusted
- Innovative methods for integrating diverse datasets
- A call to action for collaboration across sectors
🎙️ Speakers include:
- Nuria Castell – Senior Scientist at NILU
- Haoyi Chen – UN Statistics Division
- Luis Gonzalez Morales – Chief, Data Innovation Section, UN Statistics Division
- Matti Heikkurinen– Project Portfolio Manager, CODATA
- Simon Hodson – Executive Director, CODATA
- Carolynne Hultquist – Director of Geospatial Data Science at the University of Canterbury and Co-chair of the CODATA Task Group on Citizen-Generated Data for the SDGs.
- Faith Nangila – Community of Practice Coordinator Air Quality Monitoring CSGP
- Flavio Rizzolo – Senior Data and Interoperability Architect, Statistics Canada
âś… Please fill in the form here to register. A Zoom link will be shared with all confirmed participants.Â
Speaker Bios
Nuria Castell
Nuria Castell is a Senior Scientist at NILU and coordinator of the CitiObs project, enhancing citizen observatories across Europe. She leads research on sensor technologies, citizen science, and planetary health, and co-chairs Citizen Science Global Partnership Air Quality Group globally and in Europe.
Haoyi Chen
Haoyi Chen leads work on citizen-generated data and data integration at the UN Statistics Division. She coordinates the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys and holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Florida.
Matti Heikkurinen
Matti Heikkurinen is CODATA’s Project Portfolio Manager, overseeing project alignment with CODATA’s mission. With experience from RDA Europe and the EGI Foundation, he specializes in policy and IT support for innovation in research infrastructures across Europe.
Simon Hodson
Simon Hodson (he/him) has served as Executive Director of CODATA since 2013. A leader in research data policy, he recently coordinated the WorldFAIR project and now leads its successor, WorldFAIR+, focused on advancing the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF).
Carolynne Hultquist
Dr. Carolynne Hultquist is Director of Geospatial Data Science at the University of Canterbury and Co-chair of CODATA’s Task Group on Citizen-Generated Data for the SDGs, focusing on the role of geospatial and citizen data in sustainable development.
Faith Nangila
Faith Nangila is the Coordinator of the Air Quality Monitoring Community of Practice at the Citizen Science Global Partnership, where she supports collaborative efforts to enhance citizen-led air quality monitoring and open environmental data initiatives.
Flavio Rizzolo
Flavio Rizzolo is an interoperability and data architecture expert with vast experience in the development of standards, models and reference architectures for data and metadata solutions. For the past 15 years, he has been an active member of national and international committees and working groups, including the UNECE HLG Supporting Standards Group (of which he is currently the chair), the DDI Alliance, CODATA, and the Government of Canada. He holds a master’s and a PhD in computer science from the University of Toronto.