Citizen science Public politics Smells Sustainability

D-NOSES

Budget:

3,1M

Program:

H2020

Duration:

2018-2021

Consortium:

14 partners in 9 countries

SFC:

Coordinator

D-NOSES is a citizen science project that addresses odour pollution. In the project, different communities of people affected by odours identify and assess odour points through the OdourCollect app, which maps them in order to identify potential odour sources. D-NOSES involves public administrations, industries, research institutions and citizens in participatory sessions aimed at co-designing solutions to reduce the impact of odour pollution.

Project challenge

Odour pollution is the second most common cause of environmental complaints in Europe, after noise, but has been consistently ignored by governments when considering their environmental policies. The presence of odours is not only an occasional nuisance for citizens, but can lead to stress, anxiety, headaches and even respiratory problems In addition, traditional odour monitoring methodologies are costly and based on the emission of odour.., Finally, odour can be an indicator of more serious environmental problems, ranging from poor hygiene in industrial processes to the presence of excessive levels of chemical pollution in the air we breathe.

Solutions

D-NOSES developed a new methodology based on a bottom-up approach, which aims to consider the actual perception of odours to better understand the problem using citizen science. This new methodology complements traditional odour monitoring techniques.

D-NOSES developed its intervention through the OdourCollect app, which allows to generate odour observations in real time, as well as to describe the type of odour perceived, its intensity and hedonic tone (whether it is pleasant or unpleasant).

Results

D-NOSES addressed the problem of odor pollution on a global scale by developing coordinated local case studies in 10 countries. The pilots demonstrated the replicability of the methodology by addressing different problems such as domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, waste treatment and disposal, illegal dumping and refinery activities. Through OdorCollect, 10,000 observations from 1,600 registered users were recorded.

More than 40 sociopolitical dialogues were held that allowed obtaining relevant information at the political level. Thanks to the final event held by the D-NOSES project in the European Parliament: “Reviewing odor pollution in Europe” (news blog link), organized by the Greek MEP Maria Spyraki, the European Committee of the Regions (CDR) which included odor pollution and citizen science in the EU Action Plan ‘Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’.

Based on this experience, Science for Change has promoted a working group with the aim of regulating odor pollution at the Spanish level. For this, a national standard is being developed that will use citizen science to evaluate odor pollution. This work is carried out with the coordination of the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE).