An Italian interdisciplinary citizen observatory for the protection and promotion of night skies on year 12 of its evolution: challenges and opportunities from a Digital Earth perspective

Scientific Publications

The proceedings of the 11th Symposium of the International Society for Digital Earth, held in September 2019 in Florence, Italy, have been published. In the proceedings you also find an article about the presentation given by Andrea Giacomelli (co-authored by Elena Maggi and Luciano Massetti) on BuioMetria Partecipativa.

The article is available from this page (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/509/1/012018)

For more information on buiometria partecipativa, and services on light and darkness by pibinko.org:

Abstract

Citizen observatories are community-based systems that can complement official networks for environmental data collection. This study proposes the case of a Citizen Observatory on light pollution, developed in Tuscany since 2008. Starting from the collection of measurement by volunteers, the observatory is now composed by a heterogeneous array of subjects (two research institutions, two rural communities, a rock-blues band, and a professional photographer) operating from local to international level through its connection with the international scientific community. This collaboration produced several outcomes: light pollution monitoring campaigns, numerous outreach events for raising citizen awareness on light pollution and its consequences and for the promotion of dark sky areas, input to global level position papers and scientific publications, the organization of an international Symposium on promotion and protection of the night sky.