People and Data: solving planetary challenges together
The advancement of computing and information collection technologies has created vast amounts of data describing the world surrounding us. Yet, our planet continues to face unprecedented challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss. How do we effectively use this information in an open...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Environmental Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332844/full |
| _version_ | 1797322431318196224 |
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| author | Chiara Vanalli Emily Howerton Fuhan Yang Thu Nguyen-Anh Tran Weiming Hu Weiming Hu |
| author_facet | Chiara Vanalli Emily Howerton Fuhan Yang Thu Nguyen-Anh Tran Weiming Hu Weiming Hu |
| author_sort | Chiara Vanalli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The advancement of computing and information collection technologies has created vast amounts of data describing the world surrounding us. Yet, our planet continues to face unprecedented challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss. How do we effectively use this information in an open and collaborative way to tackle these planetary-scale issues? We propose a stronger synergistic integration between people and data as we work toward a healthy planet: crowd empowerment in the collection and analysis of data as well as in the identification and implementation of actionable solutions. We use our unique experience as a diverse winning team of the EY Better Working World 2022 global data challenge to illustrate the great potential and current limitations of such an approach. With the objective of fighting biodiversity loss, we were asked to develop a predictive frog multi-species distribution model using occurrence data, gathered from the FrogID app, and environmental conditions. Despite the great potential of global data challenges focused on planetary health, they comprise about 6% of all challenges in the last 5 years. Moreover, though open in principle, in practice, pre-existing disparities limit the inclusion of a diverse crowd. To address existing gaps, we propose practical guidelines to realize the “People and Data” vision: fostering collaboration, seeking funding, enhancing diversity, and ensuring long-term sustainability. In this way, we can tackle the great challenges our world is facing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T05:13:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-873bc0f4037e42cf99e03e20ea098220 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-665X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T05:13:17Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Environmental Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-873bc0f4037e42cf99e03e20ea0982202024-02-07T04:58:03ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Environmental Science2296-665X2024-02-011210.3389/fenvs.2024.13328441332844People and Data: solving planetary challenges togetherChiara Vanalli0Emily Howerton1Fuhan Yang2Thu Nguyen-Anh Tran3Weiming Hu4Weiming Hu5Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United StatesCenter for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United StatesCenter for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United StatesCenter for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United StatesCenter for Western Weather and Water Extremes, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United StatesSchool of Integrated Sciences, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, United StatesThe advancement of computing and information collection technologies has created vast amounts of data describing the world surrounding us. Yet, our planet continues to face unprecedented challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss. How do we effectively use this information in an open and collaborative way to tackle these planetary-scale issues? We propose a stronger synergistic integration between people and data as we work toward a healthy planet: crowd empowerment in the collection and analysis of data as well as in the identification and implementation of actionable solutions. We use our unique experience as a diverse winning team of the EY Better Working World 2022 global data challenge to illustrate the great potential and current limitations of such an approach. With the objective of fighting biodiversity loss, we were asked to develop a predictive frog multi-species distribution model using occurrence data, gathered from the FrogID app, and environmental conditions. Despite the great potential of global data challenges focused on planetary health, they comprise about 6% of all challenges in the last 5 years. Moreover, though open in principle, in practice, pre-existing disparities limit the inclusion of a diverse crowd. To address existing gaps, we propose practical guidelines to realize the “People and Data” vision: fostering collaboration, seeking funding, enhancing diversity, and ensuring long-term sustainability. In this way, we can tackle the great challenges our world is facing.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332844/fullcrowd empowermentglobal data challengesbig dataplanetary healthcollaborationdata-informed solutions |
| spellingShingle | Chiara Vanalli Emily Howerton Fuhan Yang Thu Nguyen-Anh Tran Weiming Hu Weiming Hu People and Data: solving planetary challenges together Frontiers in Environmental Science crowd empowerment global data challenges big data planetary health collaboration data-informed solutions |
| title | People and Data: solving planetary challenges together |
| title_full | People and Data: solving planetary challenges together |
| title_fullStr | People and Data: solving planetary challenges together |
| title_full_unstemmed | People and Data: solving planetary challenges together |
| title_short | People and Data: solving planetary challenges together |
| title_sort | people and data solving planetary challenges together |
| topic | crowd empowerment global data challenges big data planetary health collaboration data-informed solutions |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332844/full |
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