---
title: "Citizen science"
chunk: 16/19
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:12:57.708518+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The Hong Kong Birdwatching Society was established in 1957, and is the only local civil society aiming at appreciating and conserving Hong Kong birds and their natural environment. Their bird surveys go back to 1958, and they carry out a number of Citizen Science events such as their yearly sparrow census.
The Bird Count India partnership consists of a large number of organizations and groups involved in birdwatching and bird surveys. They coordinate a number of Citizen Science projects such as the Kerala Bird Atlas and Mysore city Bird Atlas that map the distribution and abundance of birds of entire Indian states.
RAD@home Collaboratory is an Indian citizen science research programme in astronomy & astrophysics. Launched on 15 April 2013, by Dr Ananda Hota, this programme uses hybrid model, social media platforms and in-person training of the interested participants. In 2022, the Collaboratory, using GMRT observations and archival data from other telescopes, reported discovery of an active galactic nucleus, a radio galaxy named RAD12, spewing a large unipolar radio bubble on to its merging companion galaxy. Recently, on 2 October 2025 the Collaboratory reported discovery of the farthest and most powerful Odd Radio Circle (ORC), RAD J131346.9+500320, using the LOFAR radio telescope data.
The Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network was founded in 2011 and has more than 16,000 members as of 2019. It is a citizen science project where roadkill across Taiwan is photographed and sent to the Endemic Species Research Institute for study. Its primary goal has been to set up an eco-friendly path to mitigate roadkill challenges and popularize a national discourse on environmental issues and civil participation in scientific research. The members of the Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network volunteer to observe animals' corpses that are by caused by roadkill or by other reasons. Volunteers can then upload pictures and geographic locations of the roadkill to an internet database or send the corpses to the Endemic Species Research as specimens.Because members come from different areas of the island, the collection of data serves as an animal distribution map of the island. According to the geographical data and pictures of corpses collected by the members, the community itself and the sponsor, the Endemic Species Center could find out the hotspots and the reasons for the animals' deaths. One of the most renowned cases is that the community successfully detected rabies cases due to the huge collection of data. The corpses of Melogale moschata had accumulated for years and are thought to be carriers of rabies. Alarmed by this, the government authority took actions to prevent the prevalence of rabies in Taiwan.In another case in 2014, some citizen scientists discovered birds that had died from unknown causes near an agricultural area. The Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network cooperated with National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and engaged citizen scientists to collect bird corpses. The volunteers collected 250 bird corpses for laboratory tests, which confirmed that the bird deaths were attributable to pesticides used on crops. This prompted the Taiwanese government to restrict pesticides, and the Bill of Pesticide Management amendment was passed after the third reading in the Legislative Yuan, establishing a pesticide control system. The results indicated that Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network had developed a set of shared working methods and jointly completed certain actions. Furthermore, the community of the Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network had made real changes to road design to avoid roadkill, improved the management of usage of pesticide, epidemic prevention, as well as other examples. By mid-2024, volunteers had observed over 293,000 animals. The network, the largest citizen science project in Taiwan, noted that more than half of roadkill were amphibians (eg, frogs), while one third are reptiles and birds.
The AirBox Project was launched in Taiwan to create a participatory ecosystem with a focus on PM2.5 monitoring through AirBox devices. By the end of 2014, the public had paid more attention to the PM2.5 levels because the air pollution problem had become worse, especially in central and southern Taiwan. High PM2.5 levels are harmful to our health, with respiratory problems as an example. These pollution levels aroused public concern and led to an intensive debate about air pollution sources. Some experts suggested that air quality was affected by pollutants from mainland China, while some environmentalists believed that it was the result of industrialization, because of, for example, exhaust fumes from local power plants or factories. However, no one knew the answer because of insufficient data.Dr. Ling-Jyh Chen, a researcher of the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, launched The AirBox Project. His original idea was inspired by a popular Taiwanese slogan "Save Your Environment by Yourself". As an expert in a  Participatory Sensing system, he decided to take this ground-up approach to collect PM2.5 level data, and thus through open data and data analysis to have a better understanding of the possible air pollution sources. Using this ecosystem, huge amounts of  data was collected from AirBox devices. This data was instantly available online, informing people of PM2.5 levels. They could then take the proper actions, such as wearing a mask or staying at home, preventing themselves from going out into the polluted environment.Data can also be analyzed to understand the possible sources of pollution and provide recommendations for improving the situation. There are four main steps to this project: i) Develop the AirBox device. Developing a device that could correctly collect the data of the PM2.5 level was time-consuming. It had taken more than three years to develop an  AirBox that can be easily used, but with both high accuracy and low cost. ii) The widespread installation of AirBoxes. In the beginning, very few people were willing to install it at their homes because of their concerns about the possible harm to their health, power consumption and maintenance. Because of this, AirBoxes were only installed in a relatively small area. But with help from Taiwan's LASS (Location Aware Sensing System) community, AirBoxes appeared in all parts of Taiwan. As of February 2017, there are more than 1,600 AirBoxes installed in more than 27 countries. iii) Open Source and Data Analysis. All measurement results were released and visualized in real-time to the public through different media. Data can be analyzed to trace pollution sources. By December 2019, there were over 4,000 AirBoxes installed across the country.
Japan has a long history of citizen science involvement, the 1,200-year-old tradition of collecting records on cherry blossom flowering probably being the world's longest-running citizen science project. One of the most influential citizen science projects has also come out of Japan: Safecast. Dedicated to open citizen science for the environment, Safecast was established in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and produces open hardware sensors for radiation and air-pollution mapping. Presenting this data via a global open data network and maps
As technology and public interest grew, the CitizenScience.Asia group was set up in 2022; it grew from an initial hackathon in Hong Kong which worked on the 2016 Zika scare.  The network is part of Citizen Science Global Partnership.