Wikimedia CH/Grant apply/Open Science for Noise and Light Pollution

Infodata

• Name of the project:Open Science for Noise and Light Pollution
• Amount requested: 1900.00 CHF
• Type of grantee: group
• Name of the contact:Alessandro Marchetti
• Contact: mail in WMCH database

In case of questions, please write to grantwikimedia.ch

The problem and the context

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

This project aims broadly to combine environmental education with active community participation, promoting the dissemination of scientific knowledge on a relevant, yet less explored, issue compared to other environmental topics: light and noise pollution.

In January 2024, the "AquaPLAN" research project started with the support of various European research institutions. Coordinated by Professor Elena Maggi from the University of Pisa, this project focuses on coastal marine areas, offshore areas but also rivers and lakes. Equipment from the University of Pisa, financed by the Horizon Europe program, is used in the Tuscan Archipelago to monitor noise and light pollution.

Because of the ongoing activity, a series of edit-a-thons with the students of the University was suggested as a supporting initiative together with the set up of dedicated monitoring station in the Orto Botanico of Pisa. This idea was originally proposed in this grant submitted to WMIT in June 2024.

These initiatives were intended to be paired with an outreach campaign targeting visitors to the Orto Botanico, including many families with young children from all over the world, as the garden is located near the iconic Leaning Tower.

However, due to internal guidelines of the Italian affiliate, the Italian proposer (Mascha Stroobant), was informed that purchasing scientific equipment, as originally planned, is not possible. This means that while there might be activities for the students of the Department of Biology (such as edit-a-thons), the acquisition of data for inclusion in Wikipedia articles or for online upload under a free license will not be feasible.

The activities with the students are unfortunately dependent on the availability of specialized equipment. They were expected to upload descriptions of the equipment and the installation process, as well as contribute multimedia files — acquired using these instruments and uploaded to Commons — to relevant articles. Additionally, the installation of informational panels in the botanical garden was tied to the presence of this equipment.

In other words, the goal of the initial proposal was to tackle the lack of coverage on these topics across Wikimedia platforms and raise awareness about light and noise pollution to the general public. Yet to address this problem, the second-level problem that we should solve is the missing funding for the installation of the equipment.

What is your solution to this problem (please explain the context and the solution)?

To maintain the original pedagogical idea of the grant, we have decided to request the purchase of the equipment from Wikimedia CH, and we discussed this preliminary proposal at Wikimania 2024 in August with Ilario Valdelli.

Wikimedia CH would probably be pleased to support activities related to open science, as it is one of their programmatic goals. Moreover, the AquaPLAN consortium is an international entity.

However, we are aware that the consortium does not include Swiss members. We have reached out to user:Daniel Mietchen at Wikimania 2024, along with Ilario Valdelli, who has expressed support for the possibility of internationalizing the proposal to address the missing financial contribution from WMIT.

Daniel is an expert in the field of open science and has a valuable network of contacts, including with botanical gardens in Switzerland. He also has experience with bioacoustics and ecology, including urban ecology. Additionally, he is affiliated with one of the members of the AquaPLAN consortium — Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin — and familiar with the work of Franz Hölker who leads IGB's AquaPLAN activities around light pollution. Daniel conducted an inspection at the Pisa Botanical Garden while being in town on September 5, 2024. The idea is to involve Daniel in the project and taking advantage of his likely presence in Florence also in June 2025 for another Wiki event. The plan is to start the project in Italy as scheduled, and to use the upcoming year to establish collaborations with Swiss institutions through Daniel's network of contacts.

The course materials will be prepared in English, so that they can also be reused for potential future events in Switzerland as soon as opportunities arise.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

• Increased Awareness and Engagement

If WMCH funds the installation of the panels in the botanical garden, we can include their logo and not only add QR codes linking to Wikipedia content, as originally planned, but also their social media contacts.

• Visitor at Orto Botanico

We could include an additional note at the reception desk, stating that Swiss visitors can contact the office to receive a free WMCH gadget. The proposer of this grant, who is also a WMCH member, has some items available for distribution and can store them at their workplace.

Do you have any goals or metrics around participation or content?

Data for Measuring Light Pollution:

• The data collected using the Sky Quality Meter (SQM) will be numerical. This instrument estimates the sky quality over a wide field of view, measuring the average brightness in an area of the sky with an 80° field of view. The measured value is expressed in magnitudes per arcsec²: the darker the sky, the higher the measured value. From these data, we will produce graphs (e.g., histograms, boxplots, etc.) to show temporal variations (weekly, monthly, and long-term, including seasonal) in light pollution in the area of the Orto Botanico di Pisa. We estimate the production of 50 files.

Data for Measuring Acoustic Pollution:

• The data collected with the Song Meter from Wildlife Acoustics will consist of recorded sounds (both natural and anthropogenic) saved in "16-bit PCM .wav" file format. A selection of audio files deemed scientifically relevant will be post-processed and then uploaded, paired with encyclopedic entries on the species of animals residing in or passing through the Orto Botanico di Pisa area. We estimate the production of 50 files and the update with content and up-to-date references of at least 5 thematic articles (in more than one language edition, specifically in both Italian and English). This excludes also species-related articles that can be improved with files and small description related to the sounds they can produce.

All raw data will be uploaded to the Zenodo platform under CC0 license.

If we secure an additional grant to organize an editathon in Switzerland, we may also collect metrics related to new participant accounts and article edits in other languages. However, this aspect currently falls under the Italian portion of the grant and is not directly applicable here.

Project plan

Activities

The original Italian plan included the installation of instruments and the collection of data, followed by student-led edit-a-thons. These activities were always tied to the presence of the light and noise meters, such as for example documenting their installation.

These activities are still part of the proposal, and the Swiss grant is also helping to make them possible. While they are not formally financed by this grant, they are partially related to it. We therefore commit to creating and uploading teaching materials in English rather than Italian, ensuring they can be easily reused for future initiatives abroad, including in Switzerland.

Budget

A Sky quality meter

The original request for the measuring equipment in the Italian grant was as follow:

• Fixed Sky Quality Meter (SQM) Unihedron for measuring sky brightness in a cone (1): €500 - CHF 470 (currenlty)
• Portable Sky Quality Meter (SQM) Unihedron for measuring sky brightness in a cone (1): €180 - CHF 170
• Portable Lux Meter (various brands) for measuring light pollution (1): €150 - CHF 140 CHF
• Fixed Acoustic Recorder Song Meter Mini by Wildlife Acoustics for measuring noise pollution (1): €730 - 685 CHF

The prices are listed, including VAT. The original amount is €1560, which is approximately 1,465 CHF. The transfer could be made in EUR from WMCH. To account for transfer costs if done in CHF or fluctuations in the exchange rate, we suggest simplifying the amount to a 1:1 rate. Therefore, to use a round figure, we propose 1500 CHF.

Specific software is not necessary, as the data collected from the sensors will be processed using software for which the Department of Biology already holds its own licenses (e.g., Microsoft Office, R, etc.). Once the Italian phase is completed, we may consider a different approach for processing the data acquired in Switzerland in an open-source manner. However, this is the current agreement we have with the staff of the Botanical Garden.

The volunteers and staff of the Botanical Garden in Pisa commit to maintaining the equipment at no cost, we expect the same for the future Swiss partners.

Photos from the site inspection meeting of local Tuscan volunteers at the Pisa Botanical Garden. The green panels, styled to match the Garden's aesthetic, will serve as a model. In this case, they don’t describe a type of vegetation but rather equipment—in this instance, a Malaise trap. The project's goal is to create similar installations for other types of equipment.

Together with such installation, the original plan was to install a clear descriptive panel in the garden close to the new equipment. The bilingual (English and Italian) panel would have had the logo of the sponsor similarly to the flyers. Since they are not funded by WMIT, we need ca 400 CHF to buy them.

Community engagement

The local community is actively involved in Italy; however, this project was intended to serve as a case study and showcase for developing a series of science-themed events, and open new opportunities for collaboration with local and academic institutions, as well as with various research units within the Department of Biology. In the end, we can simply use this pathway and follow it as soon as we find strong partners in Switzerland .

At that point, we can apply for future mini-grants to host an event there once the equipment is transferred to a Swiss institution.

We will use the social media channels of the Department of Biology of the University of Pisa to promote the project and look for science communication events to present it. This will help prepare for its second phase in Switzerland, where the educational module can be replicated for other students, thus fostering new volunteers.

The original Italian project also included the installation of plaques and the printing of informative flyers for volunteers. If that is approved by WMCH, we can use those for promoting the theme of open science to tourists. We could invite tourists with a Wikimedia account to contact the office while they are visiting the botanical garden.

More broadly, we plan to leverage this collaboration to foster initiatives involving scientists in Wikimedia projects, again an area in which Daniel has broad expertise. In the long term, this could allow us to develop interesting proposals that actively involve Wikimedia CH in this area. In turn, this will create more opportunities to engage with local stakeholders, fostering additional initiatives and expanding the community base.