Data to the People: Public Interest in Neighborhood-Scale Environmental Data

Background and Purpose. Environmental sustainability is a critical issue for many urban communities. As urbanization intensifies, so do greater resource consumption, increased generation of greenhouse gasses, and disruption of human-environmental cycles with consequences for human health and well-being. New technologies can help monitor urban environmental conditions at finer scales than in the past, for example, by monitoring between and within neighborhood conditions, instead of relying on uniform data for one city or county. With access to downscaled and potentially near real-time data, urban residents may become more informed about local environmental conditions and more engaged in addressing urban sustainability problems through community-driven efforts. Examples of making downscaled environmental data available to and meaningful for the public, however, are few. To advance this emerging area, this study examines interests and preferences for accessing high-resolution, near real-time, neighborhood-level environmental data among a sample of residents in Knoxville, Tennessee. A multidisciplinary effort, this study advances social work knowledge at the unique nexus of community engagement, urban sustainability, and emerging technologies.

Methods. Data are from randomly-sampled phone surveys (N=200) and purposively-sampled focus groups (five groups; N=25 total participants) with City of Knoxville residents. Phone surveys measured public interest in neighborhood-scale climate and air quality information and were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Focus groups explored perceptions of sustainability, interest in localized data, and reactions to basic features of select environmental applications already available for smartphone devices or through online websites. Focus group transcripts were analyzed with descriptive and interpretive coding by multiple team members.

Results. Among survey participants, 62.5% expressed a high degree of interest in having access to neighborhood-scale air quality data, 59.5% in neighborhood temperature data, and 54.0% in neighborhood rainfall data. About 39.5% preferred to access neighborhood data daily or more often, and 24.5% preferred weekly access. Preferred modes of access included smartphone applications (51.0% of respondents), email (22.0%), text message (20.5%), and websites (17.0%). During focus groups, participants indicated that they would use localized information to better inform and plan daily activities or behaviors (e.g., avoid walking during times when ozone is higher), learn about or participate in local environmental opportunities or events, and contact city or other officials about concerns. Clear, simple, intuitive design features, plus meaningful messages that help the public interpret data and how it relates to their daily lives, are desired.

Conclusions and Implications. Findings suggest that interest in localized environmental data is high and applications should include clear and compelling educational and behavioral messages. Although this initial study helps build understanding of preferences for neighborhood-scale data, it does not fully address how best to engage people in a way that will provoke lasting interest. Building from our preliminary results, the unanswered but compelling next step for this research is to work in partnership with communities to design and disseminate data applications and communications for urban environmental sustainability with user feedback integrated into every stage of the design process. Social work expertise in community engagement will be critical to these kinds of innovative, applied research efforts.