Beyond Human Sensors: More-than-Human Citizen Sensing in Biodiversity Urban Living Labs

Abstract

Recent interest in biodiversity to combat climate crises led governments to use data platforms and sensing tools to monitor, conserve and increase city biodiversity. Given that most of these tools are designed for expert users and most city space is privately owned, there is a growing need for urban living labs (ULLs) approaches that combine community co-design with HCI for biodiversity. This paper develops and explores the BULL (Biodiversity Urban Living Lab) approach, building on the existing City Commons HCI framework, using research-through-design and action research methods. A BULL approach should not only engage citizens but also lead to opportunities for individual and collective action towards biodiversity as perceived common. Next to this, ecological and technological entities as non-human actors need to be involved in community-based co-creation in BULLs. The BULL approach provides a process and specific tools for multi-stakeholder groups, including more-than-human ones, to experiment with opportunities for more biodiversity in a local community, resulting in individual and collective action.