Samenvatting

Citizen science is a form of scientific research in which ordinary citizens actively participate. Citizen science is part of a larger movement towards a more open society. Governments are also following this ‘openness movement’ by sharing information with citizens to provide more insight into policies. However, it is still unclear how these two sources of information, scientific data from citizens and open government information, relate to each other. They both aim to improve policies and contribute to a more open society. However, the relationship between citizen science and open government has not yet been investigated in practice.
Through a case study on the joint measurement of groundwater levels by a regional water authority with individual citizens and the publication of these levels as ‘open data’, this contribution examines the interaction between open government and citizen science. The case study shows that open government leads to citizen science: when citizens’ experiences do not align with the open data provided by the water board, citizens conduct their own research and engage in discussions with the water board using their own data. Furthermore, the data collected by citizens can also be included in open government portals, thus potentially influencing future policies more broadly.