Improving Weather and Climatic Information Quality with User-Generated Observations

In this paper we suggest that active participation by civil society may arise through sharing of environmental data - observations of weather and other measurable variables in the environment, performed by individuals. A general model illustrating individual time resources is introduced, in order to map the two studied groups, i.e. school children and adults interested in weather due to their daily dependence on traffic conditions, and to further generalize the results to other groups in the society, regarding the potential role of the individual to produce valuable information beneficial to the society.