Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Study Task:
Before I make, and illustrate, a qualified case for citizen sci-
ence, it's useful for you to think about whether there are circumstances in
which
you
could conceive of becoming a citizen scientist. Building on the
previous study task, can you identify a situation where you, or someone
you know well, would be highly motivated to involve yourself in collect-
ing, synthesising or even creating information or knowledge that might
shape the conduct or conclusions of a specialist science? It may help to
think of this in terms of the Kissidougou case explored in
Chapter 6.
Rather
than be subject to the power of scientific claims, as many Kissidougouans
were, in what circumstances might you want to shape science
inside
the
'black box'?
Flood management apprentices
To exemplify my point, let's consider the interesting case of Pickering,
Like many localities in the United Kingdom, Pickering has suffered from
recurrent and acute flooding after heavy periods of precipitation. A large
stream, whose catchment extends to the rainy hills of Ryedale to the
north, runs through the town. Flood events can exact high economic and
emotional costs: homes and businesses are ruined, people displaced and
extensive repair work necessary. In Pickering, as elsewhere in the United
Kingdom, immediate responsibility for flood risk assessment and flood
prevention falls to the Environment Agency (EA), a national government
body. After serious flooding in 1998 and 2000, the EA subsequently paid
for flood defence works in several affected Yorkshire towns - except for
Pickering.
This was not for want of trying. The EA submitted a planning application
to Ryedale District Council in mid-2001. It requested permission to build
a flood wall through the town designed to contain high water. This request
was based on 1-D computer models of the water retention effects of walls
of different heights in different rainfall and snowmelt scenarios. The appli-
cation was subsequently withdrawn after a series of local objections. These
included worries that the wall would actually make some properties more
(not less) vulnerable to inundation, that it would be a potential eyesore,
that other flood mitigation options hadn't been properly considered, and
that too few local stakeholders had been consulted by the EA. The Agency
then commissioned a private engineering consultant (Babtie, Brown and
Root) to reassess the options. Its 2003 report concluded that a flood wall
was still the best means of preventing serious flooding in Pickering. Again,
computer models calibrated against data from observed flood events were
the cognitive basis of the preferred solution. By this time, however, a spe-
cial pot of central government money made available to Pickering and other
