There is 'spectacular' news in the Netherlands. The Government of this country has been convicted of paying some citizens living near large livestock farms due to the high odour load they get. More impressive is the reason the Hague Court gave in its sentence for condemning the Dutch government: 'inadequate' odour legislation of the Dutch Government.

   The Odour Nuisance and Livestock Farming Act (Wgv) was developed by the Dutch government and published in 2006. Unfortunately, this legislation did not adequately protect the Dutch citizens. Therefore, in a sentence just issued, the Court of The Hague orders the State to pay compensation for the damage caused to the plaintiffs. Furthermore, in this sentence from September (but recently published), the Court of The Hague declares that the State has acted unlawfully towards a set of plaintiffs because the protection against odour nuisance that the Wgv offers them is insufficient or has failed.

  The initiative is born from the need to create bridges of open, continuous and standardised communication between citizens, administration, companies and universities. This communication will be based on citizen data that will help to better diagnose and observe the activities that are potential odour emitters. The aim of this initiative is to standardise and establish a methodology to identify and diagnose the problem of odour impact through citizen science.

   This standard is addressed to citizens, Activities Potentially Generating Odour Impact (APGOIs), administrations, universities, odour experts or other organisations involved in odour management, Universities, odour experts or other organisations involved in odour nuisance management such as NGOs or civil associations.