Geographical Information Systems in Modern Citizen Science

<p>Citizen science has globally been recognized as a vital part of open science and as a way of doing research that enables new levels of science education and science communication. Due to its high levels of public participation, citizen science can be of great value in bringing society and science closer together. Universities across the world have acknowledged this value and aim to incorporate citizen science in their policies and daily practices as part of their open science practices.</p><p>The Delft University of Technology has set the goal to develop an open science program that includes citizen science. However, implementing and incorporating citizen science in an open science program is not a straightforward task and demands knowledge, understanding, and experience of the field as well as the practical implications. What should a university do to support the goals of various citizen science initiatives, within an open science context, and to assist and facilitate researchers to perform effective participatory science? To gain a deeper understanding of what a citizen science project entails within the context of a university, we performed a case-study implementing citizen science methods for hydrological research. The project, called Delft Measures Rain, was developed in collaboration with external partners and several internal departments and their staff, some already having experience with developing and coordinating citizen science projects. Citizens of Delft were encouraged to participate and work together with scientists from the Water Management department to investigate rainfall patterns within the city. In total, 95 citizens collaborated for two months to collect over 1900 individual rainfall measurements spread over the city and taken with home-made rain gauges.  We developed tailored recruitment strategies, data collection and validation tools, data visuals, and communication strategies. Overall, the project has delivered valuable results, including reliable rainfall data, involvement and enthusiasm of citizens, and valuable feedback from participants. Additionally, this project has led to more cooperation of relevant institutions and civil society organizations (CSO) across the city and between different departments within the university itself.</p><p>This case-study has showcased how various stakeholders (researchers, citizens, civil servants, CSO’s, etc.) can benefit from co-developed participatory research implementing citizen science and open science principles. With this case study, we were able to identify the benefits, drawbacks, and opportunities for all stakeholders involved. Furthermore, we identified key tools and facilitation needs to assist researchers within the university to perform effective participatory science. During the session, we would like to share our methods, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. This project shows that, with the right knowledge and tools, citizen science can deliver what it promises and be of great value to universities and open science in general. </p>

Even just a decade ago having a chapter dedicated to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in a book on methods in history would have been seen as unusual, but such is the development of digital mapping and spatial technologies over recent years that historians cannot now afford to be without them. This chapter provides an introduction to GIS and its applica- tion and potential for historical study. Given the scope of the chapter it can only be reasonably cursory and aims to show what can be done with GIS in historical research (and teaching), with some pointers for historians on how they might employ GIS and spatial technologies in their own work. It should become clear that GIS is no longer a highly specialised and technical approach to handling spatial and temporal information but an increasingly user-friendly and accessible basis for integrating, analysing and visualising historical and geographical data of a wide variety, both qualitative and quantitative in nature. With this in mind, the chapter sets out: first, what GIS is and how it works; second, why historians might wish to use GIS; thirdly, how GIS is useful for providing insights into the past; and lastly, what the future might be in using GIS for historical research, particularly its problems and challenges. The chapter also provides some directions for further study, including the locations of a growing number of digital online resources that use GIS to disseminate historical material.

Most European cities have air pollution levels that exceed the threshold for human health protection. Children are sensitive to air pollution and thus it is important to ensure they are not exposed to high concentrations of air pollutants. In order to make a positive change toward cleaner air, a joint effort is needed, involving all civil society actors. Schools and local communities have a decisive role, and can, for example, become engaged in citizen science initiatives and knowledge coproduction. In 2019, with the aim of raising awareness for air quality, NILU developed a citizen science toolbox to engage primary schools in monitoring air quality using a simple and affordable measuring method based on paper and petroleum jelly. This is a very visual method, where the students can clearly see differences from polluted and non-polluted places by looking at “how dirty” is the paper. In addition to the qualitative analysis, we have developed an air meter scale making possible for the students to obtain an indicative measurement of the air pollution level. The comparison between the paper and petroleum jelly method against reference PM10 data collected at two official air quality stations showed a good agreement. The method is a strong candidate for dust monitoring in citizen science projects, making participation possible and empowering people with simple tools at hand. The toolbox is targeted at primary schools and children aged 6–12 years, although it can easily be adapted to other age groups. The main objective of the toolbox is to involve young children who are usually not targeted in air quality citizen science activities, to develop research skills and critical thinking, as well as increase their awareness about the air they breathe. The toolbox is designed to engage students in hands-on activities, that challenge them to create hypotheses, design scientific experiments, draw conclusions and find creative solutions to the air pollution problem. The toolbox includes all the necessary material for the teachers, including guidance, background information and templates facilitating the incorporation in the school curricula. The toolbox was launched as part of the Oslo European Green Capital in March 2019 and was later included as part of the European Clean Air Day initiative coordinated by the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) working group on air quality. A total of 30 schools and 60 4th grade classes (aged 8–9 years) participated in the Oslo campaign. The citizen science approach employed in the schools, combined the four key elements that promote knowledge integration: elicit ideas, add new ideas, distinguish among ideas and reflect and sort out ideas. Although the main goal of the study was to provide simple but robust tools for engaging young children in air quality monitoring, we also carried out ex-ante and ex-post evaluations in 12 of the participating classes using a 10-question multiple choice test to have an indication of the contribution of the activity to knowledge integration. The results show that there is an increase in the number of correct answers, as well as a reduction in the misconceptions after conducting the activity. These results indicate that applying a citizen science approach improved science instruction and helped knowledge integration by including students' views and taking advantage of the diverse ideas students generated. Citizen science gives learners an insight into the ways that scientists generate solutions for societal problems. But more important, citizen science provides a way to differ from the classic view of the learner as an absorber of information, by considering the social context of instruction and making the topic personally relevant.

Leveling up citizen science.

This editorial introduces the special issue entitled “Geoinformatics in Citizen Science” of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. The issue includes papers dealing with three main topics. (1) Key tasks of citizen science (CS) in leveraging geoinformatics. This comprises descriptions of citizen science initiatives where geoinformation management and processing is the key means for discovering new knowledge, and it includes: (i) “hackAIR: Towards Raising Awareness about Air Quality in Europe by Developing a Collective Online Platform” by Kosmidis et al., (ii) “Coupling Traditional Monitoring and Citizen Science to Disentangle the Invasion of Halyomorpha halys” by Malek et al., and (iii) “Increasing the Accuracy of Crowdsourced Information on Land Cover via a Voting Procedure Weighted by Information Inferred from the Contributed Data” by Foody et al. (2) Evaluations of approaches to handle geoinformation in CS. This examines citizen science initiatives which critically analyze approaches to acquire and handle geoinformation, and it includes: (iv) “CS Projects Involving Geoinformatics: A Survey of Implementation Approaches” by Criscuolo et al., (v) “Obstacles and Opportunities of Using a Mobile App for Marine Mammal Research” by Hann et al., (vi) “OSM Data Import as an Outreach Tool to Trigger Community Growth? A Case Study in Miami” by Juhász and Hochmair, and (vii) “Experiences with Citizen-Sourced VGI in Challenging Circumstances“ by Hameed et al. (3) Novel geoinformatics research issues: (viii) “A New Method for the Assessment of Spatial Accuracy and Completeness of OpenStreetMap Building Footprints” by Brovelli and Zamboni, (ix) “A Citizen Science Approach for Collecting Toponyms” by Perdana and Ostermann, and (x) “An Automatic User Grouping Model for a Group Recommender System in Location-Based Social Networks” by Khazaei and Alimohammadi.

Web GIS is becoming the developing hotpot for GIS With the development of Internet technology .Geographical Information System (GIS) is an information system which stores analyzes and visually express spatial data . WebGIS can Provide not only simple text and data , but also graphics and images to more and more people. WebGIS is the outcome of Internet development and information sharing . However, many traditional GIS software adopts file-based data organization, which only publishes GIS data less. The technology of publishing mass vector and image database would be restricted . It is necessary to take the proper syncretizing among such technologies as Web, software engineering, programming languages, database and GIS functions into account and consider how to provide a simple and convenient application mode to client. In This paper the author first discuss the model about the data-memory, organizing and the data publishing, then research the design model and the realize model of the Web GIS based on J2EE. Analyse the work principle , merit , demerit and the realizing method of the constitutes of Web GIS, i.e. the structure of three layers.

Seaweed is already one of the largest aquaculture crops globally. It is predicted to expand in developed countries, such as Australia, in the coming decades, providing both products (e.g., food, animal feed, nutraceuticals) and seedstock for the restoration of declining seaweed forests. In Australia, public acceptance and social licence for aquaculture can be contested, creating a barrier to new projects. Concurrently, scaled-up restoration of lost underwater seaweed forests will potentially rely on (i) contributions from citizen scientists, (ii) aquaculture. Therefore, it is essential to understand people's concerns, motivations, and benefits regarding the restorative aquaculture of seaweeds in developed countries, such as Australia, to enhance its sustainable development. Drawing on social licence to operate, ocean literacy, and marine identity perspectives, this thesis examines how participation is initiated, what motivates it, and what outcomes it produces for individuals and legitimacy. This thesis is structured across six interconnected chapters, each contributing unique insights into the human dimensions of seaweed restoration and the mechanisms that may help in driving public support of restorative seaweed aquaculture. To assess what is presently understood about aquaculture's environmental benefits and impacts, Chapter 1 reviews the literature. This chapter compares seaweed production to other types of aquacultures, highlighting its unique capacity to provide critical ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and habitat restoration. This chapter also provides the foundation for this thesis and presents the conceptual framework that underpins the thesis. The framework proposes a pathway for a social licence for restorative seaweed aquaculture (e.g., legitimacy, trust, perceived value, and willingness to support). Chapter 2 details an experiment on recruiting citizen scientists via social media to assess the efficacy of different messaging strategies in encouraging individuals to engage with content or sign up as citizen scientists. A fully factorial experiment was conducted over an 18-day recruitment campaign period, using short-form videos to compare different messaging combinations (content with a focus on the environment, people or seaweed, with either a positive or negative ‘framing’), and engagement metrics (interactions, views, follows, etc) across three social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn). The study found that user engagement was platform-specific, with more users (10-15 times) viewing content on TikTok than on Instagram or LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn and Instagram users interacted more meaningfully with the content, resulting in a greater impact. The results demonstrate that video ‘views’ do not necessarily translate into meaningful engagement, and that approximately 1% of participants who engage with online content may eventually sign up and participate in real-world restoration work as citizen scientists. Chapter 3 explored the demographic traits and motivations of people who signed up to volunteer as citizen scientists with the seaweed research group. This chapter examined the emotional drivers of participation, including the roles of emotions such as awe and wonder in fostering connection and pro-environmental behaviours, as well as climate change worry and identity. These findings offer insights into some of the factors that may be crucial for inspiring public engagement, which is essential for designing effective and inclusive restoration programs and citizen science recruitment campaigns that can underpin scaled-up restoration projects in the future. Chapter 4 evaluated the mental health and well-being benefits of participating in a seaweed restoration project on the Sunshine Coast by comparing the well-being survey responses of participants before, immediately after, and two weeks after participation. The findings revealed that active involvement in ecological restoration led to a significant increase in individuals' subjective nature connectedness (INS), which persisted for at least two weeks following the event and a reduction in feelings of stress and helplessness. These findings suggest that citizen science initiatives are not only good for the environment but also human mental well-being. Chapter 5: A systematic review was conducted to assess social attitudes towards aquaculture and ecological restoration, including the economic opportunities and enhanced community resilience that it can provide. Central to this chapter is the question of how attitudes towards aquaculture production and restoration differ globally, with a particular focus on comparisons between developed and developing countries, and how these attitudes might influence perceptions of seaweed restoration and hinder aquaculture development in Australia. This review helps to provide clarity on where legitimacy and acceptance dynamics converge or diverge across restoration and aquaculture, thus informing implications for social licence to operate for restorative aquaculture in Australia. Lastly, Chapter 6 synthesises findings from the previous five chapters, drawing connections between the ecological and social dimensions of restorative seaweed aquaculture and public participation. It highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, combining environmental science, social psychology, and communication strategies to create scalable solutions for marine ecosystem restoration.

In order for citizen science initiatives to pan out well, various actors need to be willing to engage in citizen science activities. The particular interest in this chapter lies with the citizens and their motivations to participate in ICT-enabled citizen science since, arguably, without citizen participation, there is no citizen science activity. The authors examine in detail what determines citizens' interest to share their weather-related data collected with Personal Weather Stations via online amateur networks and how these citizen activities could be up-scaled to address prevalent hydro-meteorological data gaps. A decision making theory is used to guide empirical research in three European countries. The results indicate no regional differences between the main drivers and incentives and raise the question whether weather observation is still a male-dominated activity in the digital age which would have implications for upscaling this citizen science initiative.

The citizen science approach enables the collection of extensive ecological data while reducing time and cost, offering a valuable tool to address complex conservation challenges. However, its precision in monitoring morphologically similar freshwater fish species remains insufficiently explored. This study evaluates the effectiveness of citizen science in distinguishing between the critically endangered crucian carp ( Carassius carassius ) and the invasive gibel carp ( Carassius gibelio ), two closely related species often confused due to their similar appearance. The native crucian carp has experienced a sharp population decline in Central Europe and is currently classified as critically endangered in the Czech Republic. In response, the citizen science initiative, save the crucian carp was launched to map the species’ distribution and support its conservation and restoration. We assessed the project’s effectiveness using data submitted by 953 participants, which included current and historical occurrence records for both crucian and gibel carp. The analysis focused on species identification accuracy, public engagement, and the influence of media outreach on participation. Field verification of reported sightings revealed a 35% accuracy rate for crucian carp identification. A positive correlation was observed between respondents’ species identification quiz scores and the number of valid occurrence tips submitted. Participants aged 31–50 showed the highest engagement in conservation efforts. Notably, media campaigns significantly boosted public involvement, highlighting the importance of awareness-building in fostering biodiversity stewardship. Data collected through citizen science exhibited broader coverage and greater reporting regularity compared to records from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, underscoring the value of citizen contributions in shaping conservation strategies. Overall, this study illustrates the promise of citizen science as a scalable and impactful approach for monitoring and conserving threatened freshwater fish species.

1. Successful monitoring and management of plant resources worldwide needs the involvement of civil society to support natural reserve managers. Because it is difficult to correctly and quickly identify plant species for non‐specialists, the development of recent techniques based on automatic visual identification should facilitate and increase public engagement in citizen science initiatives. 2. Automatic identification platforms are new to most citizen scientists and land managers. Pl@ntNet is such a platform, available since 2013 on web and mobile environments, and now included in several workflows such as invasive alien species management, endemic species monitoring, educational activities and eco‐tourism practices. The successful development of such platforms needs to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve and facilitate their use in all aspects of ecosystem management. 3. Here we present two Pl@ntNet citizen science initiatives used by conservation practitioners in Europe (France) and Africa (Kenya). We discuss various perspectives, including benefits and limitations. Based on the experiences of field managers, we formulate several recommendations for future initiatives. The recommendations are aimed at a diverse group of conservation managers and citizen science practitioners.

Microdosing is the practice of regularly using low doses of psychedelic drugs. Anecdotal reports suggest that microdosing enhances well-being and cognition; however, such accounts are potentially biased by the placebo effect. This study used a ‘self-blinding’ citizen science initiative, where participants were given online instructions on how to incorporate placebo control into their microdosing routine without clinical supervision. The study was completed by 191 participants, making it the largest placebo-controlled trial on psychedelics to-date. All psychological outcomes improved significantly from baseline to after the 4 weeks long dose period for the microdose group; however, the placebo group also improved and no significant between-groups differences were observed. Acute (emotional state, drug intensity, mood, energy, and creativity) and post-acute (anxiety) scales showed small, but significant microdose vs. placebo differences; however, these results can be explained by participants breaking blind. The findings suggest that anecdotal benefits of microdosing can be explained by the placebo effect.

In parallel with technological developments, the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) in forestry is becoming more important day by day. Therefore, the activities of the units under the General Directorate of Forestry and the position, attitude and behaviour of technical staff employed in rural units in the presence of these developments are fairly important. This study was designed to find out the views of technical staff regarding the use of GIS software technologies, efficient use of them and their development and widespread use in Regional Forest Directorates under the General Directorate of Forestry. Survey method was used in the study. Research was carried out on 210 forest engineers who work in Istanbul, Antalya, Izmir, Ankara, Izmir and Adana Regional Forest Directorates. The data obtained through surveys on the attitudes and views of forest engineers on GIS, whether it is used effectively in their units or not and personal information of the participants were calculated as percentage and frequency, presented in graphs and interpreted. In the study that the using of GIS software has come into prominence, study has been done to promote the use of sufficiently GIS and emphasized the importance of GIS education at the undergraduate level.

Complex multi-actor problem situations in natural resource management (NRM) need the convergence of different knowledge processes, first of all, in understanding and agreeing what the problem is before aspiring for joint-action. This is a joint-learning approach in NRM. Geographic information systems (GIS), with their integrative, analytic, and visualization capabilities, offer promising means to facilitate this approach. However, using GIS relies heavily on specialists that develop and interact with the system, and thus, precludes participation of others NRM actors having no computer skills. Such a limitation can promote dependence on externally-planned intervention and is not desirable. In this research, I explored the use of participatory methods in designing a GIS for facilitating multi-actor learning about their problematic situation in NRM at the local level and communicating the same at the provincial level. This is to reinforce collective effort in understanding, negotiating, and active social construction of natural resources to be jointly managed.<br/><br/>Joint-learning started when Ifugao farmers and I engaged in tracing back NRM history of the study area which is located in the Northern Philippine uplands of Ifugao. This was done in order to learn about the traditional spatial information system that was used to successfully manage their terraced ecosystem that dates back to more than 2,000 years. By reading historical documentation, interviewing the elderly, and visualizing their NRM territories from their oral descriptions, I was able to establish the old Ifugao society's divisions of spatial responsibility that were parts of independent "water districts." Through spatial dialogue, local farmers participated in interpreting aerial photographs and satellite images, and in designing a prototype GIS which is patterned after their successful baddang (workgroup) in these water districts. By joining local NRM planning activities, I was able to identify potential NRM processes that can be reinforced by GIS, such as monitoring the status of their forests and terraces, and systematizing their trial-and-error reforestation efforts. By demonstrating GIS capabilities in supporting these activities ( e.g., site selection, data aggregation, map generation), and the roles that local and provincial level NRM actors can play in each ( e.g., jointly monitoring conditions, analyzing mapped data, formulating plans and policies), we developed a scheme for inter-actor communication process that can help gather support, identify possibilities and define responsibilities in co-managing their delicate landscape.<br/><br/>This research was able to identify a room for local participation in such an expert-dependent tool as GIS. It also demonstrated the inter-dependence of different expertise from different disciplines to come together in developing a GIS that can be effective in promoting a multi-actor NRM. Moreover, it showed a different side of GIS from mapping and data management to joint construction of the 'world' to be managed. This is important to extend our understanding of the complex world through exchange of alternative perspectives for common knowledge and wisdom to evolve and hopefully, promote concerted action for a more sustainable NRM. Interesting topics for future research also emerged from this study. The foremost of which is whether expertise and secondary information is enough to design effective practice; or whether interactive technology design promotes better practice.

Wildlife observations submitted by volunteers through citizen science initiatives are increasingly used within research and policy. Ladybirds are popular and charismatic insects, with most species being relatively easy to identify from photographs. Therefore, they are considered an appropriate taxonomic group for engaging people through citizen science initiatives to contribute long-term and large-scale datasets for use in many different contexts. Building on the strengths of a mass participation citizen science survey on ladybirds in the United Kingdom, we have developed a mobile application for ladybird recording and identification across Europe. The main aims of the application are to: (1) compile distribution data for ladybird species throughout Europe, and use this to assess changes in distribution over time; (2) connect and engage people in nature and increase awareness about the diversity and ecological importance of ladybirds. In developing the application we first constructed a database including ladybird species from the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal with associated information on relevant morphological features (e.g., size, main color, pronotum pattern) to inform identification. Additionally, the species were assessed on the basis of probability of occurrence within each country which enables users to reduce the number of species to only those with relevance to the location of the recorder. This is amongst the first collaborative citizen science approaches aimed at involving participants across Europe in recording a group of insects. In the near future, we aim to expand the use of the application to all countries in Europe.

Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Given the constant increase of Citizen Science initiatives, recruiting strategies have to be planned properly. Retention is pivotal as well, especially when time is invested in volunteers’ training. However, practically no follow-up data are available on retention after major Citizen Science initiatives. CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) was a 42-month project (2014–2017) funded by the European Commission in the framework of the LIFE+ programme (LIFE13 ENV/IT/842). It aimed at increasing awareness on Citizen Science among citizens, researchers, and decision makers in Italy. During CSMON-LIFE, recruitment was based on extensive awareness raising actions on different media. In total, 5558 volunteers were engaged in different field activities during the project and its follow-up. They gathered a total of 30062 geo-referenced observations, each with an image of the reported organism. Their activities were organized in campaigns, each devoted to a different topic. This study aims at investigating volunteers’ performance and retention in the funded period of CSMON-LIFE (December 2014–November 2017) and in its after-LIFE follow-up period (December 2017–November 2020), for a total of 72 months.