Citizen Science – supporting research and empowering communities
Scientific knowledge is crucial for evaluating risk, supporting mitigation and adaptation and monitoring change. However, the urgency, scope and complexity of the challenges we face mean that traditional data collection methods and practice are insufficient. Step forward the Citizen Scientist – mass participation in data collection and observation will play a key role in development of evidence led solutions.
Citizen science is not new. Some would claim William Herschel, Florence Nightingale and Isaac Newton as early practitioners. Over 200 years ago teachers from academies across New York set out to collect data on the state's climates and seasons to help local farmers optimise yields. That data has recently served as critical base-line information for contemporary climate studies.
Citizen science is at the heart of some of the most extensive datasets and sources of information on pollution, ecology, and biodiversity available to science. Now, it is integral to research projects investigating the biggest issues of our time; for example, Crowd4SDG supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals through exploring new ways of applying citizen science to monitoring the impacts of extreme climate events and strengthening the resilience of communities. Direct involvement of communities in data collection to monitor risks - such as melting glaciers and soil erosion - is helping to democratise access to science. In the developing world especially there is growing interest in empowerment through recognition of the right to research of individuals, communities, and social groups as co-producers of knowledge.
The Learning From the Past (LFP) programme will highlight projects that can mobilise citizen scientists; outstanding current activities include CITiZAN, SCAPE and CHERISH all of which focus on working with communities to record coastal and inter-tidal heritage at risk. There are also well-established projects that enable volunteer divers to monitor and report on the condition of historic wrecks such as the Nautical Archaeology Society Adopt a Wreck scheme and the international Gathering Information via Recreational and Technical Diving (GIRT) project.
However, not all citizen science projects involve fieldwork – there are some fascinating archive-based opportunities available too. For example, the Old Weather project invites citizens scientists to help transcribe sea ice and weather observations from the digitised logbooks of whaling ships that sailed Arctic seas from 1849 to 1912. Anybody with access to a computer can now help to improve our collective understanding of long-term marine climate variability and weather patterns.
LFP will both work with existing projects and develop new opportunities for citizen scientists to make their mark.
We believe that citizen scientists will make a huge contribution to Learning From the Past. We also believe that citizen science provides a chance for action that counterbalances any sense that the challenges we face are too great and that we must simply trust in others to find solutions. The reality is that we can all do something – and enjoy the experience.