Setting up a sensor to measure the air quality in your neighbourhood, or simply using a dip net to monitor life in the pond around the corner — for engaged citizens, it has never been easier to work hand-in-hand with scientists, taking care of the environment. ‘A valuable and inspiring development’, says Katja Egorova from the Geo Citizen Science Hub at the University of Twente.
Warm summer days clearly played into the hands of “Water Rangers in Twente”. Newly arrived children from Ukraine caught all kinds of creatures from Dutch ditches, ponds and canals as part of scientific research into life in small waters. Important initiative because the quality of these small waters is often overlooked. Until last summer that is, when under the leadership of Katja Egorova of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, children’s help was enlisted in the name of science. The project turned out to have multiple benefits.
‘This is such a great example of citizen science’, says Egorova. ‘The project had everything: the scientific approach to important problems, highly motivated volunteers, and collaboration between several organisations, including Natuur & Milieu and Almelo municipality.’ Apart from sampling water for ecologists, children rated the attractiveness of visited places for recreation. The project thus also has insights for urban planners, who strive to make public spaces more inclusive and youth friendly. ‘For participants, it wasn’t only educational’, she continues. ‘It was also a welcome outing in the fresh air, where they got to know each other better, met local residents, discovered the city on a bicycle, had fun with geocaching. ’ Such activities are crucial for the restoration of well-being. According to Egorova, that's also a key aspect of citizen science: research that puts people at its heart and strengthens community resilience.
Bulding bridges and creating roadmaps
Water Rangers in Twente was conducted by the Geo Citizen Science Hub coordinated by Egorova. ‘We've been active for a year now’, she says. ‘That year was mainly about creating a roadmap for facilitating citizen science in the field of Geo-Information Sciences and Earth Observation, but also about connecting to the rest of the university. Because the innovative opportunities of citizen science lie in transdisciplinary research, involving multiple scientific disciplines and society as a whole.’ That, and embedding open science principles in scientific research, form the focus of the University of Twente as a whole.
The Geo Citizen Science Hub has also introduced seed funding for new projects with citizen participation. Currently, the team focuses on sharing knowledge and experiences as well as on supporting training for students and researchers. ‘But we also explicitly focus on opportunities outside of the university, to get schools, civil society organisations and citizens excited about the possibilities of active participation.’
The power of community knowledge
Egorova sees multiple opportunities for citizen science to prove its worth in both the academic world and wider society. ‘Take climate change, poverty, water scarcity, natural disasters, forced displacement and migration, energy crisis...’, she says, listing some of the complex challenges of our time. Solutions to these challenges often require the integration of big data with community knowledge and observations. ‘The technology to collect and analyse geospatial data has really taken off, and it has also become more accessible and user-friendly.’
What’s more, citizens are more empowered than ever. Collaborative action that relies on local knowledge leads to direct impact and more effective science. And civil society organisations are also playing an increasing role. ‘All factors that are giving citizen science and open science a boost’, says Egorova.
The Geo Citizen Science Hub, for example, is involved in a project where challenges of the energy transition are being identified and addressed in partnership with energy companies, citizens and other stakeholders in the Twente region. For the future, Egorova's plan is to go out into the region more, with ‘Geo Science Café’ as a meeting point for everyone interested in geographic citizen science. ‘We want to reach a wider audience and dispel both organisational and civic perceptions that science is not for them. At the same time, we want to convince researchers and students from different disciplines within the university that citizen science is a valuable basis for research. Of course it has its challenges, but it has also the power to set off much-needed societal transformations. Above all it’s meaningful, fulfilling and fun!’