Towards a One Health Approach: Webinar on Citizen Science in Environmental Observation and Human Health
Wise Angle (WISE), a OneAquaHealth partner and Exploitation Work Package Leader, hosted an insightful webinar titled “Citizen Science in Environmental Observation and Human Health”. The event brought together environmental experts to discuss and present the significance of citizen science in applied research and its impact on raising citizen awareness and drawing more accurate scientific conclusions. Held on May 21st, 2024, the webinar aimed to bridge the gaps in the field of citizen science and welcome external researchers to foster mutual learning.
Citizen science refers to the participation of the general public in the scientific process in collaboration with professional scientists. By leveraging citizen science in environmental research, OneAquaHealth aims to gather extensive data on environmental characteristics and conditions, identify early warning indicators, and foster a deeper connection between communities and their ecosystem.
In particular, by integrating citizen science into its research framework, OneAquaHealth seeks to create a robust, participatory model that supports sustainable environmental practices and enhances the overall health and resilience of urban aquatic ecosystems. For this reason, liaising and sharing experiences with other citizen science projects and initiatives is vital to accomplish our project’s goals as it encourages the exchange of best practices, methodologies, and technological advancements.
The session was moderated by Valentina Tageo (WISE) and divided into segments.
The first segment was devoted to discuss different citizens science approaches, featuring presentations from three invited Horizon Europe projects: OneAquaHealth, DRYvER, and E4WARNING. This segment explored how the concept of citizen science was employed in each case and how they maximized (or plan to) citizen participation in the collection of data. During the webinar, Maria Feio (University of Coimbra), the coordinator of OneAquaHealth, discussed the interconnection between the health of freshwater ecosystems and human health & wellbeing in the urban contexts. She emphasised that improving the health of one will result in the improvement of the other. Harm op den Akker (SHINE 2Europe) demonstrated the importance of engaging citizens to gather local views, opinions and experiences that help define the conditions affecting urban aquatic ecosystems and presented the citizen science framework employed within OneAquaHealth. An important step in the initial phase of the framework design was the conduction of qualitative studies to collect citizens’ preferences, needs and concerns via the organisation of focus groups, interviews and questionnaires in the five research sites of the project – Benevento (Italy), Coimbra (Portugal), Ghent (Belgium), Oslo (Norway), and Toulouse (France). The aim of this fieldwork activity was to gather local views and experiences on how citizens perceive aquatic urban ecosystems and how aquatic ecosystems have an impact on their daily lives and routines. The results of offer important insights for the ongoing development of the project’s citizen science app.
Bálint Pernecker (University of Pécs) shared a presentation on the challenge addressed by the DRYvER project: streams are rapidly dying up globally and accurate hydrological data is lacking. Perennial waters are shifting towards an intermittent flow regime in more than 50% of the Earth’s streams and this percentage is dramatically increasing because of the global climate change. To better map and monitor drying events on rivers and stream, DRYvER project utilised a citizen science application – DRYRivERS. The aim of DRYRivERS application is to enable citizens to collect information about drying events, contributing to the mapping of dry rivers and enhancing scientific predictions of the future impacts of climate change in these ecosystems.
The app was initially launched in Hungary and was targeted toward Hungarian users. For its widespread dissemination (2300 users worldwide, with the 85% of these based in EU countries), the project leveraged social media platforms, broadcast channels, and news outlets. The DRYRivERS is available as a mobile application and as web application. In both versions, users can add new spots, edit their previously recorded data, and access information. Moreover, the provision of incentives play a pivotal role in citizen science projects such this, thus gamification elements were embedded in the system.
Complementing the citizen science approaches, Elisa Mora (CEAB – CSIC) provided an overview of the E4WARNING project and the Mosquito Alert app. E4WARNING is a holistic approach to improve our understanding of the interplay between humans, mosquitoes, reservoir species and the environment for a better disease intelligence capable of anticipating and identifying mosquito-borne diseases and outbreaks. Mosquito Alert is a non-profit cooperative citizen science project, coordinated by different public research centres. E4WARNING leverages the Mosquito Alert app and platform to monitor and collect data about the presence and activity of mosquitoes in real time.
In the context of E4WARNING, citizen science encourages individuals to collect information on mosquitoes while simultaneously raising awareness about mosquito-borne diseases. The Mosquito Alert app aims to study, monitor, and combat the spread of invasive mosquitoes capable of transmitting global diseases. The app is available in mobile app stores translated in 20+ languages, enabling users to collect and submit mosquitoes’ images and bites’ reports. The app has been promoted through public channels such as social media accounts and web blogs, as well as through private channels through newsletters and app applications. It was stressed the highest outreach peaks were reached when TV, press and radio channels were used for mainstreaming communications. Besides being the central data collection tool for images, the app has proved to be an effective science communication tool divulgating public health alerts and raising awareness of the presence of specific mosquito species in certain areas and the related potential health threats.
The second part of the webinar was centred on the challenges and solutions adopted to exploit the potential of mobile applications related to citizen science. Pedro Resende (OWL) introduced the Citizeen App, a carbon and biodiversity mapping solution that uses satellite navigation and earth observation to inform users about the state of green spaces in the city of interest. Citizeen App is the first comprehensive solution using Earth Observation data to diagnose, prescribe and monitor biodiversity and CO2 in the cities. Citizens can utilise the app to monitor the air quality, water quality, and vegetation index. The Citizeen application (app) was tested in the H2020 ‘Pharaon – Pilots for Active and Healthy Ageing’ project , allowing its users to share geo-referenced photographs of species and places of interest in the city, to map (using spatial technology) places according to their thermal and vegetation index, or to suggest improvements to the places they visit, so that citizens can make the most of the green and blue spaces near them. This in turn also promoted the involvement of citizens with nature conservation in cities, stimulated physical and mental activity in older adults and provided information so that citizens can make the most of the green and blue spaces near them. Coimbra was the pilot city for implementing this innovative idea in which Cáritas Coimbra, MARE-UC and OWL challenged the city’s older people (aged 65+) to join the Pharaon project and test the Citizeen app. As part of an ecosystem, volunteers and carers were also involved through events that bring scientific activities closer to the community.
Last, Elizabete Marchante (University of Coimbra) presented Invasoras.pt, an information and citizen science platform on invasive plants in Portugal. The platform was launched in Portugal, in 2013, and aims to raise awareness about biological invasions, publicise invasive plants, and involve the public in their mapping, control and dissemination. Among the platform’s greatest challenges was engaging citizens and educating them to recognise invasive alien plants through trainings, workshops and fieldtrips. The aim was to familiarise citizens with the content and concept of invasive species. The platform has 1175 active users from a total of 5017 registered users, with peaks registered also in this case after the launch of public information campaigns. Since 2023, Invasoras.pt migrated from its customized app-based system and was embedded in the BioDiversity4All/iNaturalist platform, contributing to better mapping of alien and invasive species. This allowed to cope with research funding limitations that would have compromised the maintenance of the app and allowed to expand considerably the data collection. Since 2013, Invasoras.pt has recorded 28,072 observations deriving from their platform and 61,204 from the naturalist/BioDiversity4All platforms.
Overall, the webinar on “Citizen Science in Environmental Observation and Human Health” provided valuable insights into the importance of citizen science in mapping and investigating environmental observations.
We invite you to watch the recorded webinar here and stay tuned for our upcoming events.
Author(s): Georgia Karyami, WISE