54 Citizen Science
Volunteers contribute significantly to Victoria’s environment, local communities and economy. Citizen science involves volunteers collaborating with scientists or other experts to collect data through monitoring and research. It has been recognised that citizen science data provides tremendous opportunities for knowledge acquisition internationally (Fritz et al., 2019; United Nations Environment Programme, 2019) while fostering community stewardship and awareness.
DELWP’s Victorians Volunteering for Nature – Environmental Volunteering Plan 2018 (Victorian State Government, 2018) commits to developing and extending citizen science projects to connect scientists with volunteers. Under the MACKF, DELWP is supporting citizen science projects wherever possible to deliver targeted data acquisition.
Victorian examples of citizen science.
To learn about Victorian examples, click on each of the tabs below.
LitterWatch Victoria
LitterWatch Victoria
Community groups and other organisations put in countless hours to reduce litter. They are cleaning up litter, collecting data and engaging others. Data is central to understanding litter trends and patterns, and whether our circular economy strategies to reduce litter will work over the medium term. LitterWatch Victoria is a publicly accessible data application and mapping portal to manage and view different litter datasets. The program was developed in collaboration with community groups and agency partners for use in decision making and monitoring.
For more information on LitterWatch, check out the official website or the LitterStopper App.
The Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program (VCMP)
The Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program (VCMP)
The VCMP uses citizen scientists, supported by universities, to collect data using drone technology. Citizen-science drone surveys are a cost-effective method which both engages local communities in management and delivers highly precise and accurate data for researchers and managers. Drones enable rapid surveying of beach volumes and therefore provide critical information for determining the dynamism of beaches. The data is available online to all community groups as geo-rectified 3D images. The approach allows fast assessment of changes (if any) in the volume, height.
Watch the video below which explores the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program and how citizen scientist use drone technology to monitor the dynamic movement of Victoria’s Beaches
More information is available via the Marine Mapping website.
Estuary Watch
Estuary Watch
Explore the information around Estuary Watch by watching the video below and by exploring the Estuary Watch website.
Activity: Test your Knowledge
Test your knowledge in the quiz below:
Activity Text Version
Activity: Test your Knowledge
This exercise invites readers to answer questions to test their knowledge, based on the Citizen Science information above. Questions and answers are listed below.
Question 1
True or false. Citizen science involves community members working with scientists to collect data through ongoing monitoring and research.
Answers to question 1
True
Question 2
Select all correct responses. Citizen science is important:
- But is inaccessible to people who don’t know how to use technology
- Builds community stewardship of their local marine and coastal areas
- Builds community awareness of their local marine and coastal areas
- Because it allows far greater data collection than if it was scientists were the only ones collecting it
Answers to question 2
- Builds community stewardship of their local marine and coastal areas
- Builds community awareness of their local marine and coastal areas
- Because it allows far greater data collection than if it was scientists were the only ones collecting it
Question 3
Climate change is having a number of impacts on marine organisms. One area that is most at risk of hot El Nino summers are those that live at mid to high zones on the rocky shore as they are exposed to desiccation stress for long periods of time. Community members are monitoring the diversity and abundance in these regions every second week during summer across multiple years. This data is used to look at long term impacts across time.
- Community engagement / outreach
- Ocean equity
- Citizen science
- Tourism
Answers to question 3
- Community engagement / outreach
- Citizen science
End Activity Text Version
Further Viewing and Reading
Check out the Podcast Citizen Science in the Great Barrier Reef by the Volunteer Traveler.
Text is from “Victoria’s Marine and Coastal Knowledge Framework & Strategic Directions 2020-22” by © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2021 is licensed under CC BY 4.0, except for some small text edits, which has been added by Trish Corbett.
References
Fritz, S., See, L., Carlson, T., Haklay, M., Oliver, J. L., Fraisl, D., … & West, S. (2019). Citizen science and the United Nations sustainable development goals. Nature sustainability, 2(10), 922-930.
United Nations Environment Programme. (2019, October 11). The untapped potential of citizen science to track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/untapped-potential-citizen-science-track-progress-sustainable-development
Victoria State Government. (2018). Environmental Volunteering. https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/volunteering/volunteering
