Water-ForCE H2020 - Citizen Science for the CAL/VAL of satellite aquatic products

In situ data acquisition is an expensive process that needs high-frequency and broad spatial coverage to be fully useful in remote sensing calibration and/or validation exercises. An important new source of spatially intensive data acquisition, the crowd sourcing carried out inside of Citizen Science initiatives, has been developed in previous projects within the EU by, among other things, the development of tools and citizen observatories solutions. We will hear the experiences of Citizen Science tools developers and users and Citizen Science experts, as a basis for discussion during our expert panel time afterwards. Our aim is to fully explore the possibilities of Citizen Science for calibration and validation of Copernicus water quality and quantity products, focused in the identification of: Opportunities/potential for Cal/Val Gaps & problems Identified Needs Data Quality, format and uncertainties

Cos4Cloud and its services for the citizen science community

Cos4Cloud is a EU-funded project that is co-designing, prototyping and implementing a number of new tools and services that address the technological challenges shared by citizen observatories. These services can help citizen observatories to improve data and information quality of observations and can be used as modules, so that any existing citizen science observatory will be able to choose and install the technological services they wish. In this webinar, we will give a short introduction of the project and present two of the services developed: MOBIS and FASTCAT-Cloud. MOBIS is a service to create integrative citizen science apps where you can report all your environmental and biodiversity observations in one Android or iOS app. FASTCAT (Flexible Ai System for CAmera Traps)-Cloud is an open website service that allows you to automatically filter out most unwanted pictures and video streams, keeping images of animals, and to integrate machine learning technology, among other things. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A with speakers. The webinar will last one hour. After closing the webinar we will keep the Zoom channel open for participants to ask further questions and make suggestions about how Cos4Cloud can benefit their citizen science project(s).

Lessons and insights from WeObserve

WeObserve tackles three key challenges that citizens observatories face: (1) awareness, (2) acceptability and (3) sustainability. Its overall mission is to create a sustainable ecosystem of citizen observatories that can systematically address these identified challenges and help move citizen science into the mainstream. As the project draws to its conclusion, team members will highlight what the project has learnt through its activities. Speakers include: Gerid Hager (IIASA) – WeObserve in a nutshell Uta Wehn (IHE Delft), Joan Maso (CREAF), Dilek Fraisl (IIASA) – WeObserve communities of practice: how to ‘do’ CoPs and some reflections Mel Woods (University of Dundee) – Accelerating the uptake of citizen observatories through MOOCs and open data challenges Joan Maso (CREAF), Valantis Tsiakos (ICCS) – Data interoperability and standardisation: using interoperability experiments and hackathons to address data-related challenges in citizen observatories The webinar will finish with a Q&A by Margaret Gold (Citizen Science Lab). The event will be in English, and you can register for free here.

WeObserve MOOC: 'Citizen Science Projects: How to Make a Difference'

Learn to capture and analyse data and use the findings to take action Would you like to understand the environment and other global challenges to help create change? Citizen science projects and citizen observatories are the ideal way to explore big issues, take action and become a change-maker. On this course, you’ll discover many different types of projects and how to get involved. You’ll find out how to lead a project, including the best practices for community building, question forming and data collecting. You’ll also learn how to interpret the information you collect and use your findings to educate others about important universal concerns.