Citizen observatories for earth observation

Traditional environmental monitoring systems such as Copernicus, produces a variety of valuable datasets relevant to environmental monitoring (i.e. land-cover/use, atmospheric emissions, ocean water quality, etc). This data is meticulous and offered for the entire EU landscape, however its update rate is scarce due to increased costs and timely data validation procedures.
Citizens’ observations, data and information can complement these official, traditional in-situ and remote sensing data sources, allowing relevant authorities to improve and fill gaps in the environmental monitoring process.

The 1st CO4EO Workshop, entitled as “Citizen Science and Conventional Earth Observation”, took place within the 39^th annual symposium of EARSeL, in Salzburg, Austria, on 2 of July 2019. The workshop, organised by the H2020 WeObserve project (www.weobserve.eu) brought out novel approaches and examples from the crowdsourcing data capitalization as well as the use of observation data (through sensors) in order to improve monitoring of various environmental phenomena. During the workshop, the H2020 COs , GroundTruth 2.0, Scent, GROW and LandSense, presented their innovative applications as well as other tools developed within the lifetime of their projects in order to assist and improve environmental monitoring. Particular emphasis was given in the field of Land Use and Land Cover (LU/LC), harnessing the power of citizens to create actionable knowledge for participatory governance and policy making. In addition, potential solutions and promotion of policy adoption were discussed on overcoming limitations of citizen science data in Earth observation applications.

Presentations

This webinar organized by the H2020 WeObserve project, presented success stories where citizen science data are combined with conventional sources of Earth Observation data. Focus was given to showcase best practices arising from the activities of H2020 Citizen Observatories (LandSense, GROW, GroundTruth 2.0, SCENT) and from other projects as well, while illustrating how the integration of Earth Observation and citizen science can improve environmental monitoring. Moreover, a discussion with the responsible of the Copernicus in-situ component took place towards the selection of a pilot to illustrate the potential of citizen-science as a contributor to Copernicus.

Presentations