Explore the GroundTruth 2.0 Citizen Observatory data

RitmeNatura is a citizen science project to collect phenological data and observations in Catalonia. Collected by citizens, this data is provided for consultation in real time with the purpose of making them useful for decision-making. Phenology is the observation of seasonal changes in plants and animals, such as flowering, the appearance of insects and migrating birds. The changes in the rhythms of nature give information to scientists about the effects that climate change will have on natural ecosystems, but need longer time series, homogeneous, validated and well spread geographically throughout the country. That study can not be done by automatic sensors and is based on the periodic observation of the surroundings. Experts and volunteers note the dates in which changes occur in the biological cycles of the species (fenofases), such as the flowering date of the plants or the migratory cycles of birds.

Dataset is composed of phenological observations, which include a species identification, a location, a date and time, a phenophase identification and a picture. They are collected by participants (citizens) mainly through mobile devices for the photographs, and then uploaded to the Natusfera platform (https://natusfera.gbif.es/) via the Natusfera app or through the web page of the platform. 214 participants have been providing data since July 2017 and collection is still ongoing. The data are shown also in http://ritmenatura.cat/mapa/index.htm.

Phenology, biodiversity, flowering, leaf fall, climate change

The observatory was created as a demo case in the Ground Truth 2.0 project. Contributors are citizens joining the observatory. Natusfera platform and app are the tools used to collect data. The dataset was created on 19 July 2017

Observations are public, except for the position, for which contributors can choose the level of exposure: public, diffuse (within 10 km) or closed (not shown). Creative Commons Licenses can be applied differently for the user’s set of observations, photographs and sounds. When creating the datasets, we have excluded the Creative Commons licenses that could prevent the use of the data in this challenge.

Since its launch in 2017, Meet Mee Mechelen Citizen Observatory has organized several measurement campaigns to monitor local air quality in Mechelen. Volunteers spent 8 weeks in 4 seasons collecting data by cycling through the city with measurement devices, making a total of 2800 km and 280 hours of observations. All data have been jointly analyzed and can be checked on this website. The offered dataset comprises 4 campaigns collecting a small time series data in September 2018, June-July l2018, February-March 2018 and October-November 2017.  Data were collected every 2-3 minutes by the moving sensor and stored as individual data points. More information can be found in: https://mechelen.meetmee.be/c/english-summary/

Data in the time series was:

• Campaign period
• Date and time of the first observation
• Date and time of the last observation
• Mean black carbon concentration(ng/m³)
• Minimum black carbon concentration(ng/m³)
• Maximum black carbon concentration(ng/m³)
• Standard deviation of the black carbon concentration(ng/m³)
• Total number of observations
• Number of days with observations
• Uncertainty on average (stan_dev/sqrt(n))* 2.228/mean)
• Uncertainty (half length conf. interval at 95% confidence)(ng/m³)
• Location coordinates

Air quality, noise pollution, city, health, traffic

The Meet Mee Mechelen Citizen Observatory was created by the Belgium demo case in the H2020 project GroundTruth 2.0

VattenFokus (WaterFocus) is our citizen science observatory that consist of volunteers, politicians, scientists local and regional government representatives and others. Together we test water quality and collecting data about our lakes and streams to monitor the health of these water sources.

VattenFokus is part of Ground Truth 2.0, a three year EU financed project that is working with setting up six citizen science observatories in real-world conditions in different parts of the world. The water quality measurements performed by the volunteers aided by modern tools, internet and mobile phones, will complement the existing systems, processes and data sources, which will lead to an improved natural environment.

Since the beginning of the work with VattenFokus two major water measurements have been made. Both in Flens municipality. Flen water flash that was carried out in autumn 2017 and the work that Group Dunkirk has done for a long time.

Flen Vattenblitz 2017 was a campaign to collect as many water quality samples as possible in Flens Municipality during the weekend of September 30 – October 1. During this period, 51 samples were taken by 39 participants in lakes (55%), streams (25%), ponds, city reservoirs and smaller streams. The purpose was to get an overview of the water quality in lakes, ponds and watercourses in the municipality. By taking samples of the water quality for a limited period, the researchers can get a snapshot of both good and less good water quality and thereby be able to draw conclusions about where the sources of pollution are.

With the help of the FreshWater Watch app and some testing tools you can test the water quality in lakes and streams. The water quality is tested by measuring or assessing the following parameters:

• Chemical
• Organic
• Optical
• Hydrological

Water quality, nitrate, phosphate, turbidity, water level

The Group Dunkern is interested in finding out the water quality in Lake Dunkern, and the watercourses Rölån and Vadsbroån.