Water resource management and public preferences for water ecosystem services: A choice experiment approach for inland river basin management.

Combining participatory modelling and citizen science to support volunteer conservation action

Citizen science approaches provide opportunities to support ecosystem service assessments. To evaluate the recent trends, challenges and opportunities of utilizing citizen science in ecosystem service studies we conducted a systematic literature and project review. We reviewed the range of ecosystem services and formats of participation in citizen science in 17 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 102 ongoing or finished citizen science projects, out of over 500 screened publications and over 1400 screened projects. We found that citizen science is predominantly applied in assessing regulating and cultural services. The assessments were often performed by using proxy indicators that only implicitly provide information on ecosystem services. Direct assessments of ecosystem services are still rare. Participation formats mostly comprise contributory citizen science projects that focus on volunteered data collection. However, there is potential to increase citizen involvement in comprehensive ecosystem service assessments, including the development of research questions, design, data analysis and dissemination of findings. Levels of involvement could be enhanced to strengthen strategic knowledge on the environment, scientific literacy and the empowerment of citizens in helping to inform and monitor policies and management efforts related to ecosystem services. We provide an outlook how to better operationalise citizen science approaches to assess ecosystem services.

Citizen science for assessing ecosystem services: Status, challenges and opportunities

Citizen science has generated a growing interest among scientists and community groups, and citizen science programs have been created specifically for conservation. We examined collaborative science, a highly interactive form of citizen science, which we developed within a theoretically informed framework. In this essay, we focused on 2 aspects of our framework: social learning and adaptive management. Social learning, in contrast to individual-based learning, stresses collaborative and generative insight making and is well-suited for adaptive management. Adaptive-management integrates feedback loops that are informed by what is learned and is guided by iterative decision making. Participants engaged in citizen science are able to add to what they are learning through primary data collection, which can result in the real-time information that is often necessary for conservation. Our work is particularly timely because research publications consistently report a lack of established frameworks and evaluation plans to address the extent of conservation outcomes in citizen science. To illustrate how our framework supports conservation through citizen science, we examined how 2 programs enacted our collaborative science framework. Further, we inspected preliminary conservation outcomes of our case-study programs. These programs, despite their recent implementation, are demonstrating promise with regard to positive conservation outcomes. To date, they are independently earning funds to support research, earning buy-in from local partners to engage in experimentation, and, in the absence of leading scientists, are collecting data to test ideas. We argue that this success is due to citizen scientists being organized around local issues and engaging in iterative, collaborative, and adaptive learning.

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Studying citizen science through adaptive management and learning feedbacks as mechanisms for improving conservation.

n Citizen Science, members of the general public collaborate with scientists to generate and use data relating to the natural world. For the many fields of marine research, this is a particularly powerful approach which should not be overlooked. The sheer scale of coastal and ocean environments mean that it would take several lifetimes for scientists to study them alone. By collaborating with citizens, a much greater number of people can be mobilized to gather a wealth of data and develop new scientific knowledge and understanding. The variety of data types which are amenable to Citizen Science, as outlined in the position paper, are great, meaning that there could be a project to suit everyone. Citizen Science can also enable participants to improve their Ocean Literacy, gain new skills and experiences, and can also empower them to participate in the process of delivering future marine policy.Now, more than ever, marine science research is needed to understand the impacts of a world undergoing change. The rise of Marine Citizen Science to help address this need is therefore timely. This paper highlights opportunities, challenges and best practice in Marine Citizen Science, and sets out a list of high-level strategic recommendations for the future development of Marine Citizen Science in Europe. It presents examples of existing Marine Citizen Science initiatives in Europe to illustrate good practice. Common concerns such as data quality and maintaining engagement are discussed, as are future opportunities such as increased use of technology and potential role of Marine Citizen Science in informing marine policy and conservation. The paper closes with a list of high-level strategic recommendations for the future development of Marine Citizen Science in Europe.

Vishan Nigam

Papers

Determining the willingness to pay for ecosystem service restoration in a degraded coastal watershed: A ninth grade investigation