Citizen science in cities: an overview of projects focused on urban Australia

Erin Roger,Alice Motion

doi:10.1007/s11252-021-01187-3

Abstract

Citizen science offers a unique opportunity to connect urban-dwellers with the often hidden natural world upon their doorsteps and to contribute to authentic research that increases knowledge of urban ecology and biodiversity. With the majority of Australia’s population residing in large cities, this diverse potential pool of participants in science creates a significant opportunity to increase the spatial and temporal scale of research. Herein, we provide an overview of Australian urban citizen science projects based on an analysis of the projects listed in the Australian Citizen Science Association’s Citizen Science Project Finder. We draw out key features (such as those with research questions specific to cities such as reintroduction and persistence of species in urban environments) from urban citizen science projects that make them suitable for the urban environment and use these features to suggest recommendations for further expansion and development of this important subset of projects. We conclude that the number and diversity of urban citizen science projects is relatively low in Australia, and advocate for an increase in initiatives that can tap into a large pool of potential participants for the benefit of science and society.

Highlights

Citizen science has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade, largely due to advances in, and availability of, technology which has facilitated the involvement of millions of people in science (Bonney et al 2014; Roger et al 2019)
Cities are an extreme example of how humans modify their environments (Adler et al 2020)
Citizen science could help shift the overriding narrative that cities are dominated by introduced species and are less complex in species composition

Summary

Introduction

Citizen science has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade, largely due to advances in, and availability of, technology which has facilitated the involvement of millions of people in science (Bonney et al 2014; Roger et al 2019). Citizen science can include (but is not limited to) a broad range of activities, from analysing scientific data, sharing health information, mapping galaxies and making new low-cost technologies (Bonney et al 2014; Chandler et al 2017; Roger et al 2020). Australia 3 Citizen Science Node, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia its potential to engage communities meaningfully in science, this potential to increase both the temporal and spatial scale of science, uniquely positions citizen science to affect genuine scientific, social and environmental outcomes (Bonney et al 2014). We consider citizen science to be an enabler of anyone without formal scientific credentials to engage in authoritative knowledge production

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Conclusion