Develop A Citizen Science Toolbox for Change in the Danube Basin Ecosystem 

Abstract

Imagine that you run a museum along the Danube. You know that the Danube and its ecosystem play an important role in the area and for the people that live there. You would like to involve these people in an active way in the ecosystem recovery of the Danube and its basin, aiming to increase and change their awareness and knowledge. But how? At this point the EU Horizon project DANUBE4all (https://www.danube4allproject.eu/) may step in, dedicated to developing a strategic Danube Basin Restoration Action Plan in close collaboration with stakeholders, by fostering Citizen Science as an element in community co-design. It will be able to trigger the change by integrating action on environmental concerns with social and economic wellbeing; embracing a science-to-people approach that actively integrates public interests and empowers all Danube basin inhabitants and communities to monitor the change in the ecosystem around the Danube. For this, we are working on a Citizen Science Toolbox, a changemaker that can be used by communities, CSOs, museums, nature parks, and many other organizations in the Danube basin. We will share the set-up of this toolbox, which will consist of a decision tree of options of (existing) citizen science monitoring tools, programs, apps, and methods useful to contribute to ecosystem restoration. The decision tree will guide these museums and other community groups to choose what level of involvement they want and how they make use of the tools and methods. Next to that, there will be a sensor multi-tool connection kit for water quality monitoring added, where we assist people in how to make use of existing low-cost sensors, what quality they have, and what fitness for use. We focus in this Toolbox not only on the technical knowledge that these museums and their participants need, but also on how to relate to the actual need within the basin, and to connect them to researchers, research questions, and make it so that their collected citizen science data becomes valuable for the ecosystem restoration in the Danube Delta. To connect them to sustainable monitoring and research in the basin like for example the Join Danube Survey that is already organized along the Danube and where scientists collaborate to monitor the river status.