Farmer and citizen science in the fight against climate change
This is how our garden looks like this morning during our annual easter egg hunt. Belgian chocolate and a smart temperature and soil moisture sensor that is part of “CurieuzeNeuzen” one of the biggest ever citizen science research project on heat and drought and also the name for ‘nosy’ people in the local Flemish dialect.
For several years in a row, heat and drought records have followed one another. Our summers are getting hotter and drier, which has an enormous impact on our society and on economic sectors like agriculture & food production. To investigate the impact of extreme weather on our farms, public green spaces and our home gardens, this massive citizen science project was launched. Since potato is one of the region's most important food crop, a network of 500 ground sensors were placed at potato farms. A combination of remote sensing imagery and in-situ data from potato fields will reveal the health status of the crop and allow growers to monitor yield and quality.
The scientific strength of CurieuzeNeuzen lies in the number of measurement points. with over 5.000 measurements sites in gardens, farms and public green spaces, the project will provide a considerable data injection into the international SoilTemp database. It is also worth noting that over 50.000 enthusiast citizens applied to join the project. This "big data" provides great statistical computational power, allowing us to more easily identify the factors responsible for heat and drought.
A similar citizen science initiative mapped the air quality in 2019 by mobilizing 20,000 citizens to measure NO2 levels in front of their houses. The project received eight awards and prizes and was featured in Nature magazine.
It is certainly true that scientists have identified flaws in citizen-sourced data in the past few years, including deviations from standard protocols and biases in recording or in the choice of sampling sites. Personally, I love all buzz around these citizen science communication campaigns and the wave of public interest they create. They have opened political doors that more-subdued announcements by scientific or NGO communities might never have done.
Happy Easter to all of you !
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07106-5
https://blog.vito.be/remotesensing/curieuzeneuzen-in-de-tuin
The “Curieuzeneuzen” heat and drought initiative is supported by the University of Antwerp, De Standaard, in collaboration with Rabobank.be, Orange, Vito, VMM, Departement Enonomie, Wetenschap en Innovatie, Departement Omgeving, Bio-Planet, DPD and Aquafin.
