Scott Edmunds

**Citizen Science at UNEA4**  
![Citizen Science at
UNEA4](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_7891-300x225.jpg){.alignright
.size-medium .wp-image-2768 fetchpriority="high" decoding="async"
width="300" height="225"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_7891-300x225.jpg 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_7891-768x576.jpg 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IMG_7891.jpg 800w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}As *GigaScience* has the aim of
opening and democratising science as far as it can go, we even work
towards the involvement of non-professional "citizen scientists" in the
scientific process. Regular readers of this blog and journal will have
seen the many crowdfunded and educational [community
genome](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/community-genomes-gigatv/)
projects we have promoted and participated in (see
[BauhiniaGenome](http://bauhiniagenome.hk/)). In December 2017 our
Executive Editor Scott Edmunds was part of the Citizen Science
delegation that attended the Science-Policy-Business Forum at the UN
Environment Assembly (UNEA3) in Nairobi (read more
[here](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/citizen-smith-goes-to-nairobi-taking-citizen-science-to-the-un/)),
with the aim of establishing a Global Secretariat to work with the UN
and promote citizen science across the globe. This was the first time a
coordinated push was made to promote Citizen Science at the world's
highest-level decision-making body on the environment. A lot was
achieved on getting these approaches onto the agenda in many sessions,
presented at the closing plenary, and even getting citizen referenced in
UN resolutions.

![Citizen Science at
UNEA4](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2d02c092-3d2c-445c-bc84-218de4413299-300x212.jpg){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-2776 decoding="async" width="300" height="212"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2d02c092-3d2c-445c-bc84-218de4413299-300x212.jpg 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2d02c092-3d2c-445c-bc84-218de4413299.jpg 730w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}Follow the success at UNEA3, the
20-person delegation assembled again for the 4^th^ UN Environment
Assembly this month to keep up the momentum and further promote Citizen
Science on the global agenda. Following the equally inspiring
[International Data Week
meeting](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/democratising-data-aocc/)
that was held in Botswana last year it was great to be back in Africa.
This was a chance to see how far the movement has come, and also provide
a venue for a governance meetup for the new [Citizen Science Global
Partnership](http://citizenscienceglobal.org/) that was the biggest
achievement to come from the previous gathering. Tackling the issue of
geographical gaps in Citizen Science networks, building from the well
established [US](https://citizenscience.org/),
[European](https://ecsa.citizen-science.net/) and
[Australian](https://citizenscience.org.au/) Citizen Science
Associations, since the previous meeting
[CitizenScience.Asia](http://citizenscience.asia/) has worked with
lawyers to go down the formalization route, a new Ibero-American network
has been announced ([Red Iberoamericana de Ciencia
Participativa](https://www.facebook.com/redricap/)), and there have been
continuing moves to form an African Citizen Science Association. The
Global Partnership again had a logistical meeting after the Science and
Business forum hosted by the African Citizen Science Association at the
lovely United States International University-Africa campus in Nairobi.

**This time for Africa**  
This was the second time that the [Science-Policy-Business
Forum](https://un-spbf.org) was hosted at the UN Environment Assembly,
and with the theme of \#SolveDifferent this year the format and themes
changed slightly in this edition. While there were still a large variety
of session formats, including Q&As and TED-talk style presentations in
the opening and closing sessions, a new feature was the "GreenTech
Startup Marathon" where 9 Green Tech entrepreneurs got to give "Dragons
Den" pitches to a panel of judges. With startup investment at an all
time high, not enough is going into green tech, and this was an
interesting experiment to see some of the latest green tech solutions
including [pollution detecting drones](http://soarability.tech/), solar
microgrid generator finance, and eco-crowdfunding platforms. While
staged for the audience this hopefully provided a taste of what with
come out of the new [UN Green Technology
Hub](https://un-spbf.org/2019/03/09/second-global-session-of-the-un-spbf-on-the-environment-kicks-off-in-nairobi/)
and accelerator launched at the meeting. Another addition was the
["World Environment Situation
Room"](https://environmentlive.unep.org/media/html/situation/situation_room.html),
for pop-up discussions and demos bringing together and visualizing many
environmental data streams.

> The [@UN](https://twitter.com/UN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) Assistant
> Secretary-General
> [@satyatripathi](https://twitter.com/satyatripathi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> standing together with the
> [@CitSciGlobal](https://twitter.com/CitSciGlobal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> Delegation at the UN
> [\#SciencePolicyBusiness](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SciencePolicyBusiness?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> Forum to mark the occasion for
> [\#CitizenScience](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CitizenScience?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [pic.twitter.com/x4HnorNpnz](https://t.co/x4HnorNpnz)
>
> --- Citizen Science Global Partnership (@CitSciGlobal) [March 14,
> 2019](https://twitter.com/CitSciGlobal/status/1106186542203265029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

  
In the period between assemblies Citizen Science seems to have gone
mainstream, and the delegation didn't even have to raise the issue for
the topic to get discussed in most sessions. Marine litter surveys
utilizing citizen participants are [now part of the
UN](https://oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=21332) and [European
Union](https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/europes-seas-and-coasts/assessments/marine-litterwatch/briefing)
research toolkit in quantifying and addressing the plastic pollution
problem. And the European Union has developed [an inventory and
analysis](https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/science-update/eu-wide-inventory-citizen-science-environmental-policy)
of citizen science practices that can assist environmental policy.

Members of the delegation participated in a number of sessions, Anne
Bowser from the [Citizen Science
Association](https://www.citizenscience.org/) and Martin Brocklehurst
and Steffen Fritz from the [European Citizen Science
Association](https://ecsa.citizen-science.net/) giving their input in
many sessions. The delegation also hosted a session on "Citizen Science
for Smart and Sustainable Cities of the Future" that was live streamed
(see the archive [here](https://www.pscp.tv/w/1mrxmYwydYdxy)). On top of
launching a new "what is Citizen Science" short film for the Global
Partnership produced by [the Crowd and Cloud](http://crowdandcloud.org/)
(also shown in the closing plenary) the session also featured Kathleen
Rogers from Earth Day Network announcing the [Earth Challenge
2020](https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/earthchallenge2020/). An
ambitious plan to engage millions of global citizens to aggregate and
collect more than one billion data points to answer crucial scientific
and environmental questions.

**Observing the Earth Observation Observers  
**We were particularly interested in the "Big Data, New Frontiers"
extended session which was very focused on Earth Observation data. With
Maurice Borgeaud from the European Space Agency and European Union Earth
Observation Programme ([Copernicus](https://www.copernicus.eu/en))
starting the session off talking about the 120PB of satellite Open Data
they have shared. As a result of open licensing they have \>200,000
registered users, and the rest of the talks followed many of the
downstream users empowered because of this. Much of this work is
overseen through the [Global Earth Observation System of Systems
(GEOSS)](https://www.earthobservations.org/geo_community.php) that
integrates and shares data by connecting existing infrastructures using
common standards. At present there are more than 400 million open data
resources in GEOSS from more than 150 providers such as NASA, ESA and
the commercial sector.

Being in the range of petabytes there are challenges in sharing this
data, both in terms of infrastructure challenges and how to visualize
and interpret this in a "decision ready" form that governments and
citizens can utilize. Open Data and tools will be crucial in this, and a
number of platforms were presented that demonstrate this. Pierre Lacroix
presented on the UN Environment open source [MapX
viewer](https://www.mapx.org/) for sharing and visualising geospatial
data,that has potential for Citizen Science users to analyse and tell
stories from important environmental datasets. Stuart Minchin presented
on the efforts of [Digital Earth Australia](http://www.ga.gov.au/dea),
and how making their Geospatial Data Management and Analysis platform
into the open source ["Open Data Cube"](https://www.opendatacube.org/)
has enabled countries around the world (including 5 in Africa) to deploy
their own instances. Adam Smith presented a similar approach from
[Decartes Labs](https://www.descarteslabs.com/), a spinout from Los
Alamos National Laboratory that presents science-ready imagery from
multiple Earth Observation and environmental data sources. Even the
satellites themselves are being democratized, with
[planet.com](https://www.planet.com/) creating a network of low cost
earth observation satellites hacked from smartphones. Andrew Zolli
presenting on the platform that provides the data to researchers openly
with the proviso that they share processed outputs in a similar manner.

> Firm endorsement from Maurice Borgeaud, Head of
> [\#earthobservations](https://twitter.com/hashtag/earthobservations?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> at [@esa](https://twitter.com/esa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) stating:
> "[\#CitizenScience](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CitizenScience?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> is a must". Awesome!
> [\#UNEA4](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNEA4?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [\#SciencePolicyBusiness](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SciencePolicyBusiness?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [pic.twitter.com/J5hGpbZvHT](https://t.co/J5hGpbZvHT)
>
> --- CitizenScience.Asia (@CitSciAsia) [March 9,
> 2019](https://twitter.com/CitSciAsia/status/1104291988256505856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

  
With petabytes of open data available there is a lot of potential for
the big-players in big-data to do interesting things with it. Coming
from a life-sciences background it was interesting to see there is now
an [Allen Coral Atlas](http://allencoralatlas.org/) that provides the
highest resolution earth observation map of the world's coral reefs.
UNEP and the European Commission [announced a collaboration at the
meeting](https://sdg.iisd.org/news/unep-partners-launch-data-platform-on-water-related-ecosystems/)
involving Google Earth to launch a data platform on water-related
ecosystems around the world. The platform enables better understanding
of changes to water bodies by providing access to satellite data and
enabling comparative analysis over time. The initiative seeks to improve
monitoring of progress to specifically meet SDG target 6.6 which covers
protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems. [The Google Earth
Engine](https://earthengine.google.com/) is a great example of what
infrastructure can be built on a 40 year petascale catalogue of
satellite imagery and geospatial datasets. Providing planetary-scale
analysis capabilities, and being made available for researchers and
developers to detect changes, map trends, and quantify differences on
the Earth's surface. Researchers can also use this data to study how
these changes relate to issues such as  biodiversity or infectious
disease outbreaks (see our [Zika example
pictured](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13742-016-0146-1)).

::: {#attachment_2769 .wp-caption .aligncenter style="width: 788px"}
![Citizen Science at
UNEA4](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/13742_2016_146_Fig1_HTML.gif){.size-full
.wp-image-2769 decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2769" width="778" height="525"}

An example of Earth Observation climate data being used to guide Zika
response measures. Munoz et al. GigaScience. 2016.
doi:10.1186/s13742-016-0146-1
:::

These technologies and platforms have huge potential to engage the
public to better understand the risks of climate change, and also to
allow Citizen Scientists to dig into the data to see missing patterns
and trends relating to their own backyards. Especially by integrating
their own smaller scale environmental sensor data. While Silicon
Valley's contributions can help democratize the easy of interacting with
this data, for evidence based policy Gilberto Camera from GEO pointed
out we need socially robust results. Trust is key, as governments and
citizens may not trust multinationals like Google, but will trust their
own locally collected data.

**CS versus the SDGs  
**A lot of the focus at the UN is quantifying the progress of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Governments have made a commitment
to achieve these by 2030, although there is almost no indicator data on
the state of the environment. Jillian Campbell, Chief Statistician of
UNEP presenting the depressing statistic that it is estimated there is
only data available on around 30% of the indicators. There is huge
potential for citizen science to fill these gaps, and the Citizen
Science Global Partnership has set up a [SDG and Citizen Science
Maximization group](http://citizenscienceglobal.org/projects.html#his)
specifically with this issue in mind. In the closing plenary we again
[issued a declaration](https://osf.io/5796c/) on our aims and
commitments specifically tackling the context for meeting these goals.
The Citizen Science Delegation's statement at UNEA4 was as follows (and
also see [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QT0Xu81Gao) of
Anne Bowser reading it).

*The Citizen Science Global Partnership (the Partnership) was founded at
the 1st UN Science Policy Business Forum to coordinate and amplify the
work of the global citizen science community. In support of the UN 2030
Agenda, the Citizen Science Global Partnership will:*

- *Ensure global reach and representation -- the Partnership has
  supported new associations forming in Africa, Iberoamerica and New
  Zealand; and an office will be opened in Geneva to complement the
  presence in Washington D.C.*
- *Support global networks of CITIZEN SCIENCE projects -- the
  Partnership supports the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium for
  vector-mosquito monitoring; and an emerging research coordination
  network for local pollution impacts on human health.*
- *Support the UN in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  -- a Working Group within the Partnership is linking CITIZEN SCIENCE
  initiatives to the SDG framework in areas such as Air and Water
  Pollution, addressing gaps where there is insufficient indicator
  data.*

*The Citizen Science Global Partnership is working with international
agencies such as UN Environment and UNESCO to create a Roadmap to
support CITIZEN SCIENCE across all UN activities, and is seeking
additional global partners in Science, Policy and Business.*

Many of the delegation stayed on through the main UNEA4 assembly to see
things through until the UN Resolutions were passed at the end. Once
again there was success in getting Citizen Science included in the UN
resolutions, and it was particularly pleasing to see [resolution
L.27](https://papersmart.unon.org/resolution/uploads/k1900891.pdf) on
"Keeping the World Environment under Review: Enhancing UNEP's
Science-Policy Interface and Endorsement of the Global Environment
Outlook" explicitly state the UN GEO environmental assessments should be
"Encouraging citizen science efforts and their potential contribution as
a complementary source to fill data gaps".

In the main assembly the Science and Technology Major Group [issued a
statement](http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/node/42443) presented
by Stephen Stec endorsing the utility of Citizen Science data,
encouraging Member States to support evidence-based decision-making
using it to increase scale and resolution through the growing field of
citizen science. Using language closely related to our UNEA3 summary,
[it stated](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDzmRnegRCU) that Citizen
Science emphasizes collaborative intelligence and co-creation to
facilitate scientific and community-based solutions.

Being a gathering of the worlds top environmentalists, everyone present
at the meeting were very aware of the urgency in tackling climate change
and promoting sustainable development. Confronting the challenges we
face can be stark enough, but this year the meeting was particularly
sombre because of events out of everyone's control. With the [Ethiopian
Airlines crash](https://news.un.org/en/audio/2019/03/1034481) the day
before the main assembly, many delegates and UN employees were on board,
so many of the attendees were shocked to lose close friends and
colleagues. There were tributes and moments of contemplation at the
opening and closing of the meeting, and we would like to end this with a
dedication to all who were lost in this tragedy. So many of who had
dedicated their lives to make a better planet for us all.

The post [Citizen Science goes mainstream. Back at the UN with the
Citizen Science Global
Partnership.](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/citizen-science-at-unea4/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.


<strong>
 Citizen Science at UNEA4
</strong>
As
<em>
 GigaScience
</em>
has the aim of opening and democratising science as far as it can go, we even work towards the involvement of non-professional “citizen scientists” in the scientific process.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Citizen Science goes mainstream. Back at the UN with the Citizen Science Global Partnership.