ITS2.4/SSS2
Bridging between Earth Science disciplines: Participatory Citizen Science and Open Science as a way to go

ITS2.4/SSS2

Bridging between Earth Science disciplines: Participatory Citizen Science and Open Science as a way to go
Co-organized by EOS7/AS4/BG2/CL3.2/HS12
Convener: Taru Sandén | Co-conveners: Tamer Abu-Alam, Lorenzo Bigagli, Noortje Dijkstra, Daniel DörlerECSECS, Dilek FraislECSECS, Florian HeiglECSECS, Leif Longva
vPICO presentations
| Fri, 30 Apr, 11:00–12:30 (CEST)

vPICO presentations: Fri, 30 Apr

Chairpersons: Taru Sandén, Dilek Fraisl, Tamer Abu-Alam
11:00–11:05
Citizen Science across the world
11:05–11:15
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EGU21-10871
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solicited
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Juan Carlos Laso Bayas, Linda See, Myroslava Lesiv, Martina Dürauer, Ivelina Georgieva, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Mathias Karner, Olga Danylo, Hedwig Bartl, Anto Subash, Santosh Karanam, Tobias Sturn, Ian McCallum, and Steffen Fritz

Geo-Wiki is an online platform for involving citizens in the visual interpretation of very high-resolution satellite imagery to collect reference data on land cover and land use. Instead of being an ongoing citizen science project, short intensive campaigns are organized in which citizens participate. The advantage of this approach is that large amounts of data are collected in a short amount of time with a clearly defined data collection target to reach. Participants can also schedule their time accordingly, with their past feedback indicating that this intensive approach was preferred. The reference data are then used in further scientific research to answer a range of questions such as: How much of the land’s surface is wild or impacted by humans?  What is the size of agricultural fields globally? The campaigns are organized as competitions with prizes that include Amazon vouchers and co-authorship on a scientific publication. The scientific publication is the mechanism by which the data are openly shared so that other researchers can use this reference data set in other applications. The publication is usually in the form of a data paper, which explains the campaign in detail along with the data set collected. The data are uploaded to a repository such as Pangaea, ZENODO or IIASA’s own data repository, DARE.  This approach from data collection, to opening up the data, to documentation via a scientific data paper also ensures transparency in the data collection process. There have been several Geo-Wiki citizen science campaigns that have been run over the last decade. Here we provide examples of experiences from five recent campaigns: (i) the Global Cropland mapping campaign to build a cropland validation data set; (ii) the Global Field Size campaign to characterize the size of agricultural fields around the world; (iii) the Human Impact on Forests campaign to produce the first global map of forest management; (iv) the Global Built-up Surface Validation campaign to collect data on built-up surfaces for validation of global built-up products such as the Global Human Settlement Layer (https://ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu/); and (v) the Drivers of Tropical Forest Loss campaign, which collected data on the main causes of deforestation in the tropics. In addition to outlining the campaign, the data sets collected and the sharing of the data online, we provide lessons learned from these campaigns, which have built upon experiences collected over the last decade. These include insights related to the quality and consistency of the classifications of the volunteers including different volunteer behaviors; best practices in creating control points for use in the gamification and quality assurance of the campaigns; different methods for training the volunteers in visual interpretation; difficulties in the interpretation of some features, which may need expert input instead as well as the inability of some features to be recognized from satellite imagery; and limitations in the approach regarding change detection due to temporal availability of open satellite imagery, among several others. 

How to cite: Laso Bayas, J. C., See, L., Lesiv, M., Dürauer, M., Georgieva, I., Schepaschenko, D., Karner, M., Danylo, O., Bartl, H., Subash, A., Karanam, S., Sturn, T., McCallum, I., and Fritz, S.: Experiences from Recent Geo-Wiki Citizen Science Campaigns in the Creation and Sharing of New Reference Data Sets on Land Cover and Land Use, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10871, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10871, 2021.

11:15–11:17
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EGU21-9790
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ECS
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Jessica Droujko, Carlos Velazco-Macías, David Faro, Jens Benöhr, Vera Knook, and Kara Lena Virik

One challenge in collaborating with citizen scientists is to keep them motivated to continuously collect data in the long-term. The Home River Bioblitz event overcomes this roadblock by engaging hundreds of citizens around the world in one single day. In general, a bioblitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record a wide variety of species at a specific location within a certain timeframe. This single-day commitment enables large-spatial resolution data to be collected. The Home River Bioblitz was created by the River Collective, National Geographic, Bestias del sur Salvaje, and iNaturalist as part of the citizen science program supported by the National Geographic Society. The first event took place on September 20th, 2020 on 43 rivers located in 24 countries around the world. Over 500 participants from five continents used the iNaturalist app to log 5245 observations and 1772 species of flora and fauna, with at least 14 species under IUCN status, contributing to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility repository. This method of low-temporal and high-spatial data collection is used to identify new species, IUCN red list species, local endemic species, and invasive species. Not only does this event engage citizen-scientists to contribute to biodiversity findings, but it also connects people to their local environments by having them zoom into details they normally pass by. By celebrating the diversity of rivers and meeting the people around them, we were able to bring communities closer to knowing the species of their local rivers and raise awareness about the importance of free-flowing and healthy rivers around the world. An online post-event was dedicated to sharing these local river species and the scientific impact of certain observations with the participants. This event also opens up the possibility to collect other types of short term, large-spatial data around river ecosystems. In the next edition of the Home River Bioblitz, we would like to encourage the participants to collect hydro-morphological and water quality data by using open-access and low-cost citizen science tools, such as the Discharge app and the Waterrangers kit. The Home River Bioblitz event will not only be used to engage and educate participants on their local rivers, but the biodiversity and potentially chemico-physical and hydro-morphological data that will be collected could serve to develop time-series to help assess temporal variations and stressors.

How to cite: Droujko, J., Velazco-Macías, C., Faro, D., Benöhr, J., Knook, V., and Virik, K. L.: The Home River Bioblitz: A World-Wide Collaboration Between Citizens to Show the Importance of Free-Flowing Rivers, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9790, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9790, 2021.

11:17–11:19
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EGU21-9016
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ECS
Isatis M. Cintron Rodriguez

Good environmental governance includes participatory, transparent and accountable decision-making. All sectors of society have an essential role in organizing climate action towards our shared future. Networking science into decision-making will allow us to build actionable resilience intelligence. Developed in 1992, Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Principle 10 of the Rio Convention, and the Article 12 of the 2015 Paris Agreement include specific mandates for public participation and engagement in climate actions. Governments have pledged, in international agreements, to broader public participation in environmental policy design processes facilitating access to information. Here we show how Latin-American countries are doing in regard to such responsibility by focusing on the reference to participatory processes and the inclusion in climate strategies of adequate instruments of participation in the contributions presented to the United Nations. This analysis provides a baseline from which we can ground truth and track progress of NDCs’ accelerating climate-smart future through stakeholder engagement. Our research shows there is a need for understanding and metrics for quality public participation and articulation of participatory processes

How to cite: Cintron Rodriguez, I. M.: Ensuring science-based climate action: Analysis of multi-stakeholder engagement in Nationally Determined Contributions, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9016, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9016, 2021.

11:19–11:21
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EGU21-10386
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Friederike Klan, Christopher C.M. Kyba, Nona Schulte-Römer, Helga U. Kuechly, Jürgen Oberst, Anastasios Margonis, and Marius Hauenschild

Data collection via mobile software applications is playing an increasingly important role in Citizen Science projects. When developing such applications, it is important to consider both the requirements of the scientists interested in data collection and the needs of the citizen scientists who contribute data. Citizens and participating scientists therefore ideally work together when conceptualizing, designing, and testing such applications (co-design). In this way, both sides - scientists and citizens - can contribute their expectations, desires, knowledge, and engagement at an early stage, thereby improving the utility and acceptance of the resulting applications. How such a co-design process must and can be meaningfully designed depends very much on (1) the interests, skills and background knowledge of the project participants, (2) the complexity and type of the data collection methodology to be implemented, and (3) the time, financial and legal conditions under which the software is developed.

In our contribution, we address this point. We present two methodologies that enable the joint design and implementation of software applications for mobile data collection in citizen science projects. These represent quite different best practice approaches that emerged during the development of mobile applications on the topics of light pollution and meteor observation in our Citizen Science project Nachtlicht-BüHNE. We examine and compare the resulting methods with respect to their suitability for use under different conditions and thus provide future citizen science projects based on participatory developed mobile applications with decision support for the design of their co-design approach. We shed light on the two co-design methods with respect to the following criteria, among others: possible types of contributions by volunteers, requirements on expertise and knowledge of the contributors, flexibility of the method with respect to changing requirements, possibilities with respect to the design of complex data collection methods, costs incurred and time required for the implementation of the methodology.

How to cite: Klan, F., Kyba, C. C. M., Schulte-Römer, N., Kuechly, H. U., Oberst, J., Margonis, A., and Hauenschild, M.: Co-Designing Mobile Applications for Data Collection: A Comparative Evaluation of Co-Design Processes in the Project "Nachtlicht-BüHNE", EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10386, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10386, 2021.

11:21–11:23
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EGU21-8292
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ECS
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Highlight
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Thirze Hermans, Andrew Dougill, Stephen Whitfield, Caroline L. Peacock, Samuel Eze, and Christian Thierfelder

Climate change challenges across sub-Saharan Africa require more resilient food production systems. To improve agricultural resilience, the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) framework has been proposed including Conservation Agriculture (CA). CA has three key principles; 1) minimum soil disturbance, 2) crop residue cover, 3) crop diversification. Current soil health studies assessing CA’s impact have focused on 'scientific measurements', paying no attention to local knowledge. Local knowledge however influences farmers’ land decision making and their evaluation of CA. In this study, a participatory approach to evaluate CA’s soil health impacts is developed and implemented using farmers’ observations and soil measurements on farm trials in two Malawian communities. The on-farm trials compared conventional ridge and furrow systems (CP), with CA maize only (CAM) and CA maize-legume intercrop systems (CAML). This approach contextualizes the CA soil health outcomes and contributes to understanding how an integrated approach can explain farmer decision-making.

Based on a stepwise integrated soil assessment framework, firstly farmers’ soil health indicators were identified as crop performance, soil consistency, moisture content, erosion, colour and structure. These local indicators were consistent with conventional soil health indicators for quantitative measurements. Soil measurements and observations show that CA leads to soil structural change. Both soil moisture (Mwansambo: 7.54%-38.15% lower for CP; Lemu 1.57%-47.39% lower for CP) and infiltration improve under CA (Lemu CAM/CAML 0.15 cms-1, CP 0.09 cms-1; Mwansambo CP/CAM 0.14 cms-1, CAML 0.18 cms-1). Farmers perceive ridges as positive due to aeration, nutrient release and infiltration, which corresponds with higher exchangeable ammonium (Lemu CP 76.0 mgkg -1, CAM 49.4 mgkg -1, CAML 51.7 mgkg -1), and nitrate/nitrite (Mwansambo CP 200.7  mgkg -1, CAM 171.9 mgkg -1, CAML 103.3 mgkg -1). This perspective still contributes to the popularity of ridges, despite the higher yield and total nitrogen measurements under CA. The perceived carbon benefits of residues, and ridge advantages have encouraged farmers to bury residues in ridges.

This work shows that an integrated approach provides more nuanced and localized information about land management. The stepwise integrated soil assessment framework developed in this study can be used to understand the role of soil health in farmers’ land management decision-making. Thereby supporting a two-way learning process for scaling agricultural innovations and broadening the evidence base for sustainable agricultural innovations.

How to cite: Hermans, T., Dougill, A., Whitfield, S., Peacock, C. L., Eze, S., and Thierfelder, C.: Integrated Soil Health Assessment bridging Local Knowledge and Soil Science in Conservation Agriculture, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8292, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8292, 2021.

11:23–11:25
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EGU21-12706
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Highlight
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Alex Taylor, Claire Kelly, Maarten Wynants, Aloyce Patrick, Francis Mkilema, Linus Munishi, Kelvin Mtei, Mona Nasseri, Patrick Ndakidemi, and Will Blake

East African farming communities face complex challenges regarding food and feed productivity. Primary production systems are under stress, nutritional choices are changing and the relationship between development and agriculture is undergoing profound transformation. In the face of severe threat of soil erosion, East African agro-pastoral systems are now at a tipping point and there has never been a greater urgency for evidence-led sustainable land management interventions to reverse degradation of natural resources that support food and water security. A key barrier, however, is a lack of high spatial resolution soil health data wherein collecting such information is beyond conventional research means. This research tests whether bridging this data gap can be achieved through a coordinated citizen science programme. Accessible and portable technology is currently available in the form of hand-held soil scanners that can enable farmers to become citizen scientists empowered to collect data to establish research data bases that support critical landscape decisions. The aim of the work was to test the potential for using soil scanners as a tool for mapping whole community soil health characteristics, using soil organic matter as an indicator, down to farm-scale; a resolution that is beyond that achievable in conventional research, with the ultimate objective to deliver information that empowers stakeholders to create a sustainable community landscape plan.

Key outcomes included:

(1) A training document for the usage of the soil scanner that includes a list of potential problems and their solutions. Moreover, a training session was organised in the Tanzanian partner institution to build capacity for the continuation of the project, wherein local researchers were trained in the application of the ‘Agrocares’ soil scanner to support continuing community engagement.

(2) Local farmers being provided an opportunity to circumvent traditional power and knowledge inequities. During the introductory meeting and field measurements, we noticed the development of locally-embedded scientific interests and skills that foster stronger community ownership and engagement in action research.

(3) A high resolution soil organic matter and nutrient status dataset in small-catchment and community setting. The citizen science data contributes to soil process and hydrological understanding of East African landscapes, which besides direct contribution to the scientific understanding, also supports co-design of effective management solutions to the soil erosion and land degradation challenges.

The inclusion of ‘big data’ digital data training and sharing platforms and has the potential to create more robust and better informed collective decision-making, as well as identifying key data gaps. Further it can expand the utility and applicability of existing techniques and data sets beyond the reach of conventional research. Challenges and opportunities for wider use of soil scanning technology by community groups are evaluated.

How to cite: Taylor, A., Kelly, C., Wynants, M., Patrick, A., Mkilema, F., Munishi, L., Mtei, K., Nasseri, M., Ndakidemi, P., and Blake, W.: Soils, Science and Community ActioN (SoilSCAN) to reduce land degradation in East Africa, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12706, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12706, 2021.

11:25–11:27
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EGU21-13068
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Antoine Bouziat, Sylvain Desroziers, Mathieu Feraille, Jean-Claude Lecomte, Christophe Cornet, François Cokelaer, and Renaud Divies

Popularizing and disseminating a basic level of geological knowledge and understanding to the general public has become an important issue, either to valorize and protect our natural heritage, or to facilitate public engagement in environmental and energy debates. Emergent technologies and the increasing digitalization of our societies broaden the range of tools available to address this topic. In this talk, we focus on the prospects enabled by the combination of citizen science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), building on the birth of the RockNetTM project.

 

Inspired by the sucess of the Pl@ntNet project for botanical science outreach, RockNetTM aims at developping a mobile application, whose users can photograph rock samples and get a lithological classification from an AI algorithm. By doing so, a participative data base of rock images is progressively gathered and shared among all users. Meanwhile the most expert ones can correct the automated facies identification to gradually improve the AI capabilities. Then the resulting tool collectively produced becomes a possible support for geoscience outreach, relying on the citizens' curiosity for their immediate geological environment.

 

A first prototype, handling 12 different lithological classes, has already been developed and trained on several thousand pictures. From this practical experience, we illustrate the potential of this kind of technology and the numerous challenges to consider before a large-scale diffusion of the application.  

 

How to cite: Bouziat, A., Desroziers, S., Feraille, M., Lecomte, J.-C., Cornet, C., Cokelaer, F., and Divies, R.: Combining citizen science and artificial intelligence to facilitate geology outreach and capture geodiversity: prospects from the RockNet project, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13068, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13068, 2021.

11:27–11:29
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EGU21-11344
Higher Education engagement in citizen enhanced open science: Between Humanities and Natural Sciences
(withdrawn)
Katerina Zourou and Mariana Ziku
11:29–11:31
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EGU21-14995
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Highlight
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Henning Rust, Bianca Wentzel, Thomas Kox, Jonas Lehmke, Christopher Böttcher, Andreas Trojand, Elisabeth Freundl, and Martin Göber

Voluntarily measuring atmospheric characteristics by citizens has a long tradition. Possibilities has been increasing in the last years with the rise of smart devices and the internet-of-things (IoT). Atmospheric measurements are also prototypical project examples within the Maker community. Maker projects (i.e. IoT-/technology-oriented projects) are popular means of strengthening interest in STEM subjects among pupils. In the frame of two projects, we use an IoT-based weather station to be assembled by pupils as a participatory vehicle to a) raise interest in and understanding of weather and climate, as well as weather forecasts, and b) obtain additional data to be used in scientific projects.  

In the project KARE-CS  (funding: German Ministry for Education and Research, BMBF), a lay weather network has been set up together with pupils in the Bavarian Oberland south of Munich in 2020 and 2021. The students' devices measure temperature, pressure, humidity, solar radiation and precipitation in their direct environment, data is visualized on their smartphones (or any device running a browser) and updated every few minutes. Pupils also report weather impacts such as observed damages or their own concernment about weather events. These data are evaluated in workshops involving the students, their teachers, local partners and scientists. Atmospheric as well as impact data is evaluated for further use in scientifc studies, such as within the mother project KARE (). KARE-CS focuses on upper secondary school students as participants and aim at a development of competences among teachers as multipliers and pupils, particularly in terms of climate change adaptation, understanding natural hazards and risks and in taking personal precautions.

A similar setup is used for supporting the measurement campaing FESSTVaL ( initiated for 2021 by the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research ( ). The pupils' network will consist of 100 instruments within and close to the campaign's main site. Additionally to the communication and education-oriented goals mentioned above, the resulting spatially and temporally high-resolution data is used for research on thunderstorm development and cold pool characteristics within the Hans-Ertel-Centre.

How to cite: Rust, H., Wentzel, B., Kox, T., Lehmke, J., Böttcher, C., Trojand, A., Freundl, E., and Göber, M.: Participation of pupils in atmospheric measurements -- Potential for increasing climate change risk awareness and data availability for weather and climate research, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14995, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14995, 2021.

11:31–11:33
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EGU21-9302
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Highlight
Reza Pramana, Schuyler Houser, Daru Rini, and Maurits Ertsen

Water quality in the rivers and tributaries of the Brantas catchment (about 12.000 km2) is deteriorating due to various reasons, including rapid economic development, insufficient domestic water treatment and waste management, and industrial pollution. Various parameters measured by agencies involved in water resource development and management and environmental management consistently demonstrate exceedance of the local water quality standards. Between the different agencies, water quality data are available – intermittently from 2009 until 2019 at 104 locations, but generally on a monthly basis. Still, opportunities to improve data availability are apparent, both to increase the amount and representability of the data sets. The opportunity to expand available data via citizen science is simultaneously an opportunity to provide education on water stewardship and empower citizens to participate in water quality management. We plan to involve people from eight communities living close to the river and researchers from two local universities in a citizen-science campaign. The community members would sample weekly at 10 locations, from upstream to downstream of the catchment. We will use probes and test strips to measure the temperature, electrical conductivity, pH, nitrate, phosphate, ammonia, iron, and dissolved oxygen. The results will potentially be combined with the data from government agencies to construct an integrated water quality data set to improve decision making and the quality of community engagement in water resource management.

How to cite: Pramana, R., Houser, S., Rini, D., and Ertsen, M.: The role of citizen science as a tool of public information in water quality management in the Brantas catchment, Indonesia, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9302, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9302, 2021.

11:33–11:35
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EGU21-14721
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ECS
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Sandra de Vries, Marit Bogert, Sabine Kunst, and Nicoleta Nastase

Citizen science has globally been recognized as a vital part of open science and as a way of doing research that enables new levels of science education and science communication. Due to its high levels of public participation, citizen science can be of great value in bringing society and science closer together. Universities across the world have acknowledged this value and aim to incorporate citizen science in their policies and daily practices as part of their open science practices.

The Delft University of Technology has set the goal to develop an open science program that includes citizen science. However, implementing and incorporating citizen science in an open science program is not a straightforward task and demands knowledge, understanding, and experience of the field as well as the practical implications. What should a university do to support the goals of various citizen science initiatives, within an open science context, and to assist and facilitate researchers to perform effective participatory science? To gain a deeper understanding of what a citizen science project entails within the context of a university, we performed a case-study implementing citizen science methods for hydrological research. The project, called Delft Measures Rain, was developed in collaboration with external partners and several internal departments and their staff, some already having experience with developing and coordinating citizen science projects. Citizens of Delft were encouraged to participate and work together with scientists from the Water Management department to investigate rainfall patterns within the city. In total, 95 citizens collaborated for two months to collect over 1900 individual rainfall measurements spread over the city and taken with home-made rain gauges.  We developed tailored recruitment strategies, data collection and validation tools, data visuals, and communication strategies. Overall, the project has delivered valuable results, including reliable rainfall data, involvement and enthusiasm of citizens, and valuable feedback from participants. Additionally, this project has led to more cooperation of relevant institutions and civil society organizations (CSO) across the city and between different departments within the university itself.

This case-study has showcased how various stakeholders (researchers, citizens, civil servants, CSO’s, etc.) can benefit from co-developed participatory research implementing citizen science and open science principles. With this case study, we were able to identify the benefits, drawbacks, and opportunities for all stakeholders involved. Furthermore, we identified key tools and facilitation needs to assist researchers within the university to perform effective participatory science. During the session, we would like to share our methods, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. This project shows that, with the right knowledge and tools, citizen science can deliver what it promises and be of great value to universities and open science in general. 

How to cite: de Vries, S., Bogert, M., Kunst, S., and Nastase, N.: Incorporating citizen science in open science: a case study of participatory rainfall measurements in the context of a Technical University, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14721, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14721, 2021.

Open Science showing the way
11:35–11:37
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EGU21-2670
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ECS
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Ronald Pijnenburg, Susanne Laumann, Richard Wessels, Geertje ter Maat, Lora Armstrong, Jarek Bieńkowski, Otto Lange, Reinoud Sleeman, Philip Vardon, David Bruhn, Auke Barnhoorn, André Niemeijer, Ernst Willingshofer, Oliver Plümper, Kees Wapenaar, Jeannot Trampert, and Martyn Drury

In response to the growing geo-societal challenges of our densely populated planet, current research frequently requires convergence of multiple research disciplines, and optimized use of openly available data, research facilities and funds. Such optimization is the main aim of many research infrastructures developing both at the national and international level. In the Netherlands, the European Plate Observing System – Netherlands (EPOS-NL) was formed, as the Dutch research infrastructure for solid Earth sciences. EPOS-NL aims to further develop world-class facilities for research into georesources and hazards, and to provide international access to these facilities and derived data. It is a partnership between Utrecht University, Delft University of Technology and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and is funded by the Dutch Research Council. EPOS-NL facilities include: 1) The Earth Simulation Lab at Utrecht University, 2) The Groningen gas field seismological network and the ORFEUS Data Center at KNMI, 3) The deep geothermal doublet (DAPwell), to be installed on the Delft university campus, and 4) A distributed facility for multi-scale imaging and tomography (MINT), shared between the Utrecht and Delft universities. EPOS-NL provides financial, technical and scientific support for access to these facilities. To get facility access, researchers can apply to a bi-annual call, with 2021 calls planned in Q1 and Q3. EPOS-NL further works with researchers, data centers and industry to provide access to essential data and models (e.g. pertaining to the seismogenic Groningen gas field) within the framework of the European infrastructure EPOS, conforming to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data principles. In that way, EPOS-NL contributes directly to a globally developing trend to make research facilities and data openly accessible to the international community. This supports cost-effective and multi-disciplinary research into the geo-societal challenges faced by our densely populated planet. See www.EPOS-NL.nl for more information.

How to cite: Pijnenburg, R., Laumann, S., Wessels, R., ter Maat, G., Armstrong, L., Bieńkowski, J., Lange, O., Sleeman, R., Vardon, P., Bruhn, D., Barnhoorn, A., Niemeijer, A., Willingshofer, E., Plümper, O., Wapenaar, K., Trampert, J., and Drury, M.: The Dutch research infrastructure EPOS-NL: Access to Earth scientific research facilities and data, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2670, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2670, 2021.

11:37–11:39
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EGU21-13177
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ECS
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Kaylin Bugbee, Rahul Ramachandran, Ge Peng, and Aaron Kaulfus

Access to valuable scientific research data is becoming increasingly more open, attracting a growing user community of scientists, decision makers and innovators. While these data are more openly available, accessibility continues to remain an issue due to the large volumes of complex, heterogeneous data that are available for analysis. This emerging accessibility issue is driving the development of specialized software stacks to instantiate new analysis platforms that enable users to quickly and efficiently work with large volumes of data. These platforms, typically found on the cloud or in a high performance computing environment, are optimized for large-scale data analysis. These platforms can be transient in nature, with a defined life span and a focus on improved capabilities as opposed to serving as an archive of record. 

 

While these transient, optimized platforms are not held to the same stewardship standards as a traditional archive, data must still be managed in a standardized and uniform manner throughout the platform. Valuable scientific research is conducted in these platforms, making these platforms subject to open science principles such as reproducibility and accessibility. In this presentation, we examine the differences between various data stewardship models and describe where transient optimized platforms fit within those models. We then describe in more detail a data and information governance framework for Earth Observation transient optimized analysis platforms. We will end our presentation by sharing our experiences of developing such a framework for the Multi-Mission Algorithm and Analysis Platform (MAAP).

How to cite: Bugbee, K., Ramachandran, R., Peng, G., and Kaulfus, A.: Data Stewardship Practices for Earth Observation Transient and Optimized Analysis Platforms, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13177, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13177, 2021.

11:39–11:41
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EGU21-12843
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Tamer Abu-Alam, Karl Magnus Nilsen, Obiajulu Odu, Leif Longva, and Per Pippin Aspaas

Research data plays a key role in monitoring and predicting any natural phenomena, including changes in the Polar Regions. The limited access to data restricts the ability of researchers to monitor, predict and model environmental changes and their socio-economic repercussions. In a recent survey of 113 major polar research institutions, we found out that an estimated 60% of the existing polar research data is unfindable through common search engines and can only be accessed through institutional webpages. In social science and indigenous knowledge, this findability gap is even higher, approximately 84% of the total existing data. This raises an awareness sign and the call for the need of the scientific community to collect information on the global output of research data and publications related to the Polar Regions and present it in a homogenous, seamless database.

In this contribution, we present a new, open access discovery service, Open Polar, with the purpose of rendering polar research more visible and retrievable to the research community as well as to the interested public, teachers, students and decision-makers. The new service is currently under construction and will be hosted by UiT The Arctic University of Norway in close collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute and other international partners. The beta version of the Open Polar was made available in February 2021. We welcome comments and suggestions from the scientific community to the beta version, while we plan to launch the stable production version of the service by summer 2021. The beta version of the service can already be tested at the URL: www.openpolar.no

How to cite: Abu-Alam, T., Nilsen, K. M., Odu, O., Longva, L., and Aspaas, P. P.: Open Polar: a new freely search service of publications and research data of Polar Regions, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12843, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12843, 2021.

11:41–11:43
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EGU21-15951
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Michael Poulsen

Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises

Michael K. Poulsen1, Lisbeth Iversen2, Ted Cheeseman3, Børge Damsgård4, Verena Meraldi5, Naja Elisabeth Mikkelsen6, Zdenka Sokolíčková7, Kai Sørensen8, Agnieszka Tatarek9, Penelope Wagner10, Stein Sandven2, and Finn Danielsen1

1NORDECO, 2NERSC, 3PCSC, 4UNIS, 5Hurtigruten, 6GEUS, 7University of Oslo, 8NIVA, 9IOPAN, 10MET Norway

Why expedition cruise monitoring is important for Svalbard. The Arctic environment  is changing fast, largely due to increasing temperatures and human activities. The continuous areas of wilderness and the cultural heritage sites in Svalbard need to be managed based on a solid understanding.

The natural environment of Svalbard is rich compared to other polar regions. Historical remains are plentiful. The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act aims at regulating hunting, fishing, industrial activities, mining, commerce and tourism. Expedition cruises regularly reach otherwise rarely visited places.

Steps taken to improve environmental monitoring. A workshop for enhancing the environmental monitoring efforts of expedition cruise ships was held in Longyearbyen in 2019, facilitated by the INTAROS project and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators  (https://intaros.nersc.no/content/cruise-expedition-monitoring-workshop) with representatives of cruise operators, citizen science programs, local government and scientists. They agreed on a pilot assessment of monitoring programs during 2019.

Results show the importance of cruise ship observations. The provisional findings of the pilot assessment suggest thatexpedition cruises go almost everywhere around Svalbard and gather significant and relevant data on the environment, contributing for example to an improved understanding of thestatus and distribution of wildlife. Observations are often documented with photographs. More than 150 persons contributed observations during 2019 to eBird and Happywhale. iNaturalist, not part of the pilot assessment, also received many contributions. The pilot assessment was unable to establish a useful citizen science program for testing monitoring of cultural remains.

Conclusions relevant for monitoring and environmental management. Cruise ships collect environmental data that are valuable for the scientific community and for public decision-makers. The Governor of Svalbard isresponsible for environmental management in Svalbard. Data on the environment and on cultural remains from expedition cruises can be useful for the Governor’s office. Improved communication between citizen science programs and those responsible for environmental management decisions is likely to increase the quantity of relevant information that reaches public decision makers.

Recommendations for improving the use of cruise ship observations and monitoring.

  • 1) All cruise expedition ships should be equipped with tablets containing the apps for the same small selection of citizen scienceprograms so that they can easily upload records.
  • 2) Evaluation of data that can be created and how such data can contribute to monitoring programs, to ensure that data is made readily available in a form that is useful for institutions responsible for planning and improving environmental management.
  • 3) Clear lines of communication between citizen science program participants, citizen science program organizers, the scientific community and decision makers should be further developed.
  • 4) Developing expedition cruise monitoring is of high priority in Svalbard, but is also highly relevant to other polar regions.
  • 5) Further work is necessary to fully understand the feasibility and potential of coordinated expedition cruise operator based environmental observing in the Arctic.

How to cite: Poulsen, M.: Monitoring Svalbard’s environment and cultural heritage through citizen science by expedition cruises, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15951, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15951, 2021.

11:43–11:45
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EGU21-13203
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ECS
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Sina C. Truckenbrodt, Maximilian Enderling, Carsten Pathe, Erik Borg, Christiane C. Schmullius, and Friederike Klan

Data collection strategies vary among different citizen science projects. This complicates the intercomparability of parameter values acquired in different studies (e.g., methodological and scale issues) and results in variable data quality. This creates problems regarding the merging of different data sets and hampers the reuse of data from different projects. Modular designed applications for mobile devices (Apps) represent a framework that helps to foster the standardisation of data collection methods. While they encourage the reuse of the software, they provide enough flexibility for an adjustment in accordance with the research question(s) of interest.

The currently developed App “FieldMApp” offers such a framework running under Android and iOS. The related concept includes predefined frame functionalities, like settings for the user account and the user interface, and adaptable application-related functionalities. The latter comprise several modules that are categorized as sensor test, basic functionality, parameter collection and data quality collection modules. The interdependencies of these modules are documented in a wiki. This enables an individual and context-based selection of functionalities. The FieldMApp is based on open-source software libraries (Xamarin, Open Development Kit (ODK), SQLite, CoreCLR-NCalc, LusoV.YamarinUsbSerialForAndroid, Newtonsoft.Json, SharpZipLib) and will be published as open-source software. Hence, the existing catalogue of functionalities can be augmented in the future. The premise for such extensions is that modules are published together with smart, universally applicable data quality recording routines and a proper documentation in the wiki.

In this contribution, we present the concept and the structure of the FieldMApp and some current fields of application that are related to the cultivation of arable land, soil mapping, forest monitoring, and Earth Observation. The extension of the functionality catalogue is exemplified by the newly implemented speech recognition module. A related quality recording routine will be introduced. With this contribution we would like to encourage citizens and scientists to elicit which requirements such an App should fulfil from their point of view.

How to cite: Truckenbrodt, S. C., Enderling, M., Pathe, C., Borg, E., Schmullius, C. C., and Klan, F.: Modular designed Apps – an opportunity to standardize data collection methods and to encourage the reuse of software, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13203, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13203, 2021.

11:45–11:47
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EGU21-2770
Annakaisa Korja, Kuvvet Atakan, Peter H. Voss, Michael Roth, Kristin Vogfjord, Elena Kozlovskaya, Eija I. Tanskanen, Niina Junno, and Nordic Epos Working Group

Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub – is a consortium of the Nordic geophysical observatories financed by NordForsk. It is delivering on-line data to European Plate Observing System’s Thematic Core Services (EPOS’s TCSs). Nordic EPOS consortium comprises of the Universities of Helsinki, Bergen, Uppsala, Oulu and GEUS and Icelandic Meteorological Office. Nordic EPOS enhances and stimulates the ongoing active Nordic interactions related to Solid Earth Research Infrastructures (RIs) in general and EPOS in particular. Nordic EPOS develops expertise and tools designed to integrate Nordic RI data and to enhance their accessibility and usefulness to the Nordic research community. Together we can address global challenges in Norden and with Nordic data.

The Nordic EPOS’s main tasks are to advance the usage of multi-disciplinary Solid Earth data sets on scientific and societal problem solving, increase the amount of open, shared homogenized data sets, and increase the scientific expertise in creating sustainable societies in Nordic countries and especially in the Arctic region. In addition to developing services better suited for Nordic interest for EPOS, Nordic EPOS will also try to bring forward Nordic research interest, such as research of Arctic areas in TCSs and EPOS-ERIC governance and scientific boards.

The Nordic EPOS is organized into Tasks and Activities. The project has six main infrastructure TASKs: I - Training in usage of EPOS-RI data and services; II - Nordic data integration and FAIRness; III - Nordic station management of seismological networks, IV - Induced seismicity, safe society; V - Ash and gas monitoring; and VI- Geomagnetic hazards. In addition, the project has one transversal TASK VII on Communication and dissemination. The activities within the TASKs are workshops, tutorials, demos and training sessions (virtual and on-site), and communication and dissemination of EPOS data and metadata information at local, national and international workshops, meetings, and conferences.

How to cite: Korja, A., Atakan, K., Voss, P. H., Roth, M., Vogfjord, K., Kozlovskaya, E., Tanskanen, E. I., Junno, N., and Working Group, N. E.: Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2770, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2770, 2021.

11:47–11:49
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EGU21-13042
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Simon Buckley, John Howell, Nicole Naumann, Conor Lewis, Kari Ringdal, Joris Vanbiervliet, Bowei Tong, Gail Maxwell, and Magda Chmielewska

V3Geo is a cloud-based repository for virtual 3D models in geoscience, allowing storage, searching tools and visualisation of 3D models typically acquired through photogrammetry (structure-from-motion), laser scanning or other laboratory-based 3D modelling methods. The platform has been developed to store and access 3D models at the range of scales and applications required by geoscientists – from microscopic, hand samples and fossils through to outcrop sections covering metres to tens of kilometres. A 3D web viewer efficiently streams the model data over the Internet connection, allowing 3D models to be explored interactively. A measurement tool makes it possible for user to measure simple dimensions, such as widths, thicknesses, fault throws and more. V3Geo differs from other services in that it allows very large models (consisting of multiple sections), is designed to include additional interpretations in future versions, and focuses specifically on geoscience through metadata and a classification schema.

The initial version of V3Geo was released in 2020 in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of providing virtual tools in a time of cancelled field excursions, field-based courses and fieldwork. The repository has been accepting community contributions, based on a guideline for preparing and submitting high quality 3D datasets. Contributions are subject to a technical review to ensure underlying quality and reliability for scientific and professional usage. Model description pages give an overview of the datasets, with references, and datasets themselves are assigned Creative Commons licences. The 3D viewer can be embedded in webpages, making it easy to include V3Geo models in virtual teaching resources. V3Geo allows increased accessibility to field localities when travel or mobility is restricted, as well as providing the foundation for virtual field trips. The database currently includes around 200 virtual 3D models from around the world, and will continue to develop and grow, aiming to become a valuable resource for the geoscience community. Future updates will include tools to facilitate upload and technical review, interpretations and Digital Object Identifiers.

How to cite: Buckley, S., Howell, J., Naumann, N., Lewis, C., Ringdal, K., Vanbiervliet, J., Tong, B., Maxwell, G., and Chmielewska, M.: V3Geo: A cloud-based platform for sharing virtual 3D models in geoscience, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13042, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13042, 2021.

11:49–11:51
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EGU21-12872
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Tamer Abu-Alam and Synnøve Elvevold

Geological mapping and investigation of the mountain chain in Dronning Maud Land (DML) has been carried out by a number of geologists from South Africa, Japan, India, Germany, Russia and Norway over the last 40-50 years. The produced geological maps of these teams are, for a large part, based on fairly old data which makes these maps inhomogeneous. The maps are at different scales, contain different levels of details, and the standards for classification of the rock units may also differ between the maps. This limits the ability to use these maps to draw an overview tectonic model of the evolution of Dronning Maud Land.

In this contribution, we present a newly compiled geological map and GIS database of the Dronning Maud Land. The map will be available soon as an open-access database, but the readers can test a test version of it at: https://geokart.npolar.no/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer=Geology_DML. The geological importance of the Dronning Maud Land to understanding the evolution of the southern parts of the Gondwana supercontinent was the main motivation factor as the DML is considered as the missing link between the geology of South Africa, Australia and Indian subcontinent.

The new database covers the area between 20o W and 45o E and was compiled at a scale level of 1:250 000. However, the database provides another scale level of 1:5 000 000 to put the DML in the regional framework of the Gondwana. The geological map is descriptive based on the new topographic dataset of the Landsat 8. The project was based at the Norwegian Polar Institute from 2014 to 2018 and supported by a research grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.

How to cite: Abu-Alam, T. and Elvevold, S.: A compiled open-access geological map of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12872, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12872, 2021.

11:51–11:53
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EGU21-2929
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Milan Lazecky, Yasser Maghsoudi Mehrani, Scott Watson, Yu Morishita, John Elliott, Andrew Hooper, and Tim Wright

Looking Into the Continents from Space with Synthetic Aperture Radar (LiCSAR) is a system built for large-scale interferometric processing of Sentinel-1 data. LiCSAR automatically produces geocoded wrapped and unwrapped interferograms combining every acquisition epoch with four preceding epochs, and complementary data (coherence, amplitude, line-of-sight unit vectors, digital elevation model, metadata, and atmospheric phase screen estimates by the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service, GACOS).

The LiCSAR products are generated in frame units where a standard frame covers ~220x250 km, at 0.001° resolution (WGS-84 coordinate system). Frames are continuously updated for tectonic and volcanic priority areas. In 2020, the LiCSAR system covered about 1,500 global frames in which we have processed over 89,000 Sentinel-1 acquisitions and generated over 300,000 interferograms. Among these, 470 frames cover 1,024 global volcanoes. We aim to cover the global seismic mask defined by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), but focus initially on the Alpine-Himalayan belt and East African Rift.

We serve the products as open and freely accessible through our web portal: https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/comet-lics-portal and aim to provide them to shared infrastructures as the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). We also generate rapid response coseismic interferograms for earthquakes with moment magnitude (Mw)> 5.5  a few hours after the postseismic data become available, and we update frames covering active volcanoes twice per day.

Our products can be directly converted to displacement time series and velocities using  the LiCSBAS time series analysis software. We present solutions implemented in LiCSAR, and show several case studies that use LiCSAR and LiCSBAS products to measure tectonic and volcanic deformation.

How to cite: Lazecky, M., Maghsoudi Mehrani, Y., Watson, S., Morishita, Y., Elliott, J., Hooper, A., and Wright, T.: Sentinel-1 InSAR data by LiCSAR system, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2929, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2929, 2021.

11:53–11:55
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EGU21-7961
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Guillem Subiela, Jordi Peña, Fus Micheo, and Miquel Vilà

Anthropization is the transformation that human actions exert on the environment. Artificial interventions modify the morphology of the ground and affect physical and chemical properties of natural terrain. Therefore, providing information on the distribution of artificial ground throughout the territory is necessary for land management, development and sustainability. Despite the effects of anthropization, from a geological approach, the systematic characterization of anthropic ground on a regional scale is scarcely developed in Catalonia.

In the last decade, one of the lines of work of Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (the Catalan geological survey organisation) has been the development of the project Geoanthropic map of Catalonia, which incorporate information of active geological processes and artificial ground. Up to now, the activity in this project has broadly consisted of publishing several map sheets of 1:25.000 scale from different areas of Catalonia (5.000 km2 from 32.108,2 km2). Recently, in the framework of this project, it is proposed to refocus with the purpose of ​​providing information on these two themes from all over the territory. In this process, in relation to artificial interventions, an analysis has been carried out to determine which anthropic terrains and related information can be obtained for its usefulness in a systematic way in the medium term.

In this analysis, firstly, the available reference information sources have been established from which information on anthropic lands in Catalonia can be extracted. Basically, these documents are topographic maps, geothematic maps, land use map, digital elevation models and other historical cartographic documents. Much of the existing information in these sources must be redirected to a more geological approach so that it can be used to address aspects related to geotechnics, natural hazards, soil pollution and other environmental concerns.

Secondly, based on data analysis, a series of certain anthropic lands have been evaluated which can be captured on a systematic identification at regional scale. Thereby, the following anthropogenic terrains have been established: built-up areas, agricultural areas, sealed ground, urban compacity, worked grounds (e.g., related to mineral excavations and transport infrastructures), engineered embankments, infilled excavations and other more singular anthropogenic deposits. Therefore, from a geological perspective, it will be feasible to identify and map these anthropic lands and provide this information throughout the Catalan territory in the medium term.

Bearing in mind all the above, the presentation will consist of this general analysis and the considerations that have been extracted regarding this. In addition, the preliminary results of the systematically characterized artificial ground will be shown.

How to cite: Subiela, G., Peña, J., Micheo, F., and Vilà, M.: Establishing a systematic regional scale identification of artificial ground in Catalan territory from geological perspective, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7961, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7961, 2021.

11:55–12:30