Earth Observation & Citizen Science (GEO-Wiki)

The Geo-Wiki tool provides citizens with the means to engage in environmental monitoring of the earth by providing feedback on existing information overlaid on satellite imagery or by contributing entirely new data.

Data can be input via multiple platforms and devices, with campaigns and games used to incentivize input.

FAST FACTS

• Since 2009, Geo-Wiki has grown rapidly, with currently over 15,000 registered users and applications in many successful citizen science campaigns.
• Most recently Geo-Wiki has crowdsourcing the drivers of tropical forest loss data, helping to orient environmentally conscious policies.
• Geo-Wiki has many ongoing projects that bring together the field of Earth Observation and citizen science, including several citizen observatories funded by the EU, which are developing new services such as land cover change detection, quality assurance of citizen science data, supporting local food growers and more. 
  

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How Geo-Wiki works

The Geo-Wiki portal offers all citizen scientists the opportunity to participate in environmental monitoring of the earth's surface by evaluating satellite and aerial images in detail.

Citizen scientists can take part in the regular campaigns and games either with their private mobile phone or via computer.

By using these innovative techniques, Geo-Wiki has been used to successfully integrate citizen-derived data sources with expert and authoritative data.

Geo-Wiki projects

Projects using the Geo-Wiki tool include:

High ILUC-Lot 1 -The High Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) Lot 1 project aims to quantify feedstock expansion onto land with high carbon stock, as input for the determination of high ILUC fuels. The project provides technical assistance to and is financed by the European Commission (DG-Energy).

LandSense - The LandSense Citizen Observatory aims to aggregate innovative EO technologies to empower communities to monitor and report on their environment.

GROW - A European-wide project engaging thousands of growers, scientists and others passionate about the land. We will discover together, using simple tools to better manage soil and grow food.

WeObserve - WeObserve is an H2020 Coordination and Support Action (CSA) which tackles three key challenges that Citizens Observatories (COs) face: awareness, acceptability and sustainability.

Adapt UHI - Urban heat islands and climate change are having an impact on smart urban development. ADAPT-UHI will help to identify targeted mitigation and adaptation measures.

FloodCitiSense - FloodCitiSense aims at developing an urban pluvial flood early warning service for, but also by citizens and city authorities. This service will reduce the vulnerability of urban areas and citizens.

Copernicus Global Land Cover - The project aims to develop annual global land cover maps with a 100m resolution consistent over time, and has been tracking land cover changes since 2015.

CIMMYT collaboration - A collaborative project between IIASA and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico to support efforts of sustainable agricultural intensification with mobile crowdsourcing.

Zurich Flood Resilience - The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance is a global alliance which aims to improve the resilience of communities around the globe to hazards associated with flooding.

Restore+ - Restore+ combines remote sensing with crowdsourced information on biophysical and social complexity of degraded land. The information will assess restoration options with multi-objective models.