MoRe4nature: Empowering citizen science for environmental conservation
The EU-funded project More4nature aims to give citizen science a greater role in nature conservation. The aim is to strengthen citizen science initiatives in providing relevant and reliable field data. In this way, the data can become a full part of environmental compliance assurance.
Citizen science initiatives are an innovative way to collect data and to strengthen science. At the same time, it actively involves citizens in the sustainable management of our natural environment. Unfortunately actions of citizens striving for environmental compliance are too often hampered by a lack of capacities and common methodology. Moreover, the quality of the data collected is too often questioned.
More4nature aims to renew nature conservation by strengthening the capacity of existing citizen science initiatives. The project aims to strengthen citizen science by enabling them to provide relevant and reliable data, and ensuring that the contributions are useful for environmental monitoring.
To achieve this, the More4nature project will collaborate with a large number of existing citizen science initiatives interested in scaling up and institutionalizing their contribution to environmental compliance.
More4nature is committed to making a lasting impact by involving as many as 162 existing citizen science projects, as well as Living Labs and Fab Labs, during the project duration. A total of 98 authorities and national agencies in 40 cases on different continents (Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa) are also involved in the project.
Year: 2024 – 2027
Project partners: IHE and CREAF - coordination, Coastwatch, Dreamocracy, EarthWatch, ECSA, FCID, Forests of the World, IAAC, KSA, NECU, NILU, NIOO, NIVA, NORDECO, RIVM, TRACASA, UCPH, UN WCMC, Vizzuality
Website: more4nature
VITO's role
VITO leads case studies on air and water quality
VITO is leading case studies under the zero pollution pillar, with a focus on using citizen-generated data to promote, monitor and enforce air and water quality regulations. This work will start in 2025 and we invite existing citizen science initiatives on air and water quality to contact us. For this initiative, VITO also draws on the knowledge gained in other citizen science projects such as Curieuzeneuzen, Meet Mee Mechelen and Stiemerlab.
In addition, VITO will collaborate on the development of technical solutions to effectively monitor environmental compliance with citizen data. More specifically, we are looking at techniques for interpolating sensor data and the use of sensor data in models using data fusion.
