Has years of citizen-based nutrient sampling and baseline water quality monitoring efforts only had a "trivial" impact on natural resource management decisions? This thesis will explore this and other findings from a qualitative evaluation of the Rock River Coalition (RRC) citizen-based stream monitoring project in Dane County, Wisconsin, USA. These findings are the culmination of 47 semi-structured interviews with decision-makers from seven client-identified categories and participant observations of board meetings and other watershed groups. Interview questions focused on current strategies of data design and dissemination with the goal of constructing a clearer picture of existing data usage by Dane County decision-makers. In the wider picture of citizen science and community-based research, this case study aims to highlight barriers to data use and potential solutions. The results of this case study were understood through four key frames: (1) Bourdieu's concept of symbolic capital, (2) Barzilai‐Nahon's theory of network gatekeeping, (3) Newman et al.'s framework for leveraging the power of place, and (4) a Foucauldian approach to the production of scientific knowledge. The findings of this study highlight the presence of gatekeeping mechanisms within the scientific field as well as government institutions, problematize the practice of placemaking, assert there is untapped symbolic capital to be wielded by citizen scientists, and trace the "innovation" of volunteer water monitoring data in Dane County.

Over the last century anadromous alewife (Alosa psuedoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), collectively called river herring, suffered drastic declines throughout their range from Newfoundland (Canada) to North Carolina (USA). A 2011 petition to include river herring in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was rejected, partly due to inadequate information towards identifying coast-wide population status. Additionally, knowledge gaps were identified with basic ecology of the river herring life cycle in freshwater, including species reproductive strategies. In Chapter 2, I investigated how body size, spawning arrival time, and sex influence river herring reproductive success. I collaborated with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to introduce adult river herring (421, 266, and 410 individuals in 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively) into Pentucket Pond (Massachusetts, USA), which historically had river herring but is currently inaccessible to upstream migrants. Using fin clips from stocked adult fish and juveniles collected in the lake each summer, I genotyped individuals and constructed pedigrees with 15 microsatellites. River herring had small (mean =1.1) families and spawned multiple times with multiple mates from May to June. Females were more successful than males. Earlier arrival and larger body size were independent indicators of reproductive success. These results provide critical river herring life history information for the freshwater component of population models that will inform management of this at-risk species. Presently, most river herring populations are monitored using data from citizen counts of spawning adults entering freshwater. Involving citizen watershed groups in data collection and may provide ancillary benefits beyond collection of population-level count data. In Chapter 3, I used pre-and post-surveys to assess how involvement in one citizen monitoring program influenced participants’ environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Participants began the program with high scores for broader scientific and pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors. After the program, participants reported increased connection to nature, citizen science involvement, river herring knowledge, and engagement in outdoor recreation. For participants, engagement with nature was the most important program benefit. These results provide an additional case study to the citizen science literature and demonstrate that citizen science programs can help participants connect with the environment.

Cultural heritage makes reference to an extremely diverse set of sources. More specifically, historical artifacts as well as intangible elements of a community’s history, pertain to cultural heritage. However, when looking at the conservation, the enrichment, and the divulgation of these elements, the question becomes more complex. Even more so, when a context of nebulous regulation, unequal distribution of resources and funding of cultural heritage institutions, as well as a bureaucratically complex division of competencies between territories, are present. This is the case in Italy, and more specifically, Southern and Central Italy, where all these issues are present, and further hinder the exploration of undiscovered historical material, as well as the organization and divulgation of discovered material.  Following this discrepancy along the lines of legal and practical restrictions, this thesis aims to explore and evaluate how technology can obviate to said issues. For instance, a methodological exercise was endeavored by scanning some ancient texts, in Latin and in Old Italian, and by running an optical character recognition software on the latter.  More specifically, this thesis applies the paradigm of citizen science for crowdsourcing to explore how well optical character recognition software works in terms of accessibility and efficiency. As such, this methodological exercise does not consist primarily of a technological evaluation but aims at opening up new ways for the public to interact with cultural heritage institutions, for exchanging historical information while respecting the legal and practical considerations that were mentioned. In conclusion, by highlighting this issue, it would be possible to further research and enrich the publicly available data on Italian educational history between the 18th and the 19th Century.

Yes / Whole-systems approaches are being adopted to tackle physical inactivity. The mechanisms contributing to changes resulting from whole-systems approaches are not fully understood. The voices of children and families that these approaches are designed for need to be heard to understand what is working, for whom, where and in what context. This paper describes the protocol for the children and families' citizen science evaluation of the Join Us: Move, Play (JU:MP) programme, a whole-systems approach to increasing physical activity in children and young people aged 5-14 years in Bradford, UK. The evaluation aims to understand the lived experiences of children and families' relationship with physical activity and participation in the JU:MP programme. The study takes a collaborative and contributory citizen science approach, including focus groups, parent-child dyad interviews and participatory research. Feedback and data will guide changes within this study and the JU:MP programme. We also aim to examine participant experience of citizen science and the suitability of a citizen science approach to evaluate a whole-systems approach. Data will be analysed using framework approach alongside iterative analysis with and by citizen scientists in the collaborative citizen science study. Ethical approval has been granted by the University of Bradford: study one (E891-focus groups as part of the control trial, E982-parent-child dyad interviews) and study two (E992). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and summaries will be provided to the participants, through schools or directly. The citizen scientists will provide input to create further dissemination opportunities.

The need to better comprehend the relationship between societies and the hydrological cycle led scientists to develop sophisticated mathematical models in order to predict how these relationships will be in the future. However, some transformations might not be predicted in such socio-hydrological models, what makes necessary to search for new methods to build scenarios. In this way, the present work seeks to understand how societies will change the way they deal with water resources regarding different drivers of change, such as population growth, changes in climate, land cover, patterns of consumption and influence of governmental institutions. To do so, this work employs not only official data sets that are public available, but also information provided by citizens through citizen observatories concepts of crowdsourcing, participatory governance and environmental monitoring. Such volunteered information is based on their own experiences, knowledge and individual patterns regarding water management and sanitation aspects from the study area, São Carlos city. The conclusions reveal that the new tool presented in this work, the Socio-Hydrological Observatory for Water Security (SHOWS), makes possible to outline future trajectories of coevolution in coupled human-water system and provide assessment on water security scenarios. This work integrates the water security component facing climate changes, from INCT-MC2 (FAPESP 2014/50848-9), contributes to better comprehend socio hydrological aspects in UK Academies (FAPESP 2018/03473-0) and provides a new tool, the SHOWS, which assists decision makers in resilient cities, in the context of CEPID/CEMEAI (FAPESP 2011/51305-0) e do SPRINT-Warwick (FAPESP 2018/08413-6). At international level, it is a contribution to the activities of \"Panta Rhei – Everything Flows 2013-2022\", promoted by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, which seeks to understand, estimate and predict the hydrological dynamics to support societies under change. / A necessidade de compreender as relações entre as sociedades e o ciclo hidrológico levou cientistas a elaborarem sofisticados modelos matemáticos para prever como estas relações serão no futuro. Porém, determinadas transformações podem não ser previstas nestes modelos sócio-hidrológicos, sendo necessário recorrer a novos métodos para elaborar cenários. Desta maneira, o presente trabalho busca entender como as sociedades irão modificar a maneira que lidam com os recursos hídricos frente aos vetores de mudanças, como crescimento demográfico, alterações climáticas, mudanças do uso e ocupação do solo, influência de instituições governamentais e padrões de consumo da população. Para isto, este trabalho emprega não somente o uso de dados oficiais, disponibilizados em plataformas públicas, mas também as informações fornecidas por cidadãos através dos conceitos dos observatórios cidadãos, como crowdsourcing, governança participativa e monitoramento ambiental. Estas informações voluntárias são baseadas em suas experiências, conhecimentos e padrões individuais em relação a aspectos necessários a gestão dos recursos hídricos e dos sistemas de saneamento da área de estudo, o município de São Carlos. Ao fim, conclui-se que, a partir da ferramenta Observatório Sócio Hidrológico para Segurança Hídrica (SHOWS), é possível interpretar possíveis trajetórias de coevolução entre os sistemas sociais e naturais de maneira a avaliar os cenários de segurança hídrica. Este estudo integra a componente de segurança hídrica frente às mudanças climáticas do INCT-MC2 (FAPESP 2014/50848-9), contribui para a compreensão dos aspectos sócio hidrológicos do UK Academies (FAPESP 2018/03473-0), além de testar uma nova ferramenta, o SHOWS, que serve de auxílio à tomada de decisão em cidades resilientes, no contexto do CEPID/CEMEAI (FAPESP 2011/51305-0) e do SPRINT-Warwick (FAPESP 2018/08413-6). Em âmbito internacional, é uma contribuição às atividades da década científica \"Panta Rhei – Everything Flows 2013-2022\", promovida pela International Association of Hydrological Sciences, a qual busca entender, estimar e prever dinâmicas hidrológicas para apoiar sociedades sob mudanças.

The current paper presents a study conducted at At-Bristol Science Centre, UK. It is a front-end evaluation for the “Live Science Zone” at At-Bristol, which will be built during the autumn of 2004. It will provide a facility for programmed events and shows, non-programmed investigative activities and the choice of passive or active exploration of current scientific topics. The main aim of the study is to determine characteristics of what kind of techniques to use in the Live Science Zone. The objectives are to explore what has already been done at At-Bristol, and what has been done at other science centres, and to identify successful devices. The secondary aim is mapping what sorts of topics that visitors are actually interested in debating. The methods used in the study are deep qualitative interviews with professionals working within the field of science communication in Europe and North America, and questionnaires answered by visitors to At-Bristol. The results show that there are some gaps between the intentions of the professionals and the opinions of the visitors, in terms of opportunities and willingness for dialogue in science centre activities. The most popular issue was Future and the most popular device was Film.

Nourrir les oiseaux dans les jardins privés est une activité très répandue en Occident. Elle fournit une remarquable opportunité de recherche et de suivi des populations d’oiseaux en hiver sur de larges échelles spatio-temporelles, en impliquant les citoyens dans des programmes de science participative. Nous avons utilisé le programme Oiseaux des Jardins, un programme de science participative coordonné par la Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux, pour étudier sur une grande échelle spatiale les variations d’abondance d’oiseaux en hiver dans les jardins qui fournissent de la nourriture. Le but de cette thèse est de comprendre quels paramètres peuvent expliquer les visites des oiseaux dans les jardins en hiver, saison traditionnellement considérée comme la plus décisive pour leur survie. Nous montrons que les jardins distribuant de la nourriture, proches de milieux agricoles intensifs, attirent les oiseaux en réponse à une raréfaction des ressources alimentaires naturelles, causée par l’intensité des pratiques agricoles. Cette relation est encore plus forte pour les espèces spécialistes des milieux agricoles. Les variations d’abondance d’oiseaux dans les jardins fluctuent selon les années et les conditions météorologiques, sans présenter de pattern de réponse commun entre espèces, en raison de leur biologie et écologie différentes. Ce suivi des oiseaux en hiver reflète également la tendance négative de population de plusieurs granivores, connue en France ou en Europe en période de reproduction, confirmant que l’utilisation des jardins avec mangeoires est un bon moyen de suivre les tendances des populations d’oiseaux. Nous suspectons que les variations d’abondances à l’échelle spatiale peuvent également refléter l’effet d’activités humaines, telles que le braconnage des passereaux, mais un travail supplémentaire est nécessaire pour confirmer cette hypothèse. Les résultats de cette thèse peuvent également aider au maintien des espèces granivores en déclin, en apportant des conseils adaptés à la distribution de nourriture de substitution pour les oiseaux dans les paysages agricoles intensifs, tout en continuant à engager le public dans le suivi et la protection de la nature. / Supplementary feeding of wild birds in private backyards is a globally widespread pastime. It provides a wonderful opportunity for research and survey of winter bird populations at spatial and temporal large-scales by involving householders in citizen science programs. We used data from the French national garden birdwatch scheme, a citizen science program operated by the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux, to study winter bird abundance variations in gardens which provided food supply, at a large spatial scale. This thesis aims to understand which factors influence the visit of gardens by birds during winter, a season traditionally pointed out to have the greatest impact on passerine survival. We highlighted that gardens with feeders located close to intensively cultivated farmland attract birds as a response of the countryside natural resource scarcity leads by intensive agricultural practices. This relationship being stronger for farmland seedeater species. Variations in the use of garden by birds also fluctuate between years and with weather conditions, but the variations were not similar among species. This being consistent with the expected influence of their ecological and biological differences. This garden bird survey in winter also reflected the global negative trends observed for some granivorous species in France or Europe during the breeding season, confirming that the use of garden bird feeders by wild bird species offers a new tool to survey the global population trends. We also suspect that variation in abundance could mirror spatial differences, and maybe mirror human activities impacts such as poaching, but this part requires further investigation. Finally, our work could be beneficial for maintaining declining seedeater species, by advising to supply birds with winter food in garden located in intensive agricultural landscape, while continuing to engage the public with nature.

The impacts of climate change on temperate forests are predicted to accelerate, with widespread implications for forest biodiversity and function. Remote sensing has provided insights into regional patterns of vegetation dynamics, and experimental studies have demonstrated impacts of specific changes on individual species. However, forests are diverse and complex ecosystems. To understand how different species in different forests respond to interacting environmental pressures, widespread ground-based monitoring is needed. The only practical way to achieve this is through the involvement of non-professional researchers, i.e., with citizen science. However, many techniques used to identify subtle changes in forests require expensive equipment and professional expertise. This thesis aimed to identify practical methods for citizen scientists to collect useful data on forest ecosystem dynamics in relation to climate change. Methods for monitoring tree phenology and canopy-understorey interactions were the main focus, as tree phenology exerts strong control on understorey light and forest biodiversity, and is already responding to climate change. The response of understorey vegetation to canopy closure in four woodlands from a single region of England (Devon) was examined in detail. These geographically close woodlands differed considerably in their composition and seasonal dynamics. The spring period was particularly important for herb-layer development, and small variations in canopy openness had important effects on herb-layer cover and composition. This work highlights the need to monitor a range of different woodlands at the regional scale, with sufficient resolution to pick up small but crucial differences through time. Citizen scientists could help to collect such data by monitoring herb-layer cover and changes in the abundance of key species, alongside monitoring the overstorey canopy. The spring leaf phenology of four canopy trees (ash, beech, oak and sycamore) were monitored intensively in one woodland using a range of methods: counts, percentage estimates and photography. First budburst and leaf expansion dates were compared with estimates of leaf expansion timing and rate, derived from time-series data using logistic growth models. Frequently used first-event dates were potentially misleading due to high variation in leaf development rates within and between species. Percentage estimates and counts produced similar estimates of leaf expansion timing and rate. A photo-derived greenness index produced similar estimates of timing, but not rate, and was compromised by practical issues of photographing individual crowns in closed canopy woodland. Citizen science should collect time-series data instead of frequently-used first event dates―visual observations offer the most practical way to do this, but further work is needed to test reliability with citizen scientists. Given high intra- and inter-species variation in tree phenology, whole forest canopies need to be monitored to infer canopy closure timing. Canopy openness was assessed using sophisticated hemispherical photography and a range of low-cost alternatives, across four Devon woodlands over a year. Visual estimates and ordinary photography were too coarse to identify fine-scale variation in canopies. Smartphone fisheye photography analysed with free software was identified as a reliable surrogate for estimating relative, though not absolute, canopy openness. The method has high potential as a citizen science tool, as different phone models and users gave similar canopy openness estimates. In a detailed follow-up study, smartphone fisheye photography, hemispherical photography and visual observations of leaf expansion were used every other day to characterise spring canopy development. Logistic growth models estimated canopy closure timing and rate. Visual observations identified much earlier canopy development than either photographic method. Smartphone fisheye photography performed comparably to hemispherical photography. There is good potential for practical application of smartphone fisheye photography, as similar canopy closure estimates were gained from photos taken once every two weeks. The research in this thesis identifies a range of methods suitable for widespread monitoring of forest ecosystem dynamics in relation to climate change. Developing a smartphone app for automatic analysis and submission of canopy images will be an important next step to enabling widespread use. A pilot project is underway to begin testing methods with citizen scientists. Further research into data quality with citizen scientists is needed before the methods can be rolled out widely with confidence.

abstract: This action research study examines what common perceptions and constructs currently exist in educating adult immigrants in Arizona and considers how might the integration of citizen science with the current English curriculum promote higher order thinking and educational equity in this population. A citizen science project called the Mastodon Matrix Project was introduced to a Level 2 ELAA (English Language Acquisition for Adults) classroom and aligned with the Arizona Adult Standards for ELAA education. Pre and post attitudinal surveys, level tests, and personal meaning maps were implemented to assess student attitudes towards science, views on technology, English skills, and knowledge gained as a result of doing citizen science over a period of 8 weeks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

Citizen science offers a potentially powerful tool for the environmental scientist to access large data sets over increasingly greater time scales. Given the ease of which information can be reported or shared online and the increase in community interest there is an overwhelming amount of data available. But two major questions remain; is the data reliable and how is it best used? This study addresses the first question by testing the ability of such data from Artportalen, Sweden’s Species Gateway for reporting observations of birds (and other flora and fauna), to reflect patterns in the presence and absence of breeding records of Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) and Eurasian Teal (Annas crecca). This was done by undertaking wetland assessments in a set of constructed wetland sites from Artportalen in Halland, Southern Sweden, with breeding records of the target species. A literature review was also undertaken to explore the existing ecological knowledge of breeding habitat requirements for each species. Physical and biological characteristics from the wetlands visited were then qualitatively compared to the existing ecological knowledge for each species’ preferred breeding habitat. This method resulted in some support for the reliability of this particular Citizen Science data, in that it reflected Tufted Duck’s preference to breed in wetlands closer to the coast, that provided some form of cover or screening around the edges and which had a large proportion of their shoreline bordered by tall emergent vegetation. Conversely, it reflected Eurasian Teal’s preference for inland wetlands that were closer to relatively open natural freshwater bodies, where tall emergent vegetation wasn’t as abundant. How this and other Citizen Science data can be used in the design and management of constructed wetlands for conservation purposes in light of these results is then discussed.