Citizen science is science done by members of the public, usually with professional scientific institutions. It lets people take on real scientific problems, widens the coverage of data collection, and cuts the cost of fieldwork in remote places — and what volunteers gather helps everyone understand how the natural world works and how it is changing. The U.S. Geological Survey is a leading federal agency in citizen science, as these Alaska examples show.
Natural hazards
Did You Feel It? An app that turns reports from people who felt an earthquake into a real-time map, helping the public and emergency responders understand its effects. It fills in areas with no seismic instruments and helps refine the instrument data behind ShakeMap — near-real-time maps of ground motion and shaking — and PAGER alerts, which estimate possible deaths and economic losses worldwide.
A Did You Feel It? map of the magnitude 7.1 Anchorage earthquake of November 30, 2018, built from reports by nearly 3,000 citizen scientists.
Citizen Network Ash Collection and Observation Program. The Alaska Volcano Observatory lets Alaskans report volcanic ash they see; the reports go to the National Weather Service to track where plumes are heading and guide ashfall advisories. People can also collect ash samples and send them in, greatly widening the observatory's sampling.
Mapping
The National Map Corps. A crowd-sourced app for adding and checking details of built structures in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Volunteers' edits feed the USGS National Structures Database, The National Map and US Topo maps.
Water quality and streamflow
- Indigenous Observation Network (ION). Started by the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council and the USGS, it builds on USGS research infrastructure and data to study changes in surface-water chemistry and permafrost across the Yukon River Basin. More than 300 trained Indigenous residents collect water samples and measure the active layer — maximum thaw depth, soil temperature and moisture. The data feed global work on Arctic river fluxes and their links to the carbon cycle, weathering and thawing permafrost.
- Strategic Needs of Water on the Yukon (SNOWY). Scientists from many fields, agencies, non-profits, universities and communities of the Lower Yukon River Basin and Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta collect regional snow, ice and water data to tell the story of environmental change there.
- Transboundary rivers of southeast Alaska. Mines developed and operating in Canada have raised interest in the quantity and quality of water in watersheds that cross the border. The USGS works with local tribes and other federal agencies to assess the geology and mineral potential and to measure water, sediment and biological quality — information to help predict how future mining may change water quality.
Water technicians sample carbon dioxide from the Tanana River, March 2007, for the Indigenous Observation Network. USGS photograph, public domain.
Wildlife, fish and habitat
| Project | What it does |
|---|---|
| Local Environmental Observer Network (LEO) | started by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; people share environmental observations and get explanations from experts in many organisations, the USGS among them |
| Looking Forward, Looking Back — Building Resilience Today | works with tribal leaders and environmental staff to build resilience to environmental events, drawing on Indigenous knowledge: understanding change on tribal lands, learning planning tools, recording traditional knowledge |
| Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Berry Outlook | berries matter to Alaska Natives and to the delta's huge migratory bird population; with tribal councils in four communities, the USGS recorded local knowledge of where berries grow and how many, to improve ecological models and forecasts under future climates |
| ScienceTapes | records conversations about collaborations that improved understanding of Alaska's landscapes — with scientists, students, managers, community members, politicians, elders and journalists — archived with StoryCorps and the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center |
| Climate impacts on Alaskan and Yukon rivers, fish and communities | builds understanding of hydrologic change in a warming Arctic through close partnership with Native groups: community-based river monitoring, community oversight, ethnographic methods and computer simulations |
Tribal liaison Malinda Chase works with community members on a climate-change visualization for Looking Forward, Looking Back. Photograph by Molly Tankersly, U.S. Geological Survey.
Sources
- Powers, E., and Williams, D., 2020, Citizen science collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2020–3026. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/fs20203026
- The photographs and map come from the fact sheet's PDF.
- Rewritten in hubnx's own words.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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