Citizen Science
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Citizen Science for observing soil erosion
Description
EUROSION includes a Citizen Science approach to enhance the monitoring and understanding of soil erosion across European agricultural landscapes. Citizen science involves a collaborative approach, where volunteers collect data to aid research.
EUROSION will develop a co-designed citizen science project for better understanding soil erosion. Through co-design, volunteers will help shape the project with how they would like to collect data, the frequency, when and where, based on their motivations and capacities. We will adopt a pragmatic approach to co-design, based on existing principles. The approach will also be informed by the European Citizen Science Association’s 10 principles for citizen science.
For water erosion, findings from citizen scientists, combined with drone-based surveys, will provide detailed insight into erosion and sedimentation patterns and allow comparison with spatial model outputs.
For wind erosion, citizen generated observations will complement drone data to improve understanding of spatial erosion dynamics.
Across all topics, the data collected through citizen science will play a critical role in calibrating and validating the project’s modelling tools. This is in addition to boosting soil literacy among citizens, which is a core goal of the EU’s Mission Soil.
A standardized citizen science data collection protocol, developed by the University of Gloucestershire (UoG) with input from volunteers and support from VARDA, will guide all field activities. The protocol will ensure that observations are consistent, usable, and aligned with the capacities and time constraints of participating volunteers.
As the approach is being co-designed, the exact methods and approach will be developed over time. Example methods may involve field surveys, including photo-based documentation and standardized observations of erosion indicators, or direct measurements using sediment fences or pins. These efforts will capture both water and wind erosion patterns, generating erosion class assessments at the scale of individual farmers’ fields, either at the end of each cropping season or following major weather events.
More information to come in late 2026, as the protocol will be validated at M12 of the project (November 2026). Feel free to contact the team at the University of Gloucestershire, Countryside Community Research Institute (CCRI) for further information.
