In this book chapter, Daniel Dörler and Florian Heigl describe first-hand the development of the Österreich forscht platform and the Citizen Science Network Austria from 2013 to the present day.
Journal: Österreichische Gesellschaft für Agrarökonomie ÖGA (Hrsg.), Agrar- und Ernährungssysteme im Wandel: Chancen und Herausforderungen für Landwirtschaft und ländliche Räume
Date of publication: September, 28 2023
Abstract:
Ecosystem services of agricultural landscapes are crucial for long-term human-well-being. Most existing ecosystem services assessments have covered the demand side poorly and non-provisioning ecosystem services are underrepresented. Neglecting demand of ecosystem services yields the risk that areas are prioritized for supply of ecosystem services where benefit for, and thus, demand of society is small.1In the research project ServeToPe, we aim to test methods for ecosystem services demand and supply assessments in a participatory research process in order to inform sustainable landscape governance. First results show that regulating services, such as climate regulation, habitat creation or regulation of freshwater quality and quantity, are particularly interesting for such an analysis in the chosen case study region the Wienerwald.
Citizen science (CS) can foster transformative impact for science, citizen empowerment and socio-political processes. To unleash this impact, a clearer understanding of its current status and challenges for its development is needed. Using quantitative indicators developed in a collaborative stakeholder process, our study provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of CS in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Our online survey with 340 responses focused on CS impact through (1) scientific practices, (2) participant learning and empowerment, and (3) socio-political processes. With regard to scientific impact, we found that data quality control is an established component of CS practice, while publication of CS data and results has not yet been achieved by all project coordinators (55%). Key benefits for citizen scientists were the experience of collective impact (“making a difference together with others”) as well as gaining new knowledge. For the citizen scientists’ learning outcomes, different forms of social learning, such as systematic feedback or personal mentoring, were essential. While the majority of respondents attributed an important value to CS for decision-making, only few were confident that CS data were indeed utilized as evidence by decision-makers. Based on these results, we recommend (1) that project coordinators and researchers strengthen scientific impact by fostering data management and publications, (2) that project coordinators and citizen scientists enhance participant impact by promoting social learning opportunities and (3) that project initiators and CS networks foster socio-political impact through early engagement with decision-makers and alignment with ongoing policy processes. In this way, CS can evolve its transformative impact.
The 7th Austrian Citizen Science Conference once again showed the great diversity of citizen science in the German-speaking world. This editorial gives a brief overview of the many contributions published in the proceedings of the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022.
