Earthwatch Seminar hosted by water@leeds and School of Civil Engineering

water@leeds and the School of Civil Engineering invite you to a seminar by Earthwatch.

About Earthwatch
Earthwatch (http://eu.earthwatch.org/) has a long history (since the 1970s) in the development and delivery of citizen science projects for volunteers, teachers and corporate businesses. Our mission is to bring people, communities and expert scientists together in doing impactful research. We work in freshwater, marine, agricultural, forest and urban landscapes, with a focus on pollution, climate change, over exploitation, habitat loss and invasive species.

Dr Wim Clymans and Luis Felipe Velasquez are responsible for the development, design and management of the freshwater related projects at Earthwatch. Presently, we offer engagement programs that focus on the water quality of aquatic systems, and flood risk management in urban areas. For example, FreshWater Watch (https://freshwaterwatch.thewaterhub.org/) is a successful global citizen science project examining freshwater quality on a scale never seen before, with 18000 data points from over 35 countries (and counting). FreshWater Watch engages participants in freshwater sustainability issues by combining a field experience with an innovative online Platform for collecting, sharing and disseminating research data. We also support the development of new sensor based methods for citizen science projects within the same domains. In addition, we develop platforms and frameworks to promote the accessibility, exchange and use of water related data by researchers, water interest groups, environmental agencies and policy-makers. All our activities are performed in collaboration with various universities, governmental bodies, NGO’s, corporate organisations and communities. An example is the CatchX project, which in collaboration with the University of Leeds, will translate existing scientific data from global models and remote sensing products into a web platform. CatchX aims to enable decision makers at a river catchment level to have access to the latest cutting-edge information to address urgent water resource challenges faced all over the world.
We are always interested in expanding our research and citizen science engagement projects, and are particularly looking to collaborate on projects that evaluate the implementation of green infrastructure, ecological interventions and groundtruthing new methodologies with respect to water quality and flood risk management. The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of our activities with respect to water-related issues, and to open up the discussion for future collaborations.