GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper Citizen Science Data 2017–2020

Abstract

Citizen science is a form of public participation in scientific research where volunteer members of the public and research scientists collaborate to address real world problems (Bonney et al., 2009(Bonney et al., , 2014Shirk et al., 2012). In the last decade, participatory research projects have grown in popularity with the public, with millions of people volunteering on projects every year (Bowser et al., 2020;Callaghan et al., 2019). Increasingly, scientists are using citizen science data in their research that spans biological conservation to mapping galaxies (McKinley et al., 2017;Shanley, 2020). Recently, the value of the volume, velocity, and variety of data created by non-specialist volunteers using personal mobile devices has also attracted the attention of public health researchers (Katapally, 2020;Wang et al., 2019). When it comes to pandemics,

The potential of citizen science data to complement satellite and airborne lidar tree height measurements: lessons from The GLOBE Program

“…We note that these observations are a result of significant experience with GO data (Dodson et al 2019, Colón Robles et al 2020, Kohl et al 2021, Low et al 2021 and analyses between airborne lidar, ICESat-2, and GO Trees data limited to this study. Additionally, while smart phone GPS measurements are improving with most being at best accurate to within 4 m, an analysis of GO data found an average location accuracy of 14.5 m. Given the 13 m ICESat-2 photon pulse footprint, this means that GO Trees measurements within the footprint may not be resolvable or may be misleading.…”

“…In-app tools for each of the protocols guide volunteers through environmental data collection in which users take geotagged photographs and answer questions to document and classify clouds (Colón Robles et al 2020), eclipse conditions (Dodson et al 2019), mosquito habitats (Low et al 2021), or land cover (Kohl et al 2021). GO Trees is unique among the other tools because tagged photos are not the primary data collected, but rather it uses a smartphone's gyroscope and user input to calculate and estimate tree height.…”

Building International Capacity for Citizen Scientist Engagement in Mosquito Surveillance and Mitigation: The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper

“…Low et al presented GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper data submitted by citizen scientists during 2017–2020 [ 26 ]. In the Mosquito Habitat Mapper’s first three years of use (29 May 2017–28 May 2020, over 24,000 data observations were reported.…”

“…Citizen scientists may be asked to mail in specimens, or upload data using a web platform or mobile app. A few projects seek to engage youths in surveillance [ 20 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 48 ], and some specifically mention a commitment to open data access [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 32 , 33 , 38 , 41 ].…”

Using Community Science to Better Understand Lead Exposure Risks

“…While individual variables such as housing age and automobile traffic near homes have been shown to be correlated with indoor dust Pb concentrations (e.g., Meyer et al., 1999 ; Rasmussen et al., 2011 ), variables have not been collectively applied in a predictive model across multiple states and cities in the U.S. Additionally, we sought to utilize this predictive model as part of an interactive mobile app to encourage greater community engagement for household Pb screening, which can not only help individuals gain agency in possible Pb mitigation measures, but can also help policymakers and the community at large better understand where/how to focus household Pb intervention efforts. As community science apps have begun to gain traction in fields such as biology and ecology (e.g., https://www.inaturalist.org/ and https://ebird.org/home ), and have even helped both community scientists and researchers combat disease vectors such as mosquitoes (Low et al., 2021 ), we wanted to explore the potential applicability in the realm of household‐level environmental pollution.…”