Citizen science monitoring reunion

14 October 2021

A second citizen science monitoring meeting was organized on 14 October 2021. The purpose of this reunion was to be the first to give the volunteers a glamps of what happens exactly with the information that is collected. In addition, also sharing experiences with downloading the data.

The information collected so far has been presented to representatives of several agencies, such as the Meteorological Service, the Spatial Planning and Environment Directorates of the Ministry of spatial planning and environment (ROM), and the Public Green and Waste Management Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works. Subsequently, the usefulness of the collected information was discussed by these authorities.

Data and collected information

The volunteers have been collecting information for 5 months now. They could What exactly happens to that information and how it is processed after they have sent it they were allowed to see during this meeting.
The most important thing was how they could view the processed information themselves. This can recently be found on our adapted maps page on the project website and is accessible to everyone. Click here for the data.

In addition, it was also discussed with the volunteers how monitoring is going up until now and what could be improved. Despite some technical problems and the monitoring challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic earlier in the year, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Use of the data

The representatives of the various authorities present, indicated in what ways the collected data can be useful to them. For example, the information related to irregularities is directly usable for the Public Green and Waste Management Directorate, because of their maintenance work. The temperature data is also relevant because the lack of cooling in certain locations can be an indication for planting of more greenery.
The temperature data, which is collected and processed according to a protocol based on the guidelines of the World Meteorological Organization, has also proved relevant as reference data for the Surinamese Meteorological Service.
The usage information about green locations is relevant as an indication of social interaction needs for the Directorate of Spatial Planning.

Some points cited for improvement:

• Collect over longer time series
• A validation process is always useful and makes the information appear more reliable.

This meeting was important for the project partners because next year, further efforts will be made to improve and expand the existing citizen science monitoring network.