Search

The Horizon 2020 project, LandSense, is a modern citizen observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, that connects citizens with Earth Observation (EO) data to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. Citizen Observatories are community-driven mechanisms to complement existing environmental monitoring systems and can be fostered through EO-based mobile and web applications, allowing citizens to not only play a key role in LULC monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such solutions. Within LandSense, citizens can participate in ongoing demonstration pilots using their own devices (e.g. mobile phones and tablets), through interactive reporting, gaming applications and mapathons. Campaigns in Vienna, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Serbia, Spain and Indonesia address topics such as urban greenspaces, agricultural management and biodiversity/habitat threat monitoring. For example, in the case of Toulouse and Indonesia, hotspots of change in LULC are identified through Sentinel 2 time series analysis. These hotspots are then validated by citizens and interested stakeholders either directly on-site via customized mobile applications, providing geotagged photos, or remotely via the online LandSense Engagement platform. The presentation will not only showcase the tools and results from these campaigns, but also highlight how citizen-driven observations can contribute to sustainable development. Such initiatives present clear opportunities to integrate citizen-driven observations with established authoritative data sources to further extend GEOSS and Copernicus capacities, and support comprehensive environmental monitoring systems. In addition, these applications have considerable potential in lowering expenditure costs on in-situ data collection and current calibration/validation approaches within the processing chain of environmental monitoring activities both within and beyond Europe.&nbsp

The data repository for the manuscript 'Characterizing land use impacts on carbon stocks and tree cover in the tropics', submitted for peer-review to Global Biogeochemical Cycles (04.09.2020).

This document has been created by the community of Citizen Observatories and Citizen Science practitioners, as well as key collaborators that attended the Citizen Science working session in the EuroGEO Workshop taking place on July 3-5th, 2019 at the Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon (Portugal). The event was co-organised by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Commission (EC). This document summarises the current status of Citizen Science in GEO/GEOSS, reflects the vision, and objectives; identifies issues that are blocking its progress and proposes a way forward shared by the Citizen Observatories and Citizen Science projects under the EuroGEO community. Then, it proposes a shared vision, a clear set of objectives and some actions that will pave the way to progress towards that shared vision, based on aggregating citizen science into a federation of data services supported by the Citizen Science community activity in the GEO work program that represents the citizen science community. Finally, it defines a list of recommendations to the European Commission to improve the integration of the European Citizen Science and Citizen Observatories into GEOSS. It thereby emphasises regional strength and competences without losing sight of global collaborations.

This deliverable focuses on documenting the activities undertaken within Task 2.1 of WP2-INVOLVE: Stakeholder inclusion and citizen engagement. The main objectives of this task were to identify: relevant stakeholders in each demonstration case across all proposed locations; their needs in relation to given issues that LandSense could help address, together with their user requirements regarding the LandSense Citizen Observatory; engagement strategies and barriers.

Im Laufe eines Jahres wurde von der Arbeitsgruppe für Qualitätskriterien des Citizen Science Network Austria ein Kriterienkatalog für Citizen Science Projekte auf Österreich forscht erstellt. Aus diesem Katalog wurden Fragen entwickelt, welche den Projektleiterinnen und Projektleitern von Projekten auf Österreich forscht helfen sollen, die Kriterien zu erfüllen. Durch die Beantwortung der Fragen werden einerseits wichtige Themen bei der Durchführung eines Projektes angesprochen und können so auch durch die Projektleitung berücksichtigt werden, andererseits helfen die Antworten potentiellen Projektteilnehmerinnen und -teilnehmern dabei, auf Basis der dargestellten Informationen eine informierte Entscheidung über eine Teilnahme treffen zu können. Projektleiterinnen und -leiter bekommen diesen Fragenkatalog zugeschickt und senden die Antworten wieder zurück an Österreich forscht. Die Plattformkoordinatoren lesen die Antworten, beraten sich gegebenenfalls mit der AG für Qualitätskriterien und halten bei bestehenden Unklarheiten Rücksprache mit den Projektleiterinnen und -leitern zwecks Klärung und eventueller Hilfestellung. Ziel dieses Prozesses ist es nicht, einzelne Projekte auszuschließen, sondern gemeinsam die Qualität der Citizen Science Merkmale der Projekte zu sichern und eventuell sogar zu erhöhen. Ein offener Dialog und Austausch und ein respektvoller Umgang von allen Beteiligten ist dafür die Voraussetzung. Florian Heigl und Daniel Dörler

In the course of one year the working group for quality criteria of the Citizen Science Network Austria developed a catalogue of criteria for citizen science projects on the platform Österreich forscht. From this catalogue questions were generated, which should help the project leaders of projects in Austria to fulfil the criteria. By answering the questions, important topics are addressed during the implementation of a project and can thus also be considered by the project management. On the other hand, the answers help potential project participants to make an informed decision about participation on the basis of the information presented. Project leaders receive this catalogue of questions and send the answers back to Österreich forscht. The platform coordinators read the answers, consult with the Working Group for Quality Criteria if necessary and contact the project leaders in case of ambiguities for clarification and possible assistance. The aim of this process is not to exclude individual projects, but to jointly ensure the quality of the citizen science characteristics of the projects and eventually even increase them. An open dialogue and exchange and a respectful interaction between all participants is the prerequisite for this.

The platform Österreich forscht (www.citizen-science.at) was founded in 2014 with the objectives of (1) connecting citizen science actors in Austria, (2) providing the broadest possible overview of citizen science projects in Austria, and (3) scientifically advancing citizen science as a method. Following the initiative of the platform Österreich forscht, many of the institutions that are active in citizen science joined forces in the Citizen Science Network Austria in 2017, and thus agreed to advance the quality of citizen science in Austria (http://www.citizen-science.at/the-platform/the-network). An important step in this regard was the establishment of transparent criteria for projects wishing to be listed on the platform Österreich forscht. The objective of these criteria is to maintain and further improve the quality of the projects presented on the platform. Between March 2017 and February 2018, a working group of the platform Österreich forscht consisting of representatives from 17 institutions developed criteria that allow for the transparent evaluation of projects applying to be listed on Österreich forscht. This was a multi-stage process, building both on the knowledge of the working group members as well as on feedback repeatedly provided by external experts from the respective research fields. Throughout October 2017, a version of the quality criteria was available for public online consultation on the platform Österreich forscht, so as to incorporate the knowledge of the general public into the criteria as well. The final version of the quality criteria was presented at the 4th Austrian Citizen Science Conference, 1-3 February 2018, at which point the criteria also came into effect. Projects already listed on Österreich forscht can adapt to meet the criteria over the next year. Projects wishing to be newly listed on Österreich forscht must meet these criteria at the point of listing. Where necessary, the quality criteria will be adapted in the future, in order to respond to new challenges and developments. The version number, i.e. which version of the criteria a project corresponds to, will be indicated on the respective project page. The first part of the criteria is primarily aimed at establishing what defines a citizen science project. Here, we decided on a negative list (i.e. projects that are NOT citizen science), in order to be as open as possible to different concepts and disciplines. This implies that we call all projects citizen science, which are not excluded by this negative list. The professional background of the person leading the project is not crucial as long as the criteria are complied by the project. The criteria in the second part are to be understood as minimum standards which all projects listed on the platform Österreich forscht must fulfill. The evaluation will be carried out by the coordinators of the platform Österreich forscht in consultation with working group members. Version 1.0 of the quality criteria can be found on the platform Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/record/1161953

Die Plattform Österreich forscht (www.citizen-science.at) wurde 2014 mit den Zielen gegründet, (1) Citizen Science Akteurinnen und Akteure in Österreich zu vernetzen, (2) einen möglichst umfassenden Überblick über Citizen Science Projekte in Österreich zu geben und (3) allgemein die Methodik Citizen Science wissenschaftlich weiter zu entwickeln. Viele Institutionen, welche in Citizen Science aktiv sind, haben sich 2017 auf Initiative der Plattform Österreich forscht im Citizen Science Network Austria zusammengeschlossen und sich damit dazu bekannt, die Qualität von Citizen Science in Österreich zu fördern (http://www.citizen-science.at/die-plattform/das-netzwerk). Ein wichtiger Schritt zur Förderung dieser Qualität war es, transparente Kriterien aufzustellen, die jene Projekte erfüllen müssen, welche auf der Plattform Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten. Das Ziel dieser Kriterien ist, die Qualität der auf der Plattform vorgestellten Projekte weiter hochzuhalten und noch zu steigern. Von März 2017 bis Februar 2018 hat daher eine Arbeitsgruppe der Plattform Österreich forscht, bestehend aus Vertreterinnen und Vertretern von 17 Institutionen, Kriterien ausgearbeitet, die eine transparente Bewertung jener Projekte ermöglichen, die auf Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten. Die Ausarbeitung erfolgte in mehreren Schritten, wobei zusätzlich zum Wissen der Arbeitsgruppenmitglieder auch mehrmals Feedback von externen Expertinnen und Experten aus den jeweiligen Fachbereichen eingearbeitet wurde. Um auch das Wissen der Bevölkerung in die Kriterien einfließen lassen zu können, wurde über den gesamten Oktober 2017 hinweg ein Entwurf der Qualitätskriterien für eine öffentliche Onlinekonsultation auf der Plattform Österreich forscht freigegeben. Die finale Version der Qualitätskriterien wurde im Rahmen der 4. Österreichischen Citizen Science Konferenz, 1.-3. Februar 2018, der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Mit diesem Datum haben die Qualitätskriterien ihre Gültigkeit erlangt. Bereits gelistete Projekte auf Österreich forscht haben die Möglichkeit, sich den Kriterien innerhalb eines Jahres anzupassen. Projekte, welche neu auf Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten, müssen diese Kriterien bei Listung erfüllen. Die Qualitätskriterien werden zukünftig nach Bedarf adaptiert, um neuen Herausforderungen und Entwicklungen gerecht zu werden. Die Versionsnummer der Kriterien, welcher ein Projekt entspricht, wird auf der jeweiligen Projektseite angegeben. Der erste Teil der Kriterien dient vor allem der Feststellung, was ein Citizen Science Projekt ausmacht. Hier haben wir uns zu einer Negativliste entschlossen (d.h. wir legen fest, was alles NICHT Citizen Science ist), um die Plattform möglichst offen für unterschiedliche Konzepte, Herangehensweisen und Disziplinen zu halten. Dies bedeutet, dass wir alle Projekte, welche nicht durch diese Kriterien ausgeschlossen werden als Citizen Science Projekte verstehen. Der professionelle Hintergrund der Person, welche die Projektleitung übernimmt, ist nicht ausschlaggebend, solange die Kriterien vom Projekt selbst erfüllt werden. Die Kriterien im zweiten Teil sind als Mindeststandards zu verstehen, welche alle Projekte auf Österreich forscht erfüllen müssen. Die Evaluierung erfolgt durch die Koordinatorinnen und Koordinatoren der Plattform Österreich forscht unter Beratung von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern der Arbeitsgruppe. Version 1.0 der Qualitätskriterien finden Sie frei zugänglich auf der Plattform Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/record/1161922

The platform Österreich forscht was founded in 2014 with the objectives of (1) connecting citizen science actors in Austria, (2) providing the broadest possible overview of citizen science projects in Austria, and (3) scientifically advancing citizen science as a method. Following the initiative of the platform Österreich forscht, many of the institutions that are active in citizen science joined forces in the Citizen Science Network Austria in 2017, and thus agreed to advance the quality of citizen science in Austria. An important step in this regard was the establishment of transparent criteria for projects wishing to be listed on the platform Österreich forscht. The objective of these criteria is to maintain and further improve the quality of the projects presented on the platform. Between March 2017 and February 2018, a working group of the platform Österreich forscht consisting of representatives from 17 institutions developed criteria that allow for the transparent evaluation of projects applying to be listed on Österreich forscht. This was a multi-stage process, building both on the knowledge of the working group members as well as on feedback repeatedly provided by external experts from the respective research fields. Throughout October 2017, a version of the quality criteria was available for public online consultation on the platform Österreich forscht, so as to incorporate the knowledge of the general public into the criteria as well. The final version of the quality criteria was presented at the 4th Austrian Citizen Science Conference, 1-3 February 2018, at which point the criteria also came into effect. Projects already listed on Österreich forscht can adapt to meet the criteria over the next year. Projects wishing to be newly listed on Österreich forscht must meet these criteria at the point of listing. Where necessary, the quality criteria will be adapted in the future, in order to respond to new challenges and developments. The version number, i.e. which version of the criteria a project corresponds to, will be indicated on the respective project page. The first part of the criteria is primarily aimed at establishing what defines a citizen science project. Here, we decided on a negative list (i.e. projects that are NOT citizen science), in order to be as open as possible to different concepts and disciplines. The criteria in the second part are to be understood as minimum standards which all projects listed on the platform Österreich forscht must fulfil. The evaluation will be carried out by the coordinators of the platform Österreich forscht in consultation with working group members. For the quality criteria working group, the chairs Dr. Florian Heigl and Mag. Daniel Dörler

Die Plattform Österreich forscht (www.citizen-science.at) wurde 2014 mit den Zielen gegründet, (1) Citizen Science Akteurinnen und Akteure in Österreich zu vernetzen, (2) einen möglichst umfassenden Überblick über Citizen Science Projekte in Österreich zu geben und (3) allgemein die Methodik Citizen Science wissenschaftlich weiter zu entwickeln. Viele Institutionen, welche in Citizen Science aktiv sind, haben sich 2017 auf Initiative der Plattform Österreich forscht im Citizen Science Network Austria zusammengeschlossen und sich damit dazu bekannt, die Qualität von Citizen Science in Österreich zu fördern (http://www.citizen-science.at/die-plattform/das-netzwerk). Ein wichtiger Schritt zur Förderung dieser Qualität war es, transparente Kriterien aufzustellen, die jene Projekte erfüllen müssen, welche auf der Plattform Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten. Das Ziel dieser Kriterien ist, die Qualität der auf der Plattform vorgestellten Projekte weiter hochzuhalten und noch zu steigern. Von März 2017 bis Februar 2018 hat daher eine Arbeitsgruppe der Plattform Österreich forscht, bestehend aus Vertreterinnen und Vertretern von 17 Institutionen, Kriterien ausgearbeitet, die eine transparente Bewertung jener Projekte ermöglichen, die auf Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten. Die Ausarbeitung erfolgte in mehreren Schritten, wobei zusätzlich zum Wissen der Arbeitsgruppenmitglieder auch mehrmals Feedback von externen Expertinnen und Experten aus den jeweiligen Fachbereichen eingearbeitet wurde. Um auch das Wissen der Bevölkerung in die Kriterien einfließen lassen zu können, wurde über den gesamten Oktober 2017 hinweg ein Entwurf der Qualitätskriterien für eine öffentliche Onlinekonsultation auf der Plattform Österreich forscht freigegeben. Die finale Version der Qualitätskriterien wurde im Rahmen der 4. Österreichischen Citizen Science Konferenz, 1.-3. Februar 2018, der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Mit diesem Datum haben die Qualitätskriterien ihre Gültigkeit erlangt. Bereits gelistete Projekte auf Österreich forscht haben die Möglichkeit, sich den Kriterien innerhalb eines Jahres anzupassen. Projekte, welche neu auf Österreich forscht gelistet werden möchten, müssen diese Kriterien bei Listung erfüllen. Die Qualitätskriterien werden zukünftig nach Bedarf adaptiert, um neuen Herausforderungen und Entwicklungen gerecht zu werden. Die Versionsnummer der Kriterien, welcher ein Projekt entspricht, wird auf der jeweiligen Projektseite angegeben. Der erste Teil der Kriterien dient vor allem der Feststellung, was ein Citizen Science Projekt ausmacht. Hier haben wir uns zu einer Negativliste entschlossen (d.h. wir legen fest, was alles NICHT Citizen Science ist), um die Plattform möglichst offen für unterschiedliche Konzepte, Herangehensweisen und Disziplinen zu halten. Die Kriterien im zweiten Teil sind als Mindeststandards zu verstehen, welche alle Projekte auf Österreich forscht erfüllen müssen. Die Evaluierung erfolgt durch die Koordinatorinnen und Koordinatoren der Plattform Österreich forscht unter Beratung von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern der Arbeitsgruppe. Für die Arbeitsgruppe für Qualitätskriterien, die Leiter Dr. Florian Heigl und Mag. Daniel Dörler

A single abstract from the DHd-2016 Book of Abstracts., Sofern eine editorische Arbeit an dieser Publikation stattgefunden hat, dann bestand diese aus der Eliminierung von Bindestrichen in Überschriften, die aufgrund fehlerhafter Silbentrennung entstanden sind, der Vereinheitlichung von Namen der Autor*innen in das Schema "Nachname, Vorname" und/oder der Trennung von Überschrift und Unterüberschrift durch die Setzung eines Punktes, sofern notwendig., {"references":["https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3679331","https://github.com/DHd-Verband/DHd-Abstracts-2016"]}

The LandSense project aims to build an innovative citizen observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, by connecting citizens with Earth Observation (EO) data to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. Through EO-driven mobile and web applications, LandSense promotes citizens to not only play a key role in environmental monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such applications. Currently within the EU’s EO monitoring framework, especially in the domain of LULC dynamics, there is a need for low-cost methods for acquiring high quality in-situ data to create timely, accurate and well-validated data products. LandSense aims to disrupt the EO data economy by creating marketable solutions that can provide a step-change in LULC monitoring activities both within and beyond Europe. In order to promote and stimulate the fast adoption of the project outcomes, the consortium proposes organization of the LandSense Innovation Challenge: Finals at the ECSA Conference 2020. This interactive session would facilitate collaboration and innovation among stakeholders within the value chain related to land mapping and citizen science. As such, the LandSense Innovation Challenge targets individuals, web-entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs coming from all participating Horizon 2020 countries, to present innovative IT solutions addressing one of the three LandSense domains: Urban Landscape Dynamics, Agricultural Land Use, and Forest & Habitat Monitoring. The challenge focuses on exploiting data streams coming from the LandSense Citizen Observatory, which consist of a diverse set of data including land cover change detection, threats to natural habitats, greenspace monitoring, etc., to design novel LULC solutions targeted at the citizen science community. In addition, participants will be encouraged to access data from the Sentinel Hub Service or other relevant EO data sources as well as the LandSense Quality Assurance Service in their solution. The process for the LandSense Innovation Challenge will be divided into two stages. First, there will be public call for ideas (Feb/March 2020) to which teams can submit proposals. After a review of the applications, a select number of shortlisted teams (5 to 10) will be invited to join the finals in Trieste to pitch their ideas to a jury of experts. Teams attending the finals will have the opportunity to discover more about LandSense, get coaching/mentoring to improve their pitches and network with the vibrant EO and citizen science communities. The winning team will not only receive a grand prize but also continue collaboration with the LandSense consortium to further advance their solution.

The data repository for the manuscript 'Characterizing land use impacts on carbon stocks and tree cover in the tropics', submitted for peer-review to Global Biogeochemical Cycles (04.09.2020).

Since the late 1970s, the BirdLife Partnership has been working collectively to identify, document and protect places on the Earth with the greatest significance for the conservation of the world’s birds. As a result, over 13,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) have been identified. However, we lack comprehensive monitoring of the condition of these sites, with an increasing number of IBAs under threat from damaging development – the majority of which appears to be poorly planned and does not take environmental values into account. Sites face a wide range of problems, which require an equally wide range of solutions. To address this problem, Natura Alert has been developed within the Horizon 2020-funded LandSense Citizen Observatory project. Natura Alert is a mobile app and web portal that allows users to pinpoint the location of threats to biodiversity and habitat changes, to prevent the further damage or loss to our biodiversity. We are particularly interested in threats that are occurring inside IBAs, Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and Natura 2000 sites in the European Union, although submitting records in other areas is also possible. Information on the condition of these sites, the threats to them, the conservation measures in place and the changes in these aspects over time are essential to set priorities, hold governments to account and inform policies and decision-makers. Volunteers can share their observations with the wider community and help to map the state of our most valuable sites around the world. They can download our mobile app to quickly record their observations in the field or use the web app to discover more functionalities, such as visualizing reports from other users, creating dashboards per country and downloading their own reports. Natura Alert is being tested in Spain and Indonesia, thanks to the volunteer network of two BirdLife partners: SEO/BirdLife and Burung. While the Spanish volunteers are focusing on threats to birds and habitats within IBAs and Natura 2000 sites, the Indonesian communities are validating alerts from satellite-image analysis for forest change on Flores island. Citizen observations trigger real-time alerts to national and regional IBA/KBA coordinators at BirdLife International, who will ensure that the data are of high quality and produce regional and global monitoring assessments that could help monitor the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Also, researchers and practitioners around the globe can benefit from this type of data, as well as institutions and stakeholders from the private sector willing to make better decisions based on high quality data via the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).

Since the late 1970s, the BirdLife Partnership has been working collectively to identify, document and protect places on the Earth with the greatest significance for the conservation of the world’s birds. As a result, over 13,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) have been identified. However, we lack comprehensive monitoring of the condition of these sites, with an increasing number of IBAs under threat from damaging development – the majority of which appears to be poorly planned and does not take environmental values into account. Sites face a wide range of problems, which require an equally wide range of solutions. To address this problem, Natura Alert has been developed within the Horizon 2020-funded LandSense Citizen Observatory project. Natura Alert is a mobile app and web portal that allows users to pinpoint the location of threats to biodiversity and habitat changes, to prevent the further damage or loss to our biodiversity. We are particularly interested in threats that are occurring inside IBAs, Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and Natura 2000 sites in the European Union, although submitting records in other areas is also possible. Information on the condition of these sites, the threats to them, the conservation measures in place and the changes in these aspects over time are essential to set priorities, hold governments to account and inform policies and decision-makers. Volunteers can share their observations with the wider community and help to map the state of our most valuable sites around the world. They can download our mobile app to quickly record their observations in the field or use the web app to discover more functionalities, such as visualizing reports from other users, creating dashboards per country and downloading their own reports. Natura Alert is being tested in Spain and Indonesia, thanks to the volunteer network of two BirdLife partners: SEO/BirdLife and Burung. While the Spanish volunteers are focusing on threats to birds and habitats within IBAs and Natura 2000 sites, the Indonesian communities are validating alerts from satellite-image analysis for forest change on Flores island. Citizen observations trigger real-time alerts to national and regional IBA/KBA coordinators at BirdLife International, who will ensure that the data are of high quality and produce regional and global monitoring assessments that could help monitor the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Also, researchers and practitioners around the globe can benefit from this type of data, as well as institutions and stakeholders from the private sector willing to make better decisions based on high quality data via the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).

Supporting datasets for the manuscript resubmission to Global Biogeochemical Cycles, resubmission date: 16.04.2021.

In MAGIC a first EU wide map is created to assess options for sustainably use of marginal lands to grow industrial crops. The approach builds on the JRC work to identify Areas of Natural Constraints (ANCs) (Van Oorschoven et al., 2014 and Terres et al., 2014) and other land evaluation systems for agronomic suitability. The results describe the location and amount of marginal land area across Europe and what the main characteristics are in terms of biophysical and socio-economic limitations. This classification serves as a basis for developing sustainable best-practice options for industrial cropping in Europe on marginal lands.

The LandSense project aims to build an innovative citizen observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, by connecting citizens with Earth Observation (EO) data to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. Through EO-driven mobile and web applications, LandSense promotes citizens to not only play a key role in environmental monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such applications. Currently within the EU’s EO monitoring framework, especially in the domain of LULC dynamics, there is a need for low-cost methods for acquiring high quality in-situ data to create timely, accurate and well-validated data products. LandSense aims to disrupt the EO data economy by creating marketable solutions that can provide a step-change in LULC monitoring activities both within and beyond Europe. In order to promote and stimulate the fast adoption of the project outcomes, the consortium proposes organization of the LandSense Innovation Challenge: Finals at the ECSA Conference 2020. This interactive session would facilitate collaboration and innovation among stakeholders within the value chain related to land mapping and citizen science. As such, the LandSense Innovation Challenge targets individuals, web-entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs coming from all participating Horizon 2020 countries, to present innovative IT solutions addressing one of the three LandSense domains: Urban Landscape Dynamics, Agricultural Land Use, and Forest & Habitat Monitoring. The challenge focuses on exploiting data streams coming from the LandSense Citizen Observatory, which consist of a diverse set of data including land cover change detection, threats to natural habitats, greenspace monitoring, etc., to design novel LULC solutions targeted at the citizen science community. In addition, participants will be encouraged to access data from the Sentinel Hub Service or other relevant EO data sources as well as the LandSense Quality Assurance Service in their solution. The process for the LandSense Innovation Challenge will be divided into two stages. First, there will be public call for ideas (Feb/March 2020) to which teams can submit proposals. After a review of the applications, a select number of shortlisted teams (5 to 10) will be invited to join the finals in Trieste to pitch their ideas to a jury of experts. Teams attending the finals will have the opportunity to discover more about LandSense, get coaching/mentoring to improve their pitches and network with the vibrant EO and citizen science communities. The winning team will not only receive a grand prize but also continue collaboration with the LandSense consortium to further advance their solution.

The Horizon 2020 project, LandSense, is a modern citizen observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, that connects citizens with Earth Observation (EO) data to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. Citizen Observatories are community-driven mechanisms to complement existing environmental monitoring systems and can be fostered through EO-based mobile and web applications, allowing citizens to not only play a key role in LULC monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such solutions. Within LandSense, citizens can participate in ongoing demonstration pilots using their own devices (e.g. mobile phones and tablets), through interactive reporting, gaming applications and mapathons. Campaigns in Vienna, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Serbia, Spain and Indonesia address topics such as urban greenspaces, agricultural management and biodiversity/habitat threat monitoring. For example, in the case of Toulouse and Indonesia, hotspots of change in LULC are identified through Sentinel 2 time series analysis. These hotspots are then validated by citizens and interested stakeholders either directly on-site via customized mobile applications, providing geotagged photos, or remotely via the online LandSense Engagement platform. The presentation will not only showcase the tools and results from these campaigns, but also highlight how citizen-driven observations can contribute to sustainable development. Such initiatives present clear opportunities to integrate citizen-driven observations with established authoritative data sources to further extend GEOSS and Copernicus capacities, and support comprehensive environmental monitoring systems. In addition, these applications have considerable potential in lowering expenditure costs on in-situ data collection and current calibration/validation approaches within the processing chain of environmental monitoring activities both within and beyond Europe.

The data repository for the manuscript 'Characterizing land use impacts on carbon stocks and tree cover in the tropics', submitted for peer-review to Global Biogeochemical Cycles (04.09.2020).

Since the late 1970s, the BirdLife Partnership has been working collectively to identify, document and protect places on the Earth with the greatest significance for the conservation of the world’s birds. As a result, over 13,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) have been identified. However, we lack comprehensive monitoring of the condition of these sites, with an increasing number of IBAs under threat from damaging development – the majority of which appears to be poorly planned and does not take environmental values into account. Sites face a wide range of problems, which require an equally wide range of solutions. To address this problem, Natura Alert has been developed within the Horizon 2020-funded LandSense Citizen Observatory project. Natura Alert is a mobile app and web portal that allows users to pinpoint the location of threats to biodiversity and habitat changes, to prevent the further damage or loss to our biodiversity. We are particularly interested in threats that are occurring inside IBAs, Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and Natura 2000 sites in the European Union, although submitting records in other areas is also possible. Information on the condition of these sites, the threats to them, the conservation measures in place and the changes in these aspects over time are essential to set priorities, hold governments to account and inform policies and decision-makers. Volunteers can share their observations with the wider community and help to map the state of our most valuable sites around the world. They can download our mobile app to quickly record their observations in the field or use the web app to discover more functionalities, such as visualizing reports from other users, creating dashboards per country and downloading their own reports. Natura Alert is being tested in Spain and Indonesia, thanks to the volunteer network of two BirdLife partners: SEO/BirdLife and Burung. While the Spanish volunteers are focusing on threats to birds and habitats within IBAs and Natura 2000 sites, the Indonesian communities are validating alerts from satellite-image analysis for forest change on Flores island. Citizen observations trigger real-time alerts to national and regional IBA/KBA coordinators at BirdLife International, who will ensure that the data are of high quality and produce regional and global monitoring assessments that could help monitor the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Also, researchers and practitioners around the globe can benefit from this type of data, as well as institutions and stakeholders from the private sector willing to make better decisions based on high quality data via the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).

Supporting datasets for the manuscript submission to MDPI Land, submission: October 2021.

In MAGIC a first EU wide map is created to assess options for sustainably use of marginal lands to grow industrial crops. The approach builds on the JRC work to identify Areas of Natural Constraints (ANCs) (Van Oorschoven et al., 2014 and Terres et al., 2014) and other land evaluation systems for agronomic suitability. The results describe the location and amount of marginal land area across Europe and what the main characteristics are in terms of biophysical and socio-economic limitations. This classification serves as a basis for developing sustainable best-practice options for industrial cropping in Europe on marginal lands.

Supporting datasets for the manuscript submission to MDPI Land, submission: October 2021.

This deliverable reports on the use of the quality assurance (QA) service, developed as part of WP5, to analyse data collected by the LandSense demonstrator pilot case studies. It describes data acquired by the pilots and the preliminary analysis that results from processing the data using the QA service. Assessments of data quality relating to user-captured photographs, ensuring GDPR compliance on user captured photographs, assessing point and polygon field observations, calculating categorical accuracy of classifications of Earth Observation data, and contributor agreement measures are described.

This document describes the data collection requirements for the pilot cases within the LandSense Citizen Observatory. Expectations from governance, science and commercial sector were outlined and considered. For each LandSense pilot, simple and relevant data collection requirements were presented, fostered and summarized. Data flows workings are provided for each pilot. Data collection requirements and related critical quality assessment procedures are highlighted and defined.