Combining participatory modelling and citizen science to support volunteer conservation action

Abstract

The popularity of both citizen science and participatory modelling has given way to a growing number of case studies that all outline the benefits of more inclusive forms of conservation planning. Citizen science offers volunteers the opportunity to engage in environmental research while participatory modelling engages individuals in community-level environmental decisionmaking. Although both of these public-science collaborations are often said to lead to improved environmental decision-making, evidence for these outcomes in the peer reviewed literature remains sparse. We suggest that combining these fields has promise for developing communitysupported research leading to conservation action. To demonstrate this approach, we present the infrastructure and use of a participatory modelling software called Mental Modeler (http://www.mentalmodeler.org/), used with a citizen science web portal (www.citsci.org) that allows citizen scientists, scientists, and managers to: (1) collaboratively define local conservation issues of shared concern; (2) model and represent assumptions, evidence, and existing information about these issues; (3) run scenarios to discuss potential research or management options; and ultimately (4) co-develop citizen scientific research and conservation plans. Using case study data from two community groups working on locally-defined issues related to land management practices in the US, we demonstrate how coordinated learning through modelling practices can lead to the development of self-organized and co-created conservation action. We conclude that the development of online modelling tools holds strong promise for the fields of both citizen science and conservation biology.

Bridging the Benefits of Online and Community Supported Citizen Science: A Case Study on Motivation and Retention with Conservation-Oriented Volunteers

“…Based on these findings, we restructured our project to minimize these potential barriers to participation and to increase the relevance of the project to participants (see Gray et al 2017;Newman et al 2017). It is important for project managers to consider how a project impacts the participants themselves and to make adjustments to its procedural and communication approaches to sustain participation and increase satisfaction West and Pateman 2016).…”

“…We aimed to provide a new suite of online resources to be used alongside traditional methods to motivate volunteers to develop co-created citizen science projects to benefit their local communities. All online project components were facilitated on a webbased platform with each project having its own site (see Gray et al 2017). To recruit participants for this project, VMN staff sent emails to all VMN volunteers and chapter leaders to encourage participation.…”

“…This technique uses fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping (Kosko 1986) in which participants develop concept maps of components of their system of interest, the positive and negative relationships of components within that system, and the relative strengths of those relationships (e.g., high, medium, low) . Collaborative learning through mental modeling has been used in group settings to model the structure and function of a range of systems related to complex environmental issues, which can assist in planning efforts such as coastal disaster planning (see Gray et al 2015;Gray et al 2017;Henly-Shepard et al 2015).…”

Developing Model‐Building as a Scientific Practice in Collaborative Citizen Science

“…Program volunteers engaged in environmental learning through the program and were given the opportunity to address environmental issues of local concern through a hybrid online/in‐person citizen science training program as part of our project. These individuals were recruited as part of a larger research study on adaptive management (see Jordan et al, 2016 and Gray et al, 2016 for more). The second group included community members in New Brunswick, NJ, who volunteered to participate in exchange for consulting help on local stewardship projects.…”

Monitoring Biological and Chemical Trends in Temperate Still Waters Using Citizen Science

“…One such rapidly emerging approach is citizen science, the participation of ordinary members of the public in scientific research [7,8]. However its effectiveness remains largely untested [9].…”