Voicing and Visualizing Change: Perceptions of Environmental Heritage in the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

To address “wicked problems” that threaten the good ecological status of the Baltic Sea such as climate change with diverse stakeholder values and complex solutions, new interdisciplinary knowledge that incorporates citizen science is urgently needed. This paper scrutinizes environmental heritage in the Baltic Sea region by exploring what it means to persons living in the Baltic Sea environment. It asks the question, what is environmental heritage? It uses a qualitative research method using both texts and photographs—collected in an open competition—to consider humanistic viewpoints of persons living in the changing climate in the Baltic Sea Region. A thematic content analysis was utilized to identify emerging themes in the text and visual inquiry was used to decipher what meanings related to environmental change were conveyed in submitted the photographs. Some of the findings include that environmental heritage is perceived as experiences of living and interacting with the Sea and other non-human actors like animals, but also as material objects in the environment such as sustainable architecture. It also found that environmental heritage is articulated as a source of conflict, between users and uses and the traditional and new ways of life. Resolution of this conflict is important in guiding effective solutions to the challenge of climate change. It is thus important to develop interdisciplinary methods that facilitate the merging of different knowledge systems in order to generate effective solutions.

Conceptualising the Link between Citizen Science and Climate Governance: A Systematic Review

“…ecosystems, e.g., [78,79,87] or specific affected communities, e.g., [103,104], many others have an urban focus, as they choose cities and towns as their unit of analysis [91,98,109,112,125]. The intrinsic complexity of urban systems, in which a plurality of actors are meant to find solutions to socioecological challenges exacerbated by the climate crisis, establishes the need for integrative management approaches [125].…”

“…Nine studies (37.50%) gather geospatial and visual data, such as maps, photos and videos, or leverage visual representations such as artistic performances and installations. For example, Jetoo and Kouri investigated images and meanings of environmental heritage in the Baltic Sea region, as well as the perception of climate-related risks, by analysing both texts and photographs produced by the participants [78]. Visualisation has been portrayed as a suitable means to do place-informed participatory research, fostering engagement over time, facili-tating access to complex environmental issues for different age and ability groups, making community aspirations and climate-related experiences tangible, and providing a meaningful connection with everyday life that counteracts the effects of psychological distance [78,112].…”

“…Among studies with a multifocal approach that collect data in different countries, six are comparative case studies [92][93][94][95][96][97], and two are conceptual articles which include case studies being discussed [98,99]. One interesting feature is that the study area often exceeds the national borders and embraces geographical regions or ecosystems characterised by the presence of relevant natural elements or resources, whose conditions are being impacted by climate change; i.e., the Baltic Sea [78], the Himalayan region [79,80], river basins [81][82][83], groundwater aquifers [84], forests [85,86], coral reef [87] and migratory flyways [88]. Three publications focus on the European context, especially delving into EU policy, regulations and research agendas, and their link with the practice of CS [89][90][91].…”

“…Moreover, themes of forests [86,106] and oceans [87,107,108] health protection and resilience boost a holistic approach to climate-related health risks which acknowledges the non-separateness of human and non-human communities [89]. [104,109,114,117,120] Food systems governance [89,98,103,104] Disaster management [80,115] Biosecurity risk monitoring [106] Infrastructure assessment [116] Governance of environmental heritage [78] Urban forest governance [96] Conservation 20 (45.45%) [79,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88]90,92,93,99,107,108,[121][122][123][124][125] Water governance [81,82,84,85,92,99] Biodiversity conservation [79,…”

“…Specifically, 11 publications (25.00%) investigate the cross-scale relationships between local processes and national/international dynamics, exploring the possibilities of upscaling, mainstreaming and replicating virtuous local initiatives towards system transformation, as well as the influence exerted by macroscopic governance dynamics and frameworks on particular contexts [109,117,122]. Interestingly, while some locally based studies focus on geographical regions and ecosystems, e.g., [78,79,87] or specific affected communities, e.g., [103,104], many others have an urban focus, as they choose cities and towns as their unit of analysis [91,98,109,112,125]. The intrinsic complexity of urban systems, in which a plurality of actors are meant to find solutions to socioecological challenges exacerbated by the climate crisis, establishes the need for integrative management approaches [125].…”