What is Citizen Science?
Citizens are people or public.
Science is discovering, investigating, hypothesizing, testing and validating.
Citizen Science trains people to monitor, interpret, draw conclusions with potential to write scientific papers and present at conferences.
Harbour Watch is the facilitator to your water quality project. Harbour Watch water quality project aims to 'empower the people' to examine water quality in local waterways.
Harbour Watch aims to train interested local community members and groups to become citizen scientists and not simply volunteers.
The power of Citizen Science
- Citizen Science is the involvement of the public in scientific research—whether community driven research or global investigations.
- Aims to unite expertise from educators, scientists, data managers and others to power
citizen science.
Why is citizen science valuable?
Citizen science generates a range of benefits, for science, individuals communities and the Great Barrier Reef.
Engaging the public in data collection can enhance the scope of scientific research - getting volunteers involved in research allows data to be collected more frequently, or over larger areas.
Citizen science projects are not just useful for scientists but also contribute to diverse education initiatives, sharing the passion for science and our unique reef environments.
Citizen science also provides a great way for communities to work together to protect reefs.
By collecting data and sharing this with decision makers, communities can advocate for improving or maintaining management of their local environment.
View information on the
Reef Citizen Science Alliance.