Tracking a changing climate: citizen science contributions to climate change indicator systems

Climate change indicator systems are based on measures of key physical, ecological, and societal variables related to climate change drivers, impacts, vulnerabilities, and responses. Crowd-based approaches to data gathering... [ view full abstract ]

Climate change indicator systems are based on measures of key physical, ecological, and societal variables related to climate change drivers, impacts, vulnerabilities, and responses. Crowd-based approaches to data gathering and analysis, including citizen science and community-based monitoring, already support some indicator systems, and there is the potential for greater use of these approaches. One example of such an indicator system is the US Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Indicators System, which aims to create a system of indicators that inform and support decision making about climate change. In November 2014, the US Global Change Research Program, the Commons Lab of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Federal Community of Practice on Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science hosted a roundtable that used the National Climate Indicators System as a case study to explore a number of issues related to integrating citizen science into indicator systems. This poster reports on the results of the workshop, including identifying existing uses of citizen science in climate-related indicators; linking existing citizen science data and analysis streams to current and proposed indicators; highlighting areas where new contributions from citizen science projects might support indicators; and suggesting ways to connect indicators and citizen science efforts across geographic scales. Additional results include identifying the challenges of integrating citizen science information into climate change indicator systems and brainstorming possible solutions.