The development of child- and youth-friendly cities is becoming increasingly important due to the deteriorating quality of life in urban areas. An important contribution to this relates to the provision of urban green suitable for young people and their involvement in the future design of urban landscapes. However, it must be taken into account that children and the youth make demands on urban green that are often not sufficiently known and which differ from what adults need and from what adults consider important for children and the youth. As a result, the participation of young people in the collection, evaluation and communication of what is important to them with regard to urban green plays an important role. But the involvement of young people in participatory initiatives is difficult, often falls short of expectations and is linked to various open questions, such as what are suitable tools and strategies to inspire and involve children and the youth in participatory initiatives.
With regard to these challenges, „u3Green“ pursues three goals:
Within the framework of various participation formats young people are involved in achieving the “u3Green” project goals using various methods (participatory design, participatory mapping, spatial data science, visual/ cartographic communication) and IT and geoinformatics tools (including ESRI applications). On the one hand, this refers to the participation of school students from the partner schools in workshops and spotlight events in order to discuss questions related to the challenges mentioned above and to develop initial solutions. On the other hand, school students from the partner schools contribute to the detailed answering of the questions within the framework of internships and workshop camps lasting several days.
Especially through the participation formats, "u3Green" supports the training of specialist knowledge and skills in the STEM field (i.e. teaching and study subjects relating to mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology) and other "soft skills" (e.g. science literacy) - in addition to an improved consideration of urban green spaces for young people in planning processes and an increased building of social awareness regarding urban green.
Co-operation partners: Österreichischer Dachverband für Geoinformation, Private Pädagogische Hochschule der Diözese Linz, Salzburger Institut für Raumordnung und Wohnen, Spatial Services GmbH;
Partners from Economy and Society: Naturpark Weißbach, Universität 55-PLUS, Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg, Wissensstadt Salzburg;
Participating schools: Akademisches Gymnasium Salzburg, ASO Stadt Salzburg, BG Zaunergasse, Salzburg, BORG Oberndorf, Holztechnikum Kuchl, Werkschulheim Felbertal; BG & BRG Keimgasse Mödling
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@projekt.u3green Wir brauchen deine Stimme! ☀️ #u3green #plus_1622 #fyp #foryoupage #fy ♬ clocks - -
u3Green is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research in the Sparkling Science 2.0 program
Mosquito Alert is a citizen science project that allows tiger mosquitoes and other mosquitoes to be easily reported using a free app. Tiger mosquitoes are always smaller than a 1-cent coin, have a single white line on the back of the head and thoraxand white stripes on the body and legs. The submitted photos are examined by national and international experts and the finds are then displayed anonymously on a publicly accessible map.
Tiger mosquitoes are non-native mosquitoes that originally come from Asia. In recent decades, this species has spread widely in Europe. Tiger mosquitoes are not only a nuisance, they can transmit a variety of pathogens (e.g. the Zika virus or the dengue virus). If tiger mosquitoes spread in Austria, these diseases could also be transmitted in our country. In addition to tiger mosquitoes, other mosquito species can be reported with the app. These are the also non-native species Japanese bush mosquito, Korean bush mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito, which has not yet been detected in Austria. These species are also capable of transmitting certain pathogens and could displace native species. Furthermore, finds of the native common house mosquito can be reported. This is the most important of the native species in the spread of pathogens (e.g. West Nile virus).
The recording of the spread of mosquito species in a country is usually carried out by labor-intensive and costly monitoring projects carried out by experts. Since comprehensive expert monitoring is difficult (and not affordable), reports from citizens often represent a valuable addition to such monitoring projects. For example, the first findings of the Asian tiger mosquitoes in Vienna were reports made by citizens. To offer citizens a tool to report possible tiger mosquitoes and other non-native mosquito species as uncomplicated as possible, the app “Mosquito Alert” was developed. This project, originally from Spain, has been running since 2014 and is coordinated by the institutions CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals), UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) ICREA (Institución Catalana de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados) and CEAB-CSIC (Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes). In Spain, more than 18,300 mosquitoes have been reported with the app so far. As part of the AIM-COST5 (AIM = Aedes Invasive Mosquitoes, COST = European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory (VEO) projects, the app, via which the mosquitoes are reported, was adapted to the European situation in 2020 by expanding the range of species and the app is now available in 18 different languages. The project is coordinated by AGES for Austria and is carried out in cooperation with other national experts from Vetmeduni Vienna (Priv.Doz. Dr. Hans-Peter Führer, Dr. Maria Unterköfler) and the University of Vienna (Carina Zittra, PhD). If a participant sees one of the target species (instructions for recognition and differentiation are included in the app), one or more photos of this finding can be uploaded using the app. It is important to ensure that the pattern on the thorax and the hind legs is clearly visible, as these are decisive for species identification. The uploaded photos are then examined by three (of approx. 50) experts, at least one of whom is a national expert. They then decide whether it is one of the target species, and if so, which one. Due to the visibility of the identification features in the photo, a find is either “definately” or “probably” assigned to a certain species. The reported findings are displayed anonymously on a publicly accessible map together with the photo. This map could then support health authorities or mosquito control programs in finding out where intervention is necessary. The collected data set is also freely accessible and provides scientists with important information about the distribution of the recorded species. In addition, publicly accessible breeding grounds can be reported via the Mosquito Alert app, which are then also displayed on the map. This can support the implementation of control measures, as it shows where there is still a need for action. Furthermore, mosquito bites can also be reported. This information is not currently displayed on the map but could also indicate in the future where the nuisance for citizens is particularly high and therefore measures may be necessary.
In spring 2024, poject coordinator Karin Bakran-Lebl held a lecture about mosquito alert as part of the lecture series "Citizen Science Seminar" at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU): "Mosquito Alert: In search of the tiger mosquito with Citizen Scientists" (in German). At the end of this page you can watch the video recording of the lecture.
In July 2024, project coordinator Karin Barkan-Lebl was a guest on the Österreich forscht podcast Wissen macht Leute - you can listen to the episode here (in German).
In order to find out how information about HPV needs to be prepared to reach the target groups, we are working together with parents, teachers and students in the project “Humane PapilloWAS?” to reveal what is known about HPV and which misinformation is circulating.
Only 46% of the population in Austrian are aware about human papilloma viruses, or HPV, and only 34% associate HPV with cancer. This shows that there are gaps in the population's knowledge of a virus that almost everyone becomes infected with in the course of their life. A vaccination against HPV, which results in 90% protection against cervical cancer, could even eradicate cervical cancer and other HPV related cancer types if the majority of the population were vaccinated. HPV can cause 6 different types of cancer that also affect men. The vaccination should ideally be given to children between the ages of 9 and 13, as they develop the best immune response to the vaccine and the virus. It is therefore important that particularly parents and their children are informed about HPV through the right information channels. In order to find out how information about HPV needs to be prepared to reach the target groups, it is necessary to work together with the relevant groups of people already from the beginning. The project is supported by biomedical scientists, communication experts and people affected by cervical cancer.
The aim of the project is to give the population an understanding of HPV and its possible effects in order raise their health competence. It can also be a basis for communication measures in similar health-oriented projects in the future.
In this project, the most effective information channels and methods were identified in several workshops in 2023 together with citizens, in order to develop a communication strategy for a good education campaign.
Within a smaller advisory board of citizens, a survey was developed in which around 900 people participated. The results will be evaluated in 2024 and published in an open access journal. Also in 2024, a communication campaign in collaboration with Citizen Scientists will be realised in Salzburg. Moreover, further events will take place to increase HPV awareness.
(c) BMA / FH Salzburg
Roles within the project:
The project is also participating in this year's Citizen Science Award. School classes from the 4th grade onwards & individuals can take part from April 1st, 2024 to July 31st, 2024 and win the Citizen Science Award with prize money of up to € 1.000. Participants are invited to create a short video about HPV for social media and send it to the researchers. The three best videos will be awarded a prize and used for the awareness campaign. Register now to take part in the award: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The results of the project are available on the project website and on the FH Salzburg website and were presented at an event together with the citizen scientists in November 2023.
(c) Elena Franke / FH Salzburg
If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the "Wissen macht Leute" podcast episode about the project (in German). More information can be found here.
The project also has its own podcast. You can listen to it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5TdAebPNRHev8PtR8jLzTh.
The AmphiBiom project is focused on the study of the European green toad in Austria. With the support of Citizen Scientists, we investigate the distribution of this endangered amphibian species, which, as a typical pioneer species, can quickly colonize newly emerging water bodies.
Therefore, the European green toad is an ideal species for projects to investigate the distribution status through call monitoring and the installation of small water bodies with the support of the Citizen Science Community. With AmphiBiom we want to show that everyone can support the survival of this protected species with just a little effort. Already through these small but valuable measures, the general awareness that is needed to better understand species and habitat protection measures, is strengthened.
Amphibians are among the most threatened animal taxa in Austria and worldwide. The reasons for this include habitat destruction and degradation, fungal diseases, and changes in land use. For some amphibian species, despite many disturbances, agricultural areas or even cities also represent important habitats. The natural spawning grounds of the European green toad, are steppe lakes filled after rainfall or ponds formed after flooding with strong sunlight. With a few exceptions, the natural spawning habitats of the European green toad have largely disappeared in Europe. In addition to these near-natural water bodies, artificial water bodies or puddles filled after rain showers are often accepted by European green toads today.
The disappearance of fallow land and closure of gaps between buildings, leads to a deterioration of the conservation status of the green toad in rural areas as well as in inner-city areas. Countermeasures, such as the provision of replacement habitats, can prevent this negative development. The initiative for the creation of small water bodies, which is scientifically accompanied in the AmphiBiom project, not only forms an additional spawning offer for green toads and other threatened amphibians (e.g., Yellow-bellied toad). It gives us the opportunity to study the succession and progressive colonization of water bodies by diverse pioneer fauna.
This project uses Citizen Science to study this pioneer species in order to investigate its distribution in areas that are often inaccessible for research (e.g., private gardens) and to actively involve citizens in the project.
In addition to creating new habitats for the green toad and other amphibians, we are also using the power of citizen science to launch an Austria-wide, app-based amphibian call monitoring programme. With its high-pitched warbling, the green toad is certainly one of the most beautiful calling amphibians in Austria, but it is not the only one with a characteristic song. For example, tree frogs and toads can also be clearly identified by their song. As part of the AmphiBiom project, we invite interested people to use our mobile phone app "AmphiApp" to record amphibian calls in their neighbourhood and thus contribute to the knowledge about the distribution of these protected animals.
In a further step, the complementary evaluation of already existing protection measures will clarify in which areas such measures (still) make sense, or where they could contribute to the resurgence of populations classified as extinct.
If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the Wissen macht Leute podcast episode about the project (in German). More information can be found here.
Dieses Projekt wird durch den Biodiversitätsfonds des Bundesministeriums für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Energie, Mobilität, Innovation und Technologie gefördert.
The garden dormouse, which is active at dusk and at night, has probably the most contrasting coat colouration among the small mammals in our latitudes. It prefers coniferous and mixed forests with rocky ground as its habitat. Little is known about its occurrence in Vorarlberg.
In a citizen science research project, the inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau Dornbirn was therefore searching for the garden dormouse in Vorarlberg in cooperation with the apodemus institute.
The "Garden dormouse" project has been completed. If you have spotted a garden dormouse, your observations are still welcome and you can report them on the laendlemaus.at platform.
“My Tune“ was a participatory research project in the field of music therapy (MT), which was carried out at the WZMF* and funded by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft GmbH in the frame of the “Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in Research 2021” call.
From March 2022 to April 2023, the “My Tune” research team developed a MT assistive reflection tool for young adult service users, namely the “My Tune” tool. The team consisted of:
The “My Tune” tool set comprises a short information for service users, a handbook for music therapists, and two parts of structured action:
Additionally, if wanted, the service users may e.g., take notes in a diary, make drawings, etc. to preserve their thoughts and feelings and share them with their therapist. This way, the “My Tune” tool empowers the service users by letting them decide if, when, where, what, how, and to what extent the tool is being used.
Besides the developed and tested “My Tune” tool the project also brought diverse and valuable insights into participatory research practice in the field of music therapy that will feed into future projects and research as well.
If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the Wissen macht Leute podcast episode about the project (in German).
*WZMF – Music Therapy Research Centre Vienna, Department of Music Therapy, mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Related publications:
Fent, J. & Stepniczka, I. (2022). My Tune – „Musiktherapie aus unseren Perspektiven“. Musiktherapeutische Umschau, 43(3), 258–260.
Fent, J. & Stepniczka, I. (2023). Participatory research in music therapy: Potentials and challenges in “My Tune”. Music Therapy Today, Special Issue: Proceedings of the 17th World Congress of Music Therapy, 18(1), 317–318.
Stepniczka, I. & Fent, J. (2023). “My Tune” – music therapy evaluation from a novel perspective. Music Therapy Today, Special Issue: Proceedings of the 17th World Congress of Music Therapy, 18(1), 325–326.
Stepniczka, I. & Fent, J. (2023). “My Tune: Music Therapy from OUR Perspectives”. PoS ACSC2023, 005. doi: 10.22323/1.442.0005.
The shrinking town of Eisenerz lies at the foot of the Erzberg mountain, Austria’s largest and best-known site of extraction of iron ore. The post-industrial town is experiencing a rural exodus, which concerns women in particular. The spatial practices of mining areas have been under-researched using inclusive methods. Mining is predominantly narrated in male, heroic narratives, while counter-narratives of repair, care, reproduction and maintenance are mostly overlooked.
Within this complex field, the project focuses on intersectional feminist perspectives on an area of exhaustion; it will collect feminist post-extractive stories to broaden the perception of mining areas and strengthen the focus on feminist narrations for future perspectives. We ask: Which practices contribute to the continuance of the community? The project shows and discusses the spatial practices of repair amid extraction with multiple actors. We work with local associations to reach diverse groups.
Thinking and knowing with the diverse, often surprising, actors and their practices, the citizen scientists shape the project on several levels: they collect and locate stories of practices, they research private archives, and they report and sometimes even organize. Processes of mutual learning take place in meetings and shared activities, and through the process of transformation into drawings by the East Styrian artist Roswitha Weingrill. Based on collaborative science and an affirmative and inclusive approach, citizens are involved in decisions on many levels, especially concerning their contributions and their representation. The collected knowledge will contribute to creating imaginations of future stories of a liveable community. With the help of artistic methods, these will be illustrated and made accessible in public discussions.
Via strategies of making visible, bringing together, and anticipating and activating futures, and also with the help of artistic tools of knowledge production, this project will show practices as constant reparative counter-practices amid extraction. An ethical, intersectional framework of feminist citizen science will revive the margins of how we know about environmental exploitation to deliver a complex, yet profound, image of a polyphonic Anthropocene that allows for imagining dynamic assemblages after exploitation.
Citizen science-based bumblebee monitoring is a pillar of the Austrian wild bee survey. Most wild bee species can only be distinguished under a microscope. The genus of bumblebees (Bombus) is an exception and can usually be distinguished at species level after a training phase in the field (see Gokcezade et al., 2010), so that not only professionals can help with the observation and recording of bumblebees. Bumblebee monitoring ties in with the already existing reporting platform "naturbeobachtung.at" of the Austrian Society for Nature Conservation.
Through numerous initiatives such as bumblebee identification courses and excursion offers, a citizen science community with very good expertise has been formed in recent years. Since 2014, more than 61,000 observations of all bumblebee species currently occurring in Austria have been reported by over 700 reporters via web and app. In 2021 alone, 12,600 bumblebee observations were received. More than 51,000 reports could be checked, corrected if necessary and confirmed by professionals. Within the framework of the project, the reporting platform is to be expanded to include the option of transect counting (previously non-standardised individual observations) and interested participants are to be motivated, trained and supported.
The aim is to develop a functioning citizen science network in the next two years, which will be used in the long term. We aim to cooperate with other European countries that have established similar projects in order to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis on an international level. In the future, trends for individual populations are to be derived from the data and conservation measures improved.
The crowdsourcing project "Viennese playbills 1930-1939" is about the metadata capture of the playbills from the holdings of the Vienna City Library from this period. Previously only organized by theater and not indexed individually, during the project these valuable historical sources will become recorded individually and thus discoverable for all. The playbills provide insights into an initially internationally acclaimed and lively Viennese theater world, which was confronted with an increasing restriction of creative scope due to anti-liberal and anti-democratic tendencies.
Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of tasks of the Vienna City Library and the previous crowdsourcing projects "Letters 1914-1919" as well as "Letters 1920-1934" have been a great success, we are now again asking the crowd for help in recording our playbills.
The Vienna City Library preserves around 250,000 playbills and program booklets from over 300 Viennese venues, ranging from 1720 to the present. Some of these have been digitized and are freely available in the Digital Library.
Participation is open to all interested persons. After registering, you can choose between two tasks: Capture metadata or review information already captured by others. If errors are discovered, they can be changed and a new version created. Two independent confirmations are necessary for a playbill to be classified as correct.
The metadata collected is integrated at regular intervals into the Digital Library of the Vienna City Library and will then be individually retrievable and searchable. This means that the playbills can be found by anyone interested and can be filtered by means of various search queries, e.g. by plays that were performed or by individual actors. This is not yet possible.
The project "Viennese playbills 1930-1939" is part of the crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien – a cooperation of Wien Museum and Vienna City Library. The aim of this joint platform is to make original sources on the history of Vienna from various institutions accessible to all interested persons with the help of the crowd. Because only knowledge that can be read and comprehended can be brought to life and made available for inclusive debate.
More information: crowdsourcing.wien
Society uses a variety of services that natural ecosystems provide, such as clean water, an attractive landscape for recreational purposes, food, or renewable energy sources. Many of these so-called ecosystem services (ESS) are influenced by humans. These include, for example, agricultural activities or the construction of roads. As a consequence, society regulates human actions and thus indirectly the availability of ESS. Examples of such policies are agri-environmental programs or local land use planning.
The Citizen Science project ServeToPe develops methods to better quantify the demand for ESS and their availability in a landscape. ServeToPe thus aims to contribute to more sustainable management of ESS and more targeted policies that focus on people's needs. ServeToPe is thereby based in the biosphere reserve Wienerwald as a case study region.
ServeToPe mainly aims to answer the following research questions.
ServeToPe will reveal mismatches between the demand for ESS and their supply and will propose countermeasures. An example of this could be regional conservation efforts specifically planned for the landscape.
ServeToPe uses a variety of methods to answer the research questions and to involve as many and as diverse citizens as possible. For example, workshops were held in schools or with citizens from the region. All citizens can participate online via a survey (see below). On the project website you can find more information about the methods and the roles of citizens (in German).
Citizens are important research partners in ServeToPe. In particular, they support the visualization and quantification of the demand for ESS and of conflicting goals and trade-offs of between different ESS. A trade-off exists, for example, when several citizens want to use the same area for different purposes resulting in conflicts (e.g. recreational use and food production). You as citizen can therefore make an important contribution to the research project by participating in the following anonymous surveys.
In the main survey you can (1) enter your own activities and uses of ESS in the Wienerwald, (2) enter and locate frequently observed activities and ESS uses, and (3) identify trade-offs and opportunities for improvement. You can also upload pictures for this purpose. The main survey can be filled in only once.
However, you can also participate more regularly and thereby support ServeToPe even more intensively. This is possible via a second short survey, where you can enter and locate observed activities and ESS uses, as well as trade-offs. A picture upload is also possible here. In this short second survey, you can participate repeatedly over the entire duration of the project - i.e. continuously enter your observations. This gives us an even more accurate representation of uses and activities. You as a citizen scientist gain the opportunity to locate multiple uses and activities in areas and therefore identify multiple and more accurate trade-offs and improvements.
The results from the surveys of activities, uses, and trade-offs in the Wienerwald are compiled by the BOKU Vienna and University of Vienna research team and compared with other data on the supply of ESS (see methodology). These results are then published on the ServeToPe website. You can also sign up in our contact form to receive the results via email.
Afterwards, the results are presented to stakeholders from the region (e.g.: Employees of the administration, representatives from agriculture, nature conservation, recreational use, education and regional management) in a workshop. In this workshop, solutions and countermeasures will be developed based on the identified trade-offs and conflicts due to differences in ESS supply and demand.
If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.
ServeToPe is led by Martin Schönhart (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), from the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development at BOKU University. Furthermore, the project team includes Thomas Wrbka (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Florian Danzinger (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna. In addition, the students of the course " Conservation Related Methodologies of Social, Cultural and Economic Sciences" of the University of Vienna are involved in the project. If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.