Joining forces to meet the needs of (environmental) citizen science in conflict zones

The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war triggered the development of numerous citizen science actions that gather data on environmental and health issues (Zourou & Oikonomou, ECSA 2022), and on the associated human rights violations. The data collected by these initiatives one day could become evidence in judicial fora, for example in international criminal and human rights tribunals. Already at present this evidence is being used in the ‘court’ of social media and in the news. Citizen-generated data in conflict zones, however, should be treated with a critical eye, bringing along considerations and questions on responsible management as well as on potential misuse of such data. 

In the workshop we: 

1. presented to the participants selected cases and projects of citizen science deployed during the Russo-Ukrainian war (GROMADA project, CitiObs project); 

2. asked participants to reflect in a proactive manner on which needs and knowledge/resources gaps these communities may face; 

3. elaborated strategies to respond to these needs as representatives of different ‘worlds’ (e.g., participants from academia; from ECSA; for a citizen science initiative) and present such strategies in a final debriefing session.