Last year the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, FECYT, launched a call for grants for the promotion of scientific, technological and innovation culture, which aims to bring the results of R&D closer to society and improve its scientific-technical education. One of the six University of Vigo projects selected is Sentinelas da Costa, an initiative that seeks to get citizens to play an active role in monitoring the changes suffered by beaches and the coastline. It is a citizen science project in which the University of Cadiz, the ICTS-Coastal Observation System of the Balearic Islands and the Institut de Ciències de él Mar-CSIC are also involved. The aim is that volunteers can report, through a mobile phone application, on how the sandbanks are changing and the coastal dynamics processes.
Sentinelas da Costa is part of an international project already underway, CoastSnap, an innovative community-based beach monitoring system on several continents, designed to capture and measure the dynamics of the coastline by obtaining data through photographs sent by the beaches visitors. The initiative emerged in Australia in 2017 and in Galicia is being coordinated by the researcher of the Geological Oceanography and Biogeochemistry group (XM1, CIM-UVigo) Rita González Villanueva, with the aim of characterising the spatio-temporal variability of coastal systems by involving citizens in a scientific activity. The aim is to take advantage of “the current reality in which we live, a permanently connected world, in which any citizen has a mobile device that allows them to capture any aspect of the environment around them”. As part of this initiative, in Galicia there are already several monitoring points on the beaches of the Cíes Islands, Vigo, O Grove, Muros and Bueu, where a training session for volunteers will take place this month.
Training for volunteers in Bueu
The Sentinelas da Costa project has been active for a year and will end at the end of September, although “the idea is to be able to continue”, says Rita González Villanueva. The researcher explains that the initiative is divided into two actions, one at national level within the CoastSnap initiative and the other at local level.
In the local action, a mobile application was developed based on the creation of reports and through which users can communicate, in addition to images, geomorphological information or on the presence of spills, rubbish, algae blooms, etc. To assess the effectiveness of this application, a group of volunteers will be formed in each of the partner institutions. The objective is that in the coming months they will evaluate the use of this app and its viability to implement improvements in the future and for the provision of a greater number of users.
In Cadiz, the training took place last week, while the University of Vigo´s one will be held on 30 July in Bueu, with the City Council collaboration, at 11.00 a.m. in the Agrelo Interpretation Centre. This is one of the beaches that are already part of the international network of CoastSnap sandbanks and during the last year there has been a base there where people can place their mobile phones to take a photo of the evolution of the beach and share it on social networks using the hashtag #coastsnapagrelo together with the time it was taken. All the snapshots will form part of the community database in which changes of the beach captured from the same position and viewing angle will be recorded.
Anyone wishing to take part in this free training activity must register in advance using a form available on the municipal website, or by calling 986390029 (ext. 2).
CoastSnap, at national level
At a national level, the use of the free CoastSnap application for mobile phones is being promoted, which allows the monitoring of beaches where there is a CoastSnap base, but also those where there is not, by creating one of its own or in a free mode. “To encourage the use of this application”, explains Rita González Villanueva, “we are running a national competition and, every month, the people who share the most photographs using the app will win prizes”.
In order to reach as many people as possible, the project relies on the use of social networks such as Twitter and Instagram. “Since we started with this strategy and with the contest, the number of participants has increased, and we have received different messages from other institutions that want to join the initiative to keep it alive over time”, she concludes.
Source: DUVI