Citizens4Water News

Karen Verstraelen, Dec. 11, 2025, 10:37 a.m.

Discover a range of citizen science projects from around the world as the speakers share their experiences, best practices, and the challenges that they’ve faced. The webinar will also mark the official launch of Citizens4Water, the global inventory of Citizen Science projects on Water.

Karen Verstraelen, Nov. 27, 2025, 1:28 p.m.

On Wednesday November 19, Scivil was invited for a talk at a webinar organised by Acting4Water. In this webinar, we presented the platform and shared insights from the inventory of projects that we are creating.  We also presented the context of the Citizens4Water project in the IHP-IX programme of UNESCO. The presentation was followed by a Q&A.

If you missed it, the full webinar, including a presentation of Citizens4Water and Acting4Water, can be watched here.

Karen Verstraelen, Oct. 21, 2025, 7:59 a.m.

Water is life, but in many communities, access to clean water and understanding its importance remains a challenge. The project Diamonds on the Soles of Our Feet is transforming this reality through citizen science and creativity. In this interview with professor Jaqui Goldin, one of the founders of the project, we explore how DSF combines science, art, and education to create lasting change.

Karen Verstraelen, Oct. 10, 2025, 8:57 a.m.

The platform has gone live in testing phase! Be a part of it: submit your project and share your feedback with us.

Karen Verstraelen, Sept. 22, 2025, 8:47 a.m.

During the summer, the Citizens4Water team was joined by 7 international students to kick-off the inventarisation of projects. Read on to find out about the next steps for Citizens4Water.

Karen Verstraelen, May 16, 2025, noon

Siqing Yu is a PhD student at the KU Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Melbourne (Australia). As part of her PhD, she has been researching a wide range of citizen science projects. As her ethnographic fieldwork, she took part a few times as a volunteer in the WaterWatch project in the area of Melbourne, facilitated by the Merri Creek Management Committee, a local not-for-profit environmental organization. In this interview, she tells us more about this Australian project measuring water quality, how it came to be and challenges it faced.

Karen Verstraelen, Feb. 3, 2025, noon

Within the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), our scientific research is deeply committed to the marine environment. Therefore, we are hyper aware that plastic pollution is a growing threat to our rivers, seas, and coastal ecosystems. Here in Flanders, where waterways like the Scheldt and Yzer flow directly into the North Sea, the problem hits close to home. But tackling an issue of this scale requires more than just awareness—it demands action.

Karen Verstraelen, Oct. 4, 2024, noon

Citizen science is proving to be a powerful tool for promoting inclusive water resource management. By involving local communities in research initiatives, it not only generates valuable data but also raises awareness and empowers stakeholders to advocate for their environmental rights. At the Water and Climate Department of Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), we are embracing citizen science to foster local engagement, collaborative learning, and empower communities to take an active role in sustainable resource management.

Karen Verstraelen, July 30, 2024, noon

On May 23rd 2024, we organised an online co-design workshop within the Citizens4Water project, as a first step to set up a global repository of citizen science initiatives for hydrology and water management.