Mapping citizen science for freshwater worldwide: publication of inventory
June 9, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
To support collaboration and knowledge exchange, we developed the Citizens4Water platform that makes citizen science initiatives focused on freshwater visible at a global scale. A key step in this effort was to map existing projects as a starting point for reaching out to projects directly about this platform.
A global search effort
Last summer, we joined forces with a group of international students who carried out an extensive online search. They systematically explored the internet to identify relevant citizen science projects, drawing on a wide range of sources. This included established platforms and inventories, such as Zooniverse and citizenscience.eu, alongside targeted searches through search engines and social media. Their work followed the methodology of the Scivil Citizen Science Scan, adapted to an international scope and with a specific focus on freshwater-related initiatives.
369 projects and counting
The result of this effort is a global inventory of 369 citizen science projects addressing freshwater. Together, these projects provide valuable insights into how citizens worldwide contribute to monitoring, protecting, and understanding freshwater ecosystems. For this reason, all the projects in the inventory have been invited to submit their work and share their experiences on the Citizens4Water platform. A number of projects have already taken the opportunity to do so, we're looking forward to welcoming more in the future.
To ensure openness and reusability, the full inventory of 369 projects has been made publicly available in open access on Zenodo.