PreserVamos

PreserVamos is an Argentine citizen-science initiative focused on monitoring freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, streams, and lakes. It enables residents, students, and local communities to record environmental observations through a simple mobile app or web platform, where users answer a short questionnaire and upload photos from the field. These contributions feed a public, collaborative map that displays real-time information on habitat quality across the country. The project is supported by the UNDP’s Acceleration Lab together with scientific partners including AppEAR and national universities, and it provides municipalities with free access to data tools that strengthen local environmental management.

PreserVamos works through a participatory monitoring system that allows anyone to collect field data from freshwater environments using a mobile app or web interface. When a participant visits a river, stream, or lake, they open the app, answer a brief set of visual and contextual questions, and take a few photographs of the site. Once submitted, the information is automatically incorporated into a centralized database and displayed on a public collaborative map, where each observation contributes to evaluating the condition of aquatic habitats across the region. Municipalities that join the program can access these data in real time, request additional environmental indicators, and integrate the observations into their local management and planning.