1. 1. 1. Thornhill, I.. Prioritising local action for water quality improvement using citizen science; a study across four major Chinese cities. British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK. December 2016.
      2. Thornhill, I. , Miguel-Chinchilla, L., Felipe Velasquez, L.How can citizen science data better support decision makers? Workshop: British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK. December 2016.

1. Abstract

2. Abstract
Collaborations between scientists and local communities greatly increase the collection and analysis of ecological data. However, many citizen scientists participate with an expectation that their data will promote change in their local area, whilst the acceptance of such data by decision-makers is varied. Without demonstrable use of the data generated by project participants, long-term engagement of participants may be at risk. How then can data generated by citizen scientists better support decision makers? And how can we design projects to maintain participant enthusiasm for longer?

During the workshop groups will engage in a roleplay activity whereby members of each group will represent the citizen scientist, regulatory agency, local authority and academic. The groups will focus on a single citizen science project based in a range of environments e.g. urban ecology, freshwater etc. to a) and consider the needs and expectations.