URBAN: Development of a Citizen Science Biomonitoring Program Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
Due to increasing urbanization, wetlands and streams within city limits are being altered, filled in, and degraded. The habitat that remains is critical for providing urban areas with ecosystem services and maintaining biodiversity, yet is often insufficiently monitored by environmental agencies due to a lack of resources. To help fill this void, the Urban-Rural Biomonitoring and Assessment Network (URBAN) was developed as a citizen science education and outreach program for Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Through this program, volunteers gain insight into the dynamics of biological systems, learn how to identify species, and may experience growth personally in terms of environmental stewardship or even career path decisions. The implementation and development of URBAN followed a nine-step model developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Here, we offer an overview of URBAN's development, successes, and challenges by utilizing this citizen science model as a guideline.
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Promising options for low-cost monitoring programs may lie in remote sensing, citizen science, inter-departmental collaboration within municipal governments, or collaboration with higher educational institutions.
“Promising options for low-cost monitoring programs may lie in remote sensing (Matejicev et al. 2003;Heasley et al. 2020), citizen science (Cartwright et al. 2015;Shupe 2017;Kielstra et al. 2019), inter-departmental collaboration within municipal governments, or collaboration with higher educational institutions.”
From Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities (2022) · cites this paper as Cartwright et al. 2015
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Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities
Rieck, L., Carson, C., Hawley, R. J., Heller, M., Paul, M., Scoggins, M., Zimmerman, M., & Smith, R. F. (2022) · Urban Ecosystems · doi:10.1007/s11252-021-01179-3 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Cartwright, L. A., Cvetkovic, M., Graham, S., Tozer, D., & Chow-Fraser, P.
- Affiliations
- McMaster University (CA)
- Birds Canada (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Cartwright, Lyndsay A.
- Venue
- International Journal of Science Education, Part B
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-11-12
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 93-113
- ISSN
- 2154-8455 (ISSN-L)
- 2154-8463
- OpenAlex
- W2092668168
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Science Education Part B (publishedVersion)
- MacSphere (McMaster University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministère de l’Éducation, Gouvernement de l’Ontario
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Animal and Plant Science Education
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Sustainability and Education
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and sustainability education
- Keywords
- citizen science, biomonitoring, urban wetlands, urban rivers, environmental education, environmental stewardship, volunteer training, species identification, urban biodiversity, ecosystem services, Hamilton, Ontario
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