A proposal for using the potentials of citizen science programmes in urban bird studies Dhanya R*, Ranjini J and P A Azeez * Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India 641 108 Ph 04222657103, 09787044578, dhanyasacon@gmail.com Abstract In developing countries like India, little has been done in order to foretell the effect of urbanization on bird species in urban areas. Citizen science is a partnership between the public and professional scientists. The citizen scientists are having a crucial role in disseminating high potential in collecting high quality data in a realistic time scale. Hence the current study proposes birds as an indicator to study the urbanization trend. Enlisting citizens allow for sampling larger areas, offering education to the community and gaining local support. Urban areas provide an ideal setting for citizen-based projects. The quality of the data collected may vary in skill levels among citizen scientists. Therefore, training and coordinating volunteers adds a great deal of time and effort. In short such an approach to address local problems in a global perspective will help in addressing many urban related problems. Introduction Human beings are the most overbearing biological element in cityscapes. As urbanization proceeds the natural habitat of many species will be in predicament. In developing countries like India, little has been done in order to foretell the effect of urbanization on bird species in urban areas. In urban areas developmental activities and growth in human population concurrent with urbanization replaces
the diverse natural habitats with homogeneous built up areas along with the consequent reduction of species diversity (Vincent et al. 2005). Hence study of the changes happening in species composition of the urban ecosystem and in the specific behavioural traits of some species is very essential to sustain ecological and environmental values of urban system. In this context we propose studying birds (being one of the good indicators of a healthy ecosystem) in the urban areas to promote citizen science and to use its potentials for enriching the knowledge base that will be handy for ecological management of the system. Citizen science is a partnership between the public and professional scientists (Green 2007). Citizen science always makes difference as it helps to involve people in real science, educate, raises awareness, identifies and solves the problems locally (Green 2007). It enhances to overall knowledge base of the community and involves a large section of the community in the whole process. Organizations like RSPB and BTO are commendable examples for employing the citizen scientists to gather large amount of data at minimal cost and time (Anonymous). In developing countries the process of urbanization or the extension of the city development rather unplanned and not predictable. Hence considerable man power is necessary to carry out projects successfully. Bird watching is one among the highly celebrated hobbies and it is easy to monitor. Lot of amateurs, professionals and students are involved in bird watching and it will be the apt urban tools that can be used in monitoring environmental and ecological changes especially in urban environment. Objectives 1. Initiate scientific research programmes on urban birds by employing citizen science 2. Create urban ecological awareness among citizens through bird studies
3. Use the citizens science program to develop ecological sustainability in urban systems Study area The bird monitoring programme is designed to be performed in all the Indian cities or in selected cities based on the logistic and human resource availability. Incessant and growing migration of rural population to urban areas for various reasons has made cities densely populated. About 27 per cent the population live in urban areas. There are 4,000 cities and towns in India. Activities 1. Formation of an expert committee An expert committee is required to work out the study design, technical advice and training support to the citizen scientists/volunteers, implementation, citizen participation, data management and interpretation. 2. Planning programmes Study design Bird monitoring programmes should be implemented at different phases. Awareness classes - Citizen should be apprised of the deterioration of urban ecological wealth and its adverse impacts. It can be attained through awareness classes, seminars, workshops and medias. Selection of the volunteers/citizen scientists- A task force can be formed for the purpose. The selected members of the task force and also the volunteers should help give training, develop appropriate data collection and collation formats to make the study reliable and representative. Technical training and support- It can be done with the help of research institutes and professionals. The quality of the data collected may vary in skill levels among citizen scientists. However, if proper and user friendly formats and instruction
manuals are developed the subjectivity in data collection may be reduced and collected data may be made more or less uniform in its scientific robustness. Concern to standardise the data collection and recording should be of primary importance to get the analyses and interpretation reliable and authentic. 3. The study area selection A pilot study may be conducted for selecting the study areas. This may be restricted to limited cities to evaluate public response, interests and participation, data collection protocols and formats etc. Accordingly the strategy adopted for the study may be refined and extended to several cities in the country. 4. Field work- Skilled volunteer can collect representative information in a vast urban area. To encourage them scientists should design training programmes with minimal duration and effort. During training itself the volunteers should be made familiar with the field behaviour of the birds, the details that they have to gather and data sheets. 5. Report writing The gathered data should be analysed, synthesised and interpreted well to form a report. This should function as a baseline for making policies at government level. 6. Policy making at government level 1. Urban bird monitoring programmes is strategy with high potentials for developing citizen science. Conservation of urban environment requires participation of the multiple stake holders to bring out the competences, perspectives and realistic management programs. 2. Policy formation, its implementation and promotion should be worked out by a network of governmental agencies at Central, State, Municipal, Panchayath levels, private corporate sector, public sector, research institutes, media, youth clubs, community and voluntary organization etc. Such a strategy offers great avenues to access better technical support,
analytical service, management and interpretation in order conserve the urban ecology/birds 3. Governmental agencies, research institutes and corporate bodies may support these research programs by offering guidelines, financial support and manpower. 4. The results of the citizen science projects are to be made accessible to the public by empowering them to communicate, coordinate, collaborate and recognizing their capacity 5. Urban ecological/bird studies should be included in the National environmental policy as the cityscapes are becoming the most prevalent and least monitored systems of the earth. 7. Expected outcome a. Public participation to understand and solve the environmental problems locally; a typical bottom-up approach to address environmental issues. b. A data pool can be generated in public domain c. Conservation awareness among citizens and their involvement in developing decentralised locally executable and global acceptable environmental management strategy d. Improving the quality of the cityscapes Problems Considerable logistic and technical problems are likely during the initial stages of the conservation programme (Vargo et al. 2006). Getting enough fiscal support and public participation also will be serious issues. However, with sincere and planned approach all these problems could be satisfactorily addressed. Government sources may provide initial finances to support at different levels of implementation of the project.
Conclusion In India employing citizens for data collection is not yet a practice. To make the project as a successful one at each phase of the project it is inevitable to have perfect planning and monitoring. Moreover the cooperation of the different organisations at government and private level is also a must. The citizen scientists are having a crucial role in disseminating high potential in collecting high quality data in a realistic time scale. However, several issues need to be addressed to develop and implement such a programme. Consistent and an appropriately developed scheme can help in dealing with the hurdles and develop a people s science project. Such an approach to address local problems in a global perspective will help in address in many of the issues of proper ecological management and sustainable development. References 1.Anonymous. http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/h/housesparrow/ 2. Linda Green. 2007. Engaging, enhancing, and expanding community-based monitoring programs. Citizen Science Toolkit Conference, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 3. Kate Vincent (2005) Investigating the causes of decline of urban House sparrow passer domesticus population in Britain. PhD thesis submitted to De Montfort University. 4. Vargo TL, Lepczyk CA, Mueller WP, Feider M, Hartmann DA and Boyle OD et al. 2006. Challenges and Benefits of Citizen-Based Bird Research in an Urban Environment. Selected abstracts on urban bird ecology from the North American Ornithological Conference.