Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation (ECSAnVis)
UCL Geography’s ECSAnVis project developed tools enabling communities worldwide to analyse and visualise environmental data in culturally meaningful ways.
Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation (ECSAnVis) was a six-year [2016–2022], €2.5M project funded by the European Research Council. ECSAnVis developed geographical analysis and visualisation tools usable by non-literate communities and culturally diverse groups, enabling them to address environmental and social issues that matter most to them.
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Explore the projectBackground: ExCiteS Tools and Methods
The ECSAnVis project was built on the foundations of the EPSRC-funded ExCiteS project (2011–2016), which pioneered ways for communities with limited literacy or technical experience to actively participate in research. By combining local knowledge with scientific methods, ExCiteS demonstrated how non-literate participants could formulate research questions, collect meaningful data, and contribute to environmental management. The following sections explore the participatory approaches, methods, and tools developed to support these collaborations in diverse contexts around the world.
ECSAnVis was built on the EPSRC-funded ExCiteS project [2011–2016], which showed how non-literate people and those with limited technical literacy can successfully:
- Formulate research questions
- Collect data important to them
- Combine local environmental knowledge with scientific analysis
Case studies
- Congo Basin: Tackling illegal logging with forest hunter-gatherers and local NGOs
- Namibia, Brazilian Amazon, UK: Supporting local communities in environmental management
ECSAnVis developed methods and tools to overcome challenges in data collection:
- Participatory observation and mapping
- Hardware solutions: e.g., solar phone charging in remote areas
Software solutions:
- Sapelli: Mobile data collection and sharing platform
- Geokey: Back-end solution for participatory mapping
- Community Maps: Platform to visualise user-collected data
ECSAnVis Vision and Outcomes
To develop a GIS capable of storing large datasets, visualising trends, and capturing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in culturally sensitive ways to support indigenous communities.
Technological Infrastructure:
- Data upload tool: Secure, user-friendly, culturally sensitive
- Data visualisation interface: Considers privacy, local knowledge, and cultural context
- Data analysis functionality: Answers user questions and shows meaningful trends
Impact of ECSAnVis
ECSAnVis demonstrated that non-literate communities can successfully use GIS tools to collect, analyse, and visualise environmental data, combining traditional knowledge with scientific methods to inform local decision-making.
ExCiteS Project, UCL Department of Geography (2016–2022)Funding
This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU Horizon 2020 programme (Grant agreement No. 694767).
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