Citizen science tools for lake monitoring in the framework of the united nations sustainable development goals: The project SIMILE

Abstract

SIMILE (Informative System for the Integrated Monitoring of Insubric Lakes and their Ecosystems) is a cross-border Italian-Swiss project aiming to improve the management of the Insubric lakes and their ecosystems with different technologies as well as the participation of citizens and stakeholders in water resources monitoring. In this project, water monitoring and management was carried out through different technologies: in situ sensors, satellite imagery, and data coming from citizen science. This paper focuses in particular on this last source of information, describing how data sourced from citizen science can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). The report illustrates the tools that have been developed for the collection and management of information provided through citizen science; a mobile cross-platform application for smartphones that can be used by any citizen and a Web application for administrators, useful for data management and editing.