Research project
Schone Rivieren (Clean Rivers)
What motivates citizen scientists in the Schone Rivieren project to contribute? How does their motivation, attitude and knowledge change over the years? Are there differences in motivation and attitude between different groups of volunteers (clean up vs. monitoring; long-term vs. short-term)?
- Duration
- 2017 - 2022
- Contact
- Anne Land-Zandstra
- Funding
- Gieskes Strijbis Fonds
- Adessium Foundation
- Partners
In this project Leiden University studies the motivations, expectations, and learning impact of citizen scientists who are monitoring plastic waste at the banks of the Dutch rivers Maas and Waal.
In the Schone Rivieren Project, IVN, Plastic Soup Foundation and Stichting De Noordzee collaborate to eventually reduce the amount of waste found on the river banks in the Netherlands. They are combining river cleanup activities with rigorous monitoring by volunteers for a period of at least five years.
Citizen Science
For the first time in the Netherlands, citizen scientists will collect reliable data about plastic waste on river banks on such a large scale. They will be using internationally developed OSPAR check lists to monitor the types of waste. While collecting data is one of the goals of the project, another goal is for these citizen scientists to become more aware of their surrounding nature and to become advocates for cleaner rivers.
Leiden University
Unique of this project is that research about citizen science is part of the project from the beginning, meaning we can collect longitudinal data about the motivation, attitudes and knowledge of the participants. At the same time we are able to feed our findings back into the project and advice on the best ways to run the citizen science project