VIGILANTES DEL SUELO
Participate and contribute to know the quality of Spain's soils
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Vigilantes del Suelo will stimulate citizen participation in scientific activities to understand the health of the soil we walk on and to develop a national soil health map.
Vigilantes del Suelo is a national project that seeks to stimulate citizen participation in scientific activities related to the field of soil science, the science that studies soils.
Through citizen science campaigns, participants in Vigilantes del Suelo will collect soil samples from their surroundings, which they will analyse to determine their state of health. The results obtained in each area will be used to create a national map of the health of our soils.
Vigilantes del Suelo is aimed at the general public, with special interest for students and secondary school teachers. It will provide them with the tools to find out for themselves the state of soil health in their area.
Vigilantes del Suelo will provide participants with a kit for the collection and analysis of soil samples.
In addition, the results obtained can be stored and geopositioned through a mobile application that will help to create a map of the quality of our soils.
PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
Project Type: National
Duration: 2023 – 2024
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Vigilantes del Suelo project aims to produce a national map of the health of our soils through the data that will be collected through citizen science campaigns.
The objectives of Vigilantes del Suelo are aligned with those of the European ECHO project, an initiative in which the Ibercivis foundation also participates.
IBERCIVIS’ ROLE
We manage it together with the Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), that is responsible for the more scientific aspects, and Ibercivis for those related to citizen science.
It is a joint project (FCT-22-18723) funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)-Ministry of Science and Innovation, in its 2022 call.
OUR ACTIVITIES
- Creation of a team of researchers and coordinators to manage the scientific, design and citizen science aspects. In addition, we will integrate in this team the ambassadors of the project, Spanish entities that will collaborate in the distribution of the kits to citizens in the different participating provinces.
- Participation in the choice of the methodologies to be followed with the citizens, and of the elements that will make up the soil analysis kit.
- Preparation of the graphic materials and the didactic guide of the project.
- Creation of the citizen science app that will host the data and results provided by the participants of Vigilantes del Suelo.
- Administrative management related to the purchase of the elements of the kit and its distribution to the ambassadors.
- Carrying out workshops and webinars with the centres and people participating in the project to solve doubts and share experiences.
- Follow-up of the whole process, in general. Sampling, how they provide the data, the conclusions that can be drawn from them, etc.
- Analysis of the scope and impact of the project, with the subsequent drafting of the final reports.
