The Water and Climate Department of Vrije Universiteit Brussels involves local communities in research initiatives on water. In this blog, you can read how they embrace citizen science to foster local engagement, collaborative learning and empower communities to take an active role in sustainable resource management.

Are you working on a project related to citizen science & hydrology or water management? Do you have news to share on your project, an event planned, or would you simply like to tell the rest of the community what you're working on? Fill in the form through the link below, and your project might be featured in our next newsletter!

Although the repository and platform are still in the making, we set up an interim webpage to share information on the Citizens4Water project and its next steps. You'll also find updates from the community there and all information on how to get involved. Discover our website through the link below.

Shortly before summer, we organised the first co-design workshop of Citizens4Water. This was the first step in bringing the community together and collaborating on the development of a global repository of citizen science initiatives for hydrology and water management. We gathered feedback on the benefits of the platform and how it can offer an added value for the users. Read the full report of the workshop through the link below.

Whether you took part in the co-design workshop or not, your feedback is still welcome! We're currently collecting feedback on funtionalities that would be useful on the platform, as well as feedback on the reporting template. All feedback can be shared on our interactive padlet board, click the link below.

We're currently collecting more in-depth interviews to elaborate on feedback from the workshop. We will then use all feedback to start with the development. We will organise a next workshop in a few months to co-create the visual identity of the platform. Stay tuned for more details! Finally, both the platform and reporting template will be launched around the summer of 2025.

In June next year, the inaugural Citizen Science 4 Water conference will take place in Delft, The Netherlands. The conference will focus on the crucial role citizen science plays within water resource monitoring, management and governance as well as community-led actions.