ECSAnVis - Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation

Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation (ECSAnVis) is a five-years project funded by the European Research Council, which aims at the development of geographical analysis and visualisation tools that can be used, successfully, by non-literate people and any other community in a culturally appropriate ways, that further fit their needs and social practices.

ECSAnVis builds on existing knowledge, experience and products at UCL Extreme Citizen Science group to achieve its greater vision; that is the development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) that can store large amounts of data, show and analyse change over time, and visualise possible future trends while being capable of capturing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and manage it in a culturally sensitive way to support the needs of indigenous groups and communities. ECSAnVis technological infrastructure builds on top of our existing software and will be expanded to include the development of:

• A data upload tool to support data uploads from users’ handheld devices in a secure (i.e. data cannot be taken involuntarily), user-friendly and culturally sensitive way;

• A data visualisation interface, which considers privacy and other contextual variables (e.g. being culturally appropriate, inclusive of local indigenous knowledge and information that ‘matters’ and ‘makes sense’ to its users; it’s easy to understand and so on);

• Data analysis functionality with appropriate visualisation and communication modes, which answer users’ questions in a culturally- meaningful context, and which show data trends and patterns.

• UCL Extreme Citizen Science group’s existing products and tools will be further expanded and improved to include new needs, lessons learned and success stories.

For more information about ECSAnVis please visit the project website.