Citizen science is a proven way to gather large scale data without the cost and time of conducting massive surveys. One incredibly successful example is through the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Ireland, which at the time of writing has over 4.9 million records logged. There is a dedicated Citizen Science Portal where species sightings can be logged and mapped. Additionally there are many training resources on biodiversity (including the butterflies of Ireland course I posted about previously). This model can be applied, too, to community gardening.
One example of how citizen science can be utilized to quantify community gardening is seen here through the Harvest-ometer. This is a tool whereby citizens of London are able to track the actual harvest yield of garden spaces, allowing for the gathering of quantitative data including hectares used, crop type, and harvest amount. This would be incredibly useful on a larger scale to monitor garden spaces and determine their impact on food security.
- Read more on Citizen Science in Ireland here:
- Read more on novel quantification for Community Gardens here: