A group of researchers from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) of Barcelona has turned a small sailboat, a pleasure boat closely linked to the Catalan territory, into a vessel for oceanographic research aimed at monitoring the coastal waters of Barcelona.
Citizen science, that is, scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by citizens, is becoming an alternative tool to gather scientific data for scientific studies. Furthermore, it promotes the generation of knowledge in society through active participation.
To provide a rigorous and quality citizen science, researchers must be involved both in the design of the projects and in the verification and interpretation of data. This happens with the 'Patí Científic' project of the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) of Barcelona, in which are involved researchers from the Institute's Physical and Technological Oceanography research group, the Faculty of Nautics of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Club Patí Vela from Barcelona.
According to the researchers, led by Raúl Bardají, Nina Hoareau, Josep Lluís Pelegrí and Ignasi Vallés from the ICM, the main objective of the initiative is to turn the sailing skate, a pleasure boat closely linked to the Catalan territory, into a boat for oceanographic research and specifically for monitoring the coastal waters of Barcelona.
In this project, the experts will install a series of oceanographic sensors on the sailing skate with the help of the Smart Citizen de Fab Lab Barcelona. These sensors, adapted to the structure and characteristics of the boat, will allow gathering data on the temperature, salinity and pH of the water, among other oceanographic variables. In this way, variations along the coast can be detected, and potential sources of contamination can be identified.
Through this initiative, funded by the Barcelona city Hall, the researchers hope to better understand the consequences of anthropogenic pressure on the Barcelona coast. This can be understood by using the sailing skate before and after rain episodes, which allows analysing the changes in temperature and salinity due to the discharge of rainwater and runoff waters.
"The project will increase our knowledge of the coastal waters of Barcelona and will promote citizen participation in activities to control the sea, thus increasing social awareness of the need to love and protect our oceans" assures Ignasi Vallès.
"The measurement devices that we will install have a very low cost and are perfectly reproducible by any citizen", emphasizes Raúl Bardají, who adds that "one of the basic ideas of the project is to encourage citizen participation in marine environmental knowledge".
Currently, the ‘Patí Científic’ is in the development phase, but once it is underway, which is expected to be this autumn, the data obtained will be sent directly to the cloud through an IoT (Internet of Things) communication system and will be automatically available on a web platform for anyone interested.