CurieuzeNeuzen duikt onder

CurieuzeNeuzen is back, but now with a focus on climate adaptation. Whereas the original CurieuzeNeuzen citizen science project has moved mountains with respect to public participation in air quality, "CurieuzeNeuzen goes underground " wants to work on climate awareness in a large-scale way. To this end, we are going to monitor the impact of weather extremes and increasing drought, where citizens notice it first: in their own garden. This garden is close to the heart of Flanders, so the tens of thousands of lawns in Flanders are the ideal canvas for an innovative citizen science project on climate adaptation. Via a large-scale network of thousands of "mini weather station networks" we will measure the soil temperature and soil moisture throughout Flanders, both at home in gardens, as well as in public gardens and parks. This measurement campaign has a specific scientific purpose: we will answer the important question of how resilient our gardens are against future climate change and extreme weather conditions, and what the effect of our garden and landscape management is on that resilience. We take into account the effect of urban heat islands, but also the impact of small, local interventions, such as planting trees and the frequency of mowing. The result is a detailed drought map for Flanders in which risk areas are mapped and, for science, an extensive and internationally unique database on the impact of increasing weather extremes on the soil climate. But above all, we aim for a large-scale awareness of the drought problem in Flanders, and what we can do about this, both as individual and as society.

Keywords:CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT, DROUGHT STRESS, CLIMATE CHANGE

Disciplines:Climate change, Environmental monitoring