tNCEA - Citizen Science Integrated Survey Design

Natural England, on behalf of Defra and the NCEA programme, are working to design and test Integrated Surveys for monitoring. The goal is to combine a range of accessible survey approaches and methods, considering how these should be deployed in unison to achieve greater survey participation, capacity, capability and a greater result in terms of both science & evidence insight and public engagement.

The evidence gathered through this collaborative monitoring approach will contribute valuable understanding to the quick detection of pressures and environmental change and inform adaptive management. The surveys are designed to provide wider direct & in-direct benefits than would be possible using each method alone.

The surveys should be capable of being understood and deployed as a coherent whole, with their components providing a range of different opportunities and approaches to contribute to that whole, e.g. with different levels of skill, knowledge, commitment or availability requirements. Surveyors, primarily volunteers, will be able to contribute in different ways, at different times and through different organisations and be supported to understand the overall aim and how their efforts are contributing to it.

The aim is to trial the Integrated Surveys with convened stakeholders in 6 locally delivered nested demonstration projects (3 urban, 3 landscape scale) in 26-28. These 6 projects will provide a collaborative survey network, working together to integrate their learning and evidence to improve the way we monitor the state and value of nature and the environment at a local scale, as well as combining to contribute towards useful insight and assessment at regional and national scales.

We believe this approach can achieve a more efficient and effective cost benefit for local and national stakeholders than is currently the case. Initially this work will engage and exploit experience and practice among existing environmental organisations operating across the country. The result though will be more accessible to a wider range of groups, organisations and individuals not yet engaged with environmental citizen science or assessment.