The Goal

We are in the design and planning phase of a new climate change-related citizen science web prototype (related to "UN Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts"). The prototype will be a mobile-friendly website that allows citizens to take and submit photos and other “ground truth” observations to the Trusted Authorities, during /after floods. This information can be used to help the authorities assess and predict the flood or disaster scope and impact.

We are building a web application prototype that citizen scientists that will use to safely take and submit photos and other "ground truth" observations to the Trusted Authorities, during/after floods and other climate change-related natural disasters. Obviously we wish to ensure the health and safety of our citizen scientist observers by alerting them to potential threats to their individual safety while they take observations, and implementing appropriate safeguards. Importantly, citizen scientists do not benefit from the same labour laws or risk protection as those employed in traditional research settings.

We therefore wish you to research and recommend the relevant health and safety processes that would apply to the actions of citizen scientist volunteers. These include at a minimum Ontario and Federal laws but should consider international standards and examples for other citizen science projects.

Your Contribution

Research and recommend all aspects of the health and safety issues, including relevant Canadian laws and practices, liability disclaimers, and other national and international practices that are relevant to citizen science projects.

At the start of the project, we will provide a walk-through of our prototype site and content. We will also provide a wealth of background material on the application, its use case, goals, and objectives, and even detailed low-level fidelity wireframes. and other recommendations behind the proposed citizen science web application features.

We will avail ourselves to meeting with students participating in this study once a week or as necessary to provide guidance and suggested research.