OR/17/045 Background

Duncan, M, Mee, K, Hicks, A, Engwell, S, Robertson, R, Forbes, M, Ferdinand, I, Jordan, C, and Loughlin, S. 2017. Using the 'myVolcano' mobile phone app for citizen science in St. Vincent and the Grenadines: a pilot study. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/17/045.

Citizen science in volcanic environments

Volcanic environments are typically under-monitored, in part owing to the cost of equipment and maintenance (Brown et al., 2015a). Evidence suggests, however, that communities can participate, not only in the monitoring of their volcanic environment, but in discussions that raise awareness, understanding and preparedness, whilst also supporting early warning systems (e.g. Stone et al., 2014).

Community observers can bridge the gap and enhance the trust between citizens and scientists, as well as enhance social capital (Stone, et al., 2014; Stevenson et al. 2013). For example, past or ongoing citizen science initiatives have involved citizens collecting volcanic ash fallout (Bernard, 2013; Stevenson et al., 2013), observing and monitoring their environment on a daily basis to help reduce community risk (Stone et al., 2014) and helping to understand the evolution and impacts of volcanic eruptions that may contribute towards aid, recovery and mitigation efforts (e.g. Loughlin et al., 2002). Figure 1 illustrates the components of increasing resilience to natural hazards where citizen science could contribute.

Figure 1    Components of increasing resilience to natural hazards where citizen science could help.

Due to the dynamic nature of volcanic environments, there are opportunities to engage with citizens on an almost continuous basis to assess flooding, landslides, felt earthquakes and so on. Many volcano observatories collect information on earthquakes and their impacts (e.g. UWI SRC, United States Geological Survey, GeoNet New Zealand etc.), sulphurous odours (e.g. Iceland Met Office) or ash samples (e.g. Alaska Volcano Observatory (Wallace et al., 2015), Montserrat Volcano Observatory etc.) during eruptions.

Citizen science and myVolcano

myVolcano was developed as a tool for collating observations, photographs and sampling location of distal volcanic ash following the eruptions of Eyafjallajökull and Grímsvötn volcanoes in 2010 and 2011, respectively. During these eruptions the British Geological Survey (BGS) asked the UK public to collect particle samples, which were analysed by microscope for the presence of ash and subsequently used to map the distribution of ash fallout in the UK (Stevenson, et al., 2012; 2013). The app was developed to ensure a more streamlined process of data collection in the event of future eruptions affecting the UK. A scoping study of citizen science in St. Vincent (Mee and Duncan, 2015) proposed that involving citizens, communities, scientists and other key stakeholders in the collection, analysis and sharing of observations via myVolcano could help, in part, to address the shortfall in data collected from volcanic environments.

The study identified a number of key challenges, including:

• Managing data validation and quality assurance (including rumour quelling);
• Ensuring resilience of key systems (i.e. telecommunications);
• Moivating volunteers, managing expectations and ensuring safety;
• Data sharing (between users, scientists and decision makers);
• Appropriate mobile phone platforms (e.g. iOS, Android etc.).

In order to address the challenges identified during the scoping study, and to test the app with potential users, it was identified that an in-country workshop was required, which would include demonstrating the app to a range of potential users — both of the app and the data it would collect. With funding from the Global Geological Risk Platform of the BGS Official Development Assistance (ODA) Programme, a stakeholder workshop and several school activities were carried out in March 2017 and this report discusses the approach to, and results from, those activities.

Development history

The principle functions of myVolcano are to:

• Upload free-text observations;
• Upload photographs;
• Upload simple measurements of distal volcanic ash samples;
• Learn how to collect distal volcanic ash samples;
• View global volcano information (locations, eruptive history etc.);
• Access others users’ observations.

Figure 2 summarises the development history of the app, including additions such as translation into Spanish, inclusion of ‘home region’ pages and development on Android.

Figure 2    Timeline of myVolcano developments (new additions in red text).

At the time of the workshop, version 1.3 of myVolcano was published and available for download on Apple devices, whilst version 2.0 (available on both Apple and Android) was developed but unreleased. There was also a third prototype (unreleased) ‘multi-hazard’ version of myVolcano which included a number of more detailed questions about hazards, such as landslides, volcanic gases, flooding, earthquakes etc. (Figure 3).

Figure 3    Examples of more detailed questions about a range of hazards in the prototype ‘multi-hazard’ version of myVolcano.

A simplified version of the myVolcano was also duplicated on a website to enable non-iOS users (prior to Android development) to submit and access observations (Figure 4).

Figure 4    The web version of myVolcano allows users to upload images and descriptions and view all submitted observations, but does not show global volcano information.

Validating observations

When observations are submitted via myVolcano, they are subject to a checking process before being published in the app (Figure 5). This process involves checking for malicious or offensive content, as well as empty or irrelevant submissions. Checking is currently done by the BGS Enquiries team, which does not check for scientific validity of observations, nor does it provide any additional interpretation of the submissions. Since checking is only performed during normal business hours, it usually takes approximately 24 hrs for submissions to be approved and longer over weekends and public holidays. There may also be a delay due to different time zones if observations are posted outside of the UK. Once an observation has been through the checking process and has been approved for publication, it is then made visible to other users via the map interface, although users must restart the app for them to become visible. The subject of how to manage incoming observations was a key theme for the workshop.

Figure 5    The existing verification process for all new observations and photos submitted in myVolcano, which can take up to 24 hrs before being approved and published.