Citizen science as a tool for collaborative site-specific oil spill mapping: the case of Brazil

Abstract

Many maritime disasters lead to oil pollution, which undermines ecosystem balance, human health, the prosperity of countries and coastal areas across borders, and people’s livelihoods. This is a problem that affects the whole world. Governments must strive to ensure that operations in the marine environment are safe and avoid oil pollution by adopting methods that anticipate future scenarios to mitigate the effects of this pollution when it occurs. This study investigates a method of managing contaminated coastal areas, aiming to contribute to the management of the environmental crisis caused by disasters through the use of online collaborative mapping by volunteer collaborators. Volunteer collaborators have been sending georeferenced data and photographs of locations affected by pollution. This information is processed and printed on a cartographic basis created by the web-mapping platform, Google MyMaps©. Photos of 90 locations were plotted on the map, and the pictures demonstrate that the oil slicks that reached the Brazilian coast had very different shapes and consistency. This research can contribute as a participatory monitoring tool during and after oil spills, promoting the oriented preservation of marine ecosystems through citizen science.

Key words
oil pollution management; brazilian coast; data-driven process; citizen science