Visitors to several national and provincial parks in British Columbia and Alberta can now help monitor critical glacial landscapes as part of a new citizen science program led by researchers at the University of Waterloo.
Visitors to several national and provincial parks in British Columbia and Alberta can now help monitor critical glacial landscapes as part of a new citizen science program led by researchers at the University of Waterloo.
Following the success of the Coastie program in Atlantic Canada, Dr. Chris Houser, dean of the Faculty of Science and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, is launching the Icy Initiative in partnership with Parks Canada, British Columbia Parks, and BC Parks Foundation. The inaugural sites for the Icy Initiative are the Jasper and Glacier National Parks, as well as Bugaboo, Garibaldi, and Mount Robson Provincial Parks. Each site will feature “Icy” cell phone stands, designed by Houser and his team, that provide step-by-step instructions to make it easy for visitors to take and submit photos from the same spots for precise comparison.
These citizen scientists will be the main data collectors for the Icy Initiative, and their submissions will help the Waterloo team and Parks Canada track glacial changes such as retreat, thinning and disappearance, offering valuable insights into the impacts of climate change. Every participating photographer is a contributor to vital environmental research.
Read more at: University of Waterloo
Photo Credit: chriszwettler via Pixabay
