News - University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus
Recent Paper Highlights How The GLOBE Program’s App, GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper Tool Builds Capacity for Citizen Scientist Engagement
Infographic used by GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper science outreach team in public climate change education. Image credit: Jenn Paul Glaser and Russanne Low.
A recently published paper (27 June 2022) “Building International Capacity for Citizen Scientist Engagement in Mosquito Surveillance and Mitigation: The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper” highlights the ability of the Mosquito Habitat Mapper (MHM) tool to support the actions of individuals to protect their communities from mosquito-borne disease.
The paper, authored by Russanne D. Low, Theresa G. Schwerin, Rebecca A. Boger, Cassie, Soeffing, Peder V. Nelson, Dan Bartlett, Prachi Ingle, Matteo Kimura, and Andrew Clark presents an overview of the Mosquito Habitat Mapper (MHM) tool and the data and outreach features that support its adoption by researchers, operational mosquito control agencies, communities, and the science-engaged public.
“Available at no cost to the user in 126 countries in 14 languages, the GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper serves as a global public good,” the authors stated in the paper. “One thing we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is how important it is to pivot quickly in response to a global health threat. The planned capability for GLOBE Observer to push messages to citizen science users in specific geographic locations readies the Mosquito Habitat Mapper tool for potential rapid deployment during a future mosquito-borne disease epidemic, even in low-resource communities where no other mosquito surveillance tools are readily available.”
“GLOBE Observer is a multilingual app that works on and offline on a variety of mobile platforms, including older mobile devices. By providing open access to all educational assets, an easy-to-use app, and a persistent, stable data archiving solution, we hope to reduce some of the barriers that prevent the development of local or regional scale vector surveillance and mitigation initiatives.”
“[The] Mosquito Habitat Mapper stands as a powerful tool to crowdsource fine spatial scale mosquito ecology data, monitor, and mitigate the spread of vector mosquitoes, and empower citizen scientists to improve local heath and reduce the risk of mosquito-borne disease in their communities.”
To view the article, click here.
News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office