The Soiled Underpants Map

Lots of people in Switzerland have been posting pictures of their soiled underwear to the Beweisstuck Unterhose interactive map. Now I know what you are thinking - and you are right - these people are taking part in a clever citizen science project designed to test the health of Switzerland's soil.

Healthy soil is a vital and extremely valuable resource. It is essential for plants and animals. Humans also rely on healthy soil, both to grow crops and to filter the pollutants from our drinking water. Beweisstuck Unterhose is a citizen science project which has been designed to test the health of the soil across Switzerland, by testing how much a pair of underpants degrades after being buried in the soil for one month.

People across the country have been encouraged to bury two pairs of underpants and two teabags. Then after one month they need to dig-up one pair of  the underpants and one of the teabags. They can then take a picture of the underpants and post it to the Beweisstuck Unterhose interactive map. After two months they can then dig-up the other pair of underpants and the other tea-bag. They are then encouraged to post the underpants,  teabags and a soil sample to the Beweisstuck Unterhose laboratory where they will undergo scientific analysis.

Cicada Mapping

Every 17 years cicada nymphs in the eastern United States emerge en masse from underground. For a few weeks the adult cicadas fly around, make a lot of noise, have sex and lay eggs. Then they die - not to be seen again for another 17 years. 

Brood X cicadas have this month been spotted in Washington, D.C., and in surrounding areas such as Virginia and Maryland. They have also emerged in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. You can keep up with the latest sightings of Brood X cicadas for yourself on Mount St. Joseph University's Cicada Map.

The Cicada Map shows all the locations where cicadas have been reported using the University's citizen science app - Cicada Safari. Cicada Safari is a cell phone app which has been released to help track the emergence and locations of this year's brood of cicadas. The app allows anyone to photograph and report the location of cicadas that they spot in the wild. After the photos have been verified they are then posted to the Cicada Map.

Brood X is the largest of the 17-year cicada broods. They should emerge and be seen and heard in at least 15 states across the eastern United States.

The Big Butterfly Count

The UK's Butterfly Conservation organization is currently holding its annual Big Butterfly Count. Every year Butterfly Conservation asks members of the public to take part in a national survey on the health of the UK's butterfly species by spending 15 minutes counting butterflies.

Since 1976 76% of UK butterfly species have declined in either occurrence or abundance. This is of concern both for the health of these butterfly species but also for other wildlife species and the overall environment. It is therefore important to continue to monitor the health and abundance of the UK's different species of butterfly

Last year over 113,500 people took part in the Big Butterfly Count. To take part in this year's survey you just need to count butterflies for 15 minutes during a bright day. You can download an identification chart to help you identify how many butterflies of different species you see in your chosen fifteen minutes. If you want to take part you can count butterflies for the survey on any day between Friday 17 July and Sunday 9 August.

You can learn more about each species of UK butterfly on Butterfly Conservation's A-Z of Butterflies. This A-Z guide provides detailed descriptions of each butterfly species (and photos) and information on the species' health & conservation status. Each species' entry also includes a distribution map which shows where in the UK the species can be found (presumably at least partly based on previous Big Butterfly Counts).



Citizen science survey counts are beginning to become popular in animal conservation efforts. Earlier this year, in January, the Dutch National Garden Bird Count and the UK's Big Garden Birdwatch took place, to measure the health of different bird species in the Netherlands and the UK. The National Garden Bird Count results page includes an interactive map which allows you to view the numbers of different species of birds spotted in each region of the Netherlands over the weekend of the Dutch survey.

Unfortunately the RSPB are not as good at publishing bird distribution maps as their Dutch counterparts. You can view the top ten list of birds counted across the UK in this year's bird count on the Big Garden Birdwatch results page. The House Sparrow is the most common bird seen in both Dutch and UK gardens.

Mapping Quiet Locations

If you want to escape from the noise of traffic, people and other forms of noise pollution you should explore the Hush City map. This interactive map and mobile application can help you find quiet areas close to your current location. The Hush City map shows you the small, quiet spots nearby where you can go to escape the busy chaos of everyday life.

Hush City started life as a citizen science project created by Dr. Antonella Radicchi. It has now developed into a fully fledged mobile app and website which allows users to find quite spaces and share them with other users. Using the mobile app users can record the soundscape of a location, measure the sound levels in decibels and post the results to the interactive map.

When you are in desperate need of a little quiet time you can use the Hush City map to find the nearest quiet spaces uploaded by other users. The map uses color coded map markers to indicate the noise levels recorded at different locations which have been submitted to the map. Green markers indicate the quietest locations and red the noisiest places. The colors are determined by the decibel levels recorded by users at each location. Before you decide on whether to visit a quiet spot or not you can actually listen to these recordings and check out the recorded soundscape for yourself.

The National Dutch Bird Count

The sparrow remains the most common bird to be seen in Dutch gardens. Every January tens of thousands of Dutch people take part in a National Garden Bird Count. Since 2001 citizen scientists across the Netherlands have recorded the different species of birds visiting their gardens in the last weekend of January. This year's count took place over this last weekend and the results are already in.

The National Garden Bird Count results page includes an interactive map which allows you to view the numbers of different species of birds spotted in each region of the Netherlands over the  weekend. Select a bird from the map menu and you can view a choropleth map showing how many birds of that species were counted by the volunteer citizen scientists during Friday 25th, Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th January 2019.

The National Garden Bird Count is an important tool for evaluating the health of different bird species. For example in recent years the count has recorded a decrease in blackbirds. A virus may be to blame for this decrease. The National Garden Bird Count could provide an invaluable tool in helping to track the spread of this virus across the different regions of the Netherlands.

The sparrow is also the most populous bird in UK gardens. The UK Big Garden Birdwatch also took place this weekend. Unfortunately the RSPB don't seem to be so keen on publishing maps as their Dutch counterparts. You can view the top ten list of birds counted across the UK in last year's count on the Big Garden Birdwatch results page.

The UK Big Garden Birdwatch has been an annual event in the UK for 40 years. Even though the house sparrow was the most counted bird in 2018 the number of house sparrows in British gardens has fallen by 57% over the last 40 years. The number of starlings has fallen by 80% and the number of song thrushes by 75%.

The OpenLitterMap

I am sure that you are aware of the huge environmental damage being caused to the world's oceans by plastic waste. One way you can try to minimize that damage is by minimizing your use of plastic. The creator of OpenLittterMap believes you can also help to minimize that damage by recording and reporting waste.

The OpenLitterMap is an open mapping application that anyone can use to record and report litter that they find on the streets. If you photograph and report enough litter you might even make it to the OpenLitterMap high score list of most active users or help your county win the OpenLitterMap World Cup.

All the data on litter you contribute to OpenLitterMap becomes free and open data. The OpenLitterMap is working to make this data available to anyone who wants it. Until that data is made downloadable you can always use the map to help organize your local clean-up teams in their efforts to keep our streets beautiful and clear of litter.

Belgium Air Pollution

20,000 Belgiums have taken part in a citizen science project to measure air pollution in Flanders (the northern region of the country). For the project volunteers installed air quality sensors on a street facing window of their homes. These sensors measured NO2 levels during all of May 2018.

You can view the results of the project on the Curieuze Neuzen Vlaanderen interactive map. The map uses colored circles to show the amount of NO2 measured by each of the 20,000 air quality sensors. The map reveals that air pollution levels can vary widely from street to street. In general air quality in Flanders is pretty good. However there are areas with lots of air pollution, mostly in cities and the larger towns.

Antwerp stands out with nearly the whole city showing worrying levels of air pollution. The pollution is particularly poor in narrow streets with lots of traffic. However even small towns often have locations where NO2 levels are high. These tend to be in areas with lots of stop-start road traffic, such as roundabouts, busy crossroads and traffic lights.

Signs of Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg wants to map the linguistic landscape of Luxembourg. They want to see how written languages are represented in public spaces and how different kinds of signs, languages and lettering help to create the linguistic landscape of a place or community.

They have therefore devised a citizen science project to help map the use of different languages in signs throughout the country. They have released an iOS and Android app which allows anyone to submit photographs of signs that they find anywhere in Luxembourg. These photographs are then plotted on the Lingscape map.

You can help contribute to this study into the diversity and dynamics of public writing by downloading the app from the Lingscape website. The project is currently centered on the languages used in signs in Luxembourg, however the app will work in any country in the world.

Out of Africa - The Human Journey

Between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago in Africa archaic Homo sapiens evolved into anatomically modern humans. Around 60,000 years ago humans started to spread to the rest of the world, possibly by crossing the Red Sea into the Arabian Peninsula.

You can view an interactive map showing how Homo sapiens eventually spread to all corners of the globe on National Geographic's The Human Journey: Migration Routes. The map shows the land and sea routes that our ancestors took to populate the world. If you switch on the 'Route Highlights' layer on the map you can learn more about how and when humans first reached Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas.

National Geographic's map of the Human Journey is partly based on the results of the publisher's own Genographic Project. Nearly 800,000 people in over 140 countries have participated in this Genographic Project. By testing and sharing their personal DNA volunteers around the world have contributed to our understanding of where humans originated and how we came to populate the Earth.

Mapping Australian Marine Life

Red Maps' Spot.Log.Map is an Australian citizen science project set-up to record uncommon marine species around the Australian coast. By asking members of the public to submit uncommon marine life in the seas around Australia the project hopes to see which marine species may be extending their range in response to changes in the environment, such as ocean warming.

The site includes a Google Map on the project's home page, which animates through photos of the latest sightings reported to Spot.Log.Map. If you click on the 'sightings' tab you can also view a map of all the uncommon sightings logged by Spot.Log.Map contributors. The map includes the option to filter the sightings displayed on the map by marine species.

If you register with Red Map or sign-in with a Facebook account you can contribute to this citizen science project by mapping your own sightings of uncommon marine species.

London's Most Beautiful Walk

My favorite walk in central London is from Tower Bridge to the Houses of Parliament on the South Bank of the Thames. However I don't have any data to prove that this is the best walk in London.

Perhaps I should therefore concede that Yahoo Labs has found the true best walk in London. In The Shortest Path to Happiness:Recommending Beautiful, Quiet, and Happy Routes in the City Yahoo Labs set out to find the most beautiful route between Euston Square and Tate Modern. In this citizen science project participants were asked to choose the most beautiful images from Google Maps Street View taken along different routes between the two locations.


The citizen science project they chose to find this route was Urbangems. On Urbangems volunteers are asked to compare two Street Views of London and choose the one they think is the most beautiful, quiet or happy.

(There is a nice pay-off if you contribute in the Urbangems project. You can view a Google Map of personal recommendations of the most beautiful, quite or happy places in London based on the choices of people who had similar responses to you.)

How do we know that Yahoo Labs have actually found the most beautiful route between Euston Square and Tate Modern? Carl Bialik decided to test the results by personally walking the routes suggested by Yahoo Labs. Carl explored the suggested most beautiful, quietest and happy routes and also explored a few other routes between the two locations.

You can read his response to Yahoo's suggested routes In Walking the Data-Driven Scenic Route in London. The article also includes a Google Map of Yahoo's routes so, if you want, you can explore them yourself.

Conservation & Crowd-Sourced Maps

This week I came across two interesting examples of organisations using crowd-sourced maps in order to help protect the countryside in the UK.


Butterfly Conservation are holding their annual butterfly count (19th July- 10th August). The butterfly count enables Butterfly Conservation to monitor the health of butterfly species across the UK.

If you visit Butterfly Conservation you can download a Butterfly Chart to help you identify and record butterflies. You then need to find a suitable location and spend just fifteen minutes identifying and recording the butterflies which you see.

All the results from this crowd-sourced butterfly census are then added to the Butterfly Sightings Google Map. The butterfly sightings on the map can be filtered by date, species, habitat and location.


The Campaign to Protect Rural England has released a Google Map to identify brownfield sites across the country.

In order to try and stop the over development of rural land in the countryside the CPRE needs your help to locate brownfield sites where land is being wasted and could be used for property development instead.

#WasteOfSpace is a map of all the brownfield sites identified so far. You can contribute to the map by submitting brownfield sites by e-mail, by Tweet or through Facebook.

Citizen Scientist to the Rescue

Night Cities ISS is a citizen science project by the Universidad Coplutense de Madrid, which is using the power of the crowd to help identify locations in satellite images taken from the International Space Station.

The project's aim is to identify light sources in night time views of the Earth. Night Cities ISS presents you with an image taken from the International Space Station alongside a Google Map of the same location. Your job is to identify locations in the satellite image by clicking on the location in the image and on the map.

To align the image with the map view you can pan and zoom both the image and the map. You can also rotate the satellite image by pressing shift and left-clicking on the image.


The Catalina Sky Survey is scanning the solar system for asteroids. Asteroid Hunt is a citizen science project that is trying to identify the locations of asteroids by using images taken by the survey.

Asteroid Hunt presents you with four animated telescope views of a section of the night sky. Your job is to identify the location of moving asteroids in the four still images. To identify an asteroid you simply need to click on the location of the asteroid in each of the sequence of images.

Mapping the Zooniverse

Google Maps Mania is a huge fan of citizen science pioneers Zooniverse. We are delighted to be able to congratulate them this week on reaching a staggering one million registered volunteers.

Citizen science is a very effective method by which scientists can exploit the power of the crowd to collect and analyse data. Zooniverse has been pioneering the use of citizen science on-line for a number of years and have developed almost 30 distinct citizen science projects. Two of these, Old Weather and Cyclone Center, have used the Google Maps API to help crowd-source the gathering of data from historical weather records.

To celebrate their one millionth registered user Zooniverse has released a heat map of registered users around the world. The Zonniverse User Map really helps to visualize the success of the citizen science project across the globe.

Citizen Mapping in New York

The New York Public Library has been blazing a trail in the use of citizen cartography through its wonderful Map Warper tool. The tool utilizes the power of the 'crowd' to help digitize the libraries wonderful collection of historical maps.

Using the tool anyone can help the Library align their historical maps on top of a modern OpenStreetMap of New York. Now that the library has digitized a large number of their maps they need help in identifying building footprints on the maps.

The New York Library's new Building Inspector is another 'citizen science' tool that allows anyone to help the library identify building footprints on the library's maps. The library has developed a Map Vectorizer application which automatically detects building footprints and converts them to machine-readable shape files.

The Map Vectorizer can automatically identify building footprints in an entire borough in a matter of hours. However the data footprints are not always completely accurate. That's where the Building Inspector comes in as it allows users to determine if a building footprint is accurate or whether it needs to be redrawn.