‘My new routine’: Assessing the impact of citizen science on climate adaptation in Bangladesh

Abstract

Citizen science is put forward as a method for extending science to include communities in learning about, and adapting to, climate variability and change in the places they live. But it is difficult to find evidence of how citizen science influences climate adaptation governance. The citizen science field lacks the assessment frameworks and empirical studies for understanding impacts on citizen scientists’ common adaptive capacities for supporting social processes of adaptation. In addressing this gap, this paper describes a citizen science initiative carried out with communities in northeast Bangladesh, and assesses how it contributed to local governance capacity for climate adaptation. In doing so, it develops and tests a novel framework that assesses citizen science’s contributions a high-quality knowledge base, and to five different capital stocks. The assessment saw high increases in citizen scientists’ human capital relative to their awareness and understanding of local rainfall; learning that they applied in adaptive practices at work and at home, and local leadership. There were also high increases in social capital among citizen scientists, but more moderate increases in technological and resource capital, and in political capital. There was some evidence of the citizen science being used to support public adaptation decision-making. The initiative had the least impact on institutional capital.