A new face! Back in June, the land and soil topic got a new research curation fellow--me! Please feel free to reach out/let me know if there's anything I can help you out with--I'd love to chat!

Land Community Call

Last week, we held our quarterly community call for land and soil folks. Though it was a small group, the conversation was non-stop! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! Some highlights are below, but you can find all the meeting notes here.

Attendees

@xose

@seanmcginnis

@julia_e_masters

@bhamster

@laurel_mire

Ongoing Projects and Updates

IMVEC-- The Institute for Neighborhood Monitoring of Polluted Spaces is an organization based in Spain that focuses on community monitoring of contaminated areas. They work to make technology and tools accessible and usable to everyone, keeping in mind that what works for one community might not be best for the next. IMVEC recently developed a tool for underground soil sampling and a new learning program in community forensic techniques to teach people and neighborhoods how to have a forensic approach to environmental aggressions. Check out their regist.ro portal for tools to collect aerial, subterranean, odor, and photographic data.

Haiti Geoportal--Following the recent earthquake in Haiti, Esri has produced an open resource for publishing, creating, and sharing data and web-based maps to support on-the-ground response efforts and recovery plans. They are trying to get tools like Open Street Maps (OSM) in people's hands as soon as possible so information can be collected on the ground. Esri GeoPortal Program Manager and longtime Public Lab member Sean McGinnis is also doing land use change analysis to see what has changed since Haiti's 2010 earthquake and what changes may have helped or exacerbated destruction.

More Resources Shared

• Digital Democracy (digital-democracy.org)--The Mapeo program from Digital Democracy is a free, offline, & open-source geospatial technology developed for communities without internet access. No connection or special hardware is needed to collect, view, or share data initially, but the tech has capabilities to synchronize (or sideload) between mobile phones once connected to a hotspot. Xose from IMVEC shared this resource as he and Sean discussed how crucial it is for communities with no internet connection--both communities not yet on the grid and communities temporarily offline following an event--to access and contribute to mapping tools that can help speed up response and recovery.
• IMVEC Odor Registration Manual - Also shared by Xose, this is a manual from IMVEC for coordinating a neighborhood registration of bad odor events produced by polluting facilities. Check out their super helpful odor registration table for odor logging by hand here.
• IMVEC PVC Pipe Soil Sampling Instructions - Another great resource shared by Xose, this is an instruction manual for using their underground soil sampling methodology and preparing samples for shipment to a lab for testing.

PS---Community calls are a new type of Public Lab call hosted by the research curation fellows! They happen about once a month, rotating between the topics of Land, Air, Water, and Organizing & Advocacy. Check out more info here.

I loved chatting with everyone who was able to make the call and learned so much from these inspiring community scientists! If you couldn't make the call but still want to share any updates and resources, feel free to keep the conversation going and comment on this post :)