Written by Jurgen Silence
On April 19, the City of Leuven, with support from Digital Flanders, hosted a citizen science event for the URBREATH project. A lively group of 28 volunteers from the Sint-Paulus Junior Scouts Troop (ages 12–14) joined a sunny-day Bioblitz to check out biodiversity at a site where Nature-Based Solutions will be put in place soon.
After a quick intro to URBREATH—and why nature-based solutions matter as the climate changes (more heat stress and higher flood risk)—we headed out for a site visit in the Casablanca area. We walked through the main challenges and needs, explained what’s planned next, showed off our Digital Twin simulations, and made sure everyone knew how the Bioblitz would work.
Our young scientists teamed up in pairs, and each duo got a goodie bag: a recording sheet and pen, a WhatsApp QR code for uploading photos, handy custom ID guides for birds and insects, a few collection/observation jars—and, of course, some sweets to keep the energy (and enthusiasm) up.
Both the study area and a nearby reference zone were divided into six sections. Each section was surveyed twice by a duo for 25 minutes. The junior scouts spotted, photographed, and logged as much fauna as they could—and they took the job seriously. It was great to watch them check trees, lift rocks, squeeze into shrubs, lie flat on the ground to photograph ants and spiders, and sprint after bees, bumblebees, wasps, grasshoppers, and butterflies to get the perfect shot. They also had plenty of animated debates about the creatures they found (and the creatures were probably wondering why they were suddenly getting so much attention). Even two dogs on a leash made it onto the list! After the Bioblitz, everyone kept comparing methods and sharing discoveries over a well-earned drink and some cake.
And it wasn’t just fun—there was a solid scientific result too. The teams made more than 1340 recordings, revealing at least 70 different species. Next up: a deeper, photo-based analysis of the observations, followed by new monitoring after the Nature-Based Solution is implemented to see how biodiversity changes over time.
A huge thank you to the Sint-Paulus Junior Scouts Troop for their boundless energy, sharp observations, and great support in the URBREATH citizen science activities!