Work

CROPS Policy brief Water mission

Year: 2026

Type: report

Abstract: Achieving the ambitious targets of the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters requires continuous, high-resolution spatial and temporal monitoring across coastal zones, river basins, and marine protected areas - data densities that centralised agency networks cannot achieve alone. Citizen science provides a cost-effective, high-impact mechanism to fill critical monitoring gaps while simultaneously boosting public ocean literacy and environmental stewardship. Without deliberate national policy intervention, valuable crowdsourced data remains locked in isolated silos, underutilised by statutory bodies, and lost to the "post-grant trap".

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24081301

Authors: Sprinks, James, Witter, Anna, Cruz, Bianca

Institutions: Earthwatch Institute, Earthwatch Europe

Language: English

Topic: Coastal and Marine Management

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life below water, Clean water and sanitation

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7225610429

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