Citizen science

The Australian Microplastic Assessment Project (AUSMAP) is a nationwide citizen science program for raising awareness, educating and reporting on microplastic loads in waterways around the country.

High schools, businesses, government authorities and the community can become AUSMAP ambassadors and help address the plastic pollution problem.

Macquarie University is the lead research partner in the project and provides valuable quality assurance and analysis of the data.

Find out more about AUSMAP.

VegeSafeis a citizen science program that investigates trace element contaminants in residential garden soils.

VegeSafe was born out of a desire to provide affordable information on contaminants to the community, allowing people to garden safely and confidently. Prior to VegeSafe, obtaining such information was costly and interpretation of results difficult for the average gardener.

The program provides testing of garden soils using portable X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry. Participants are given a personalised report outlining the trace element concentrations in their garden environment alongside advice on intervention strategies.

Since commencement in 2013, VegeSafe has analysed over 18,000 samples from 3800 Australian homes. Alongside the laboratory work, theVegeSafeteam are also involved in local permaculture presentations, international conferences, peer-reviewed publications and frequent media coverage.

To send your soil to VegeSafe, follow these instructions.

DustSafe is Macquarie University’s branch of the global 360 Dust Analysis initiative, founded by global partners including our own Professor Mark P Taylor at Macquarie University.

DustSafe aims to provide people with free information about contaminants in their home, enabling them to make informed decisions about their home environment, including possible interventions to reduce contaminant levels.

Citizen scientists are invited to submit their household vacuum dust to determine trace element risk within their home. Participants receive a personalised report explaining the trace element concentration of their dust and simple intervention strategies, which can be paired with results from the VegeSafe program to explore outdoor to indoor contamination pathways.

This citizen science initiative has analysed over 1000 samples from Australian homes since commencement and operates alongside global partners. The DustSafeprogram has been utilised in many undergraduate and postgraduate projects, local and international conference presentations and peer review publications.

To have your vacuum dust analysed, complete the registration survey.

The WetlandSnap program aims to engage and mobilise communities to help us track environmental conditions at rivers and wetlands.

We want to expand our understanding of how wetlands and rivers function and what threatens them, and help explain why they are so important.

Learn more about WetlandSnap.

Map My Environment is a collaborative data visualisation website that unites the work of Macquarie University’s VegeSafe and DustSafe citizen science initiatives, alongside global partner projects from China, Ghana, Greece, Mexico, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Map My Environment provides easily accessible global environmental information on a scale that has not previously been available, making results from citizen science programs truly accessible to all. The map is continuously updated to include new data and is expandable to include information on additional contaminants.

View the map here.