Experiences
The ScienceTourism project engage tourists to become direct participants in research or monitoring activities concerning climate change science. Therefore, it provides guidelines to design a scientific tour founded on climate change science and develops a citizen science monitoring product.
Scientific tourism product prototype
The tourism entrepreneur Stephan Mantler owner of the local tour company Háfjall and project partner of ScienceTourism was asked to develop a scientific tourism product prototype that would be available and free of use for local tour companies. The scientific tour prototype is designed for foreign as well as Icelandic customers and founded on climate change science.
Citizen science - glacier changes in Vatnajökull National Park viewed in old photographs
There is a long tradition of glacier monitoring in Iceland which began in an organized way with the establishment of the Glaciological Society of volunteers in 1950. Since then, it has become increasingly important to pay attention to the state of Iceland’s glaciers which can also act as key indicators of global climate change. The Citizen Science Repeat Photography aims to enable citizen scientists to carry forward this tradition by repeating photography of glacier outlets from fixed positions using phone cameras. Suitable locations for photo markers have been identified within Vatnajökull National Park. An online repository is being established where glacier photographs can be uploaded and compared in years to come. Some of these locations are also based on archival photographs taken in past decades, already providing a glimpse into a rapidly changing frozen landscape.
This project aims to enable citizen scientists to carry forward this tradition by repeating photography of glacier outlets from fixed positions using cameraphones. Suitable locations for photo markers have been identified within Vatnajökull National Park and an online repository is being established where glacier photographs can be uploaded and compared in years to come. Some of these locations are also based on archival photographs taken in decades past, already providing a glimpse into a rapidly changing frozen landscape.
