MAPS Lab Featured in Be Giant Story on Eastern Shore Citizen Science

MAPS Lab is honoured to be included in Andrew Seale’s new Be Giant feature, “Inside Nova Scotia’s grassroots movement to document rising seas and receding beaches” , with photography by Chris Donovan. MAPS Lab appears in the story because Gabriel Spadon took part in the reporting visit and spoke with Seale about the lab’s collaboration with the Eastern Shore Coastal Monitoring Network (ESCOM) .

The feature follows community members at Black Duck Cove as they measure changes in beach slope, vegetation, weather, and marine life with practical, low-cost tools. At the centre of that work are Camilo Botero and Cristina Pereira, whose coastal science and community leadership help turn repeated local observations into a growing environmental record; Colleen Boudreau, who brings deep knowledge of Little Dover and its changing shoreline; and Marian Lucas-Jefferies, whose work with the Diocesan Environment Network helps connect coastal monitoring with communities across the Eastern Shore. The story also records the perspective of Billy and the possibility of involving his grandson, Dakota, showing how citizen science can connect generations as well as data.

MAPS Lab’s role is to help communities make more use of the information they collect. Gabriel Spadon and Oladapo Oyebode are leading participating Dalhousie students and researchers in developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools that can organize observations, support questions about changes such as coastal erosion, and make the data easier to explore. The work includes a community-facing chatbot and a gamification engine designed to support sustained participation without losing sight of the people and places behind every measurement.

This collaboration is possible because of ESCOM’s volunteers and the Eastern Shore communities who contribute their time, knowledge, and observations. We gratefully recognize Camilo Botero, Cristina Pereira, Colleen Boudreau, Marian Lucas-Jefferies, Billy, Dakota, Oladapo Oyebode, the participating Dalhousie students and researchers, the Diocesan Environment Network, and its Anglican Church partners. We also thank Dalhousie University and the Ocean Frontier Institute for supporting the research collaboration.

Our thanks go to Andrew Seale for bringing these people and their work together in the feature, to Chris Donovan for documenting them through photography, and to Be Giant for investing in careful reporting on community climate resilience. Read the full story at Be Giant .