Citizens can help to map putative transmission sites for snail-borne diseases.

Introduction: Schistosomiasis and fasciolosis are snail-borne diseases of great medical and veterinary health importance. The World Health Organization recommends complementing drug treatment with snail control and community involvement for disease elimination, but there is a general lack of snail experts and hence snail distribution data. Therefore, we adopted a citizen science approach and involved citizens in the monitoring of medically and veterinary important snail taxa.

Rice availability and stability in Africa under future socio-economic development and climatic change.

As Africa is facing multiple challenges related to food security, frameworks integrating production and availability are urgent for policymaking. Attention should be given not only to gradual socio-economic and climatic changes but also to their temporal variability. Here we present an integrated framework that allows one to assess the impacts of socio-economic development, gradual climate change and climate anomalies.

Under pressure: Rapid lavaka erosion and floodplain sedimentation in central Madagascar.

Lavaka (gullies) are often considered as the prime indication of a currently ongoing human-induced environmental crisis in Madagascar's highlands. Yet, lavaka are known to have existed long before human arrival and account for the majority of the long-term sediment input into the highland rivers and floodplains. The role of anthropogenic disturbances in their formation therefore remains highly debated and it is unclear whether lavaka erosion has recently increased.

Wicked Solution for Wicked Problems: Citizen Science for Vector-Borne Disease Control in Africa.

At the crossroads of interacting biological, socioeconomic, behavioral, and institutional factors, vector-borne diseases are complex 'wicked problems'. In this article, we argue that citizen science can help in vector control by boosting scientific data collection, tapping into local knowledge, and building durable partnerships between scientists and communities.

The geo-observer network: A proof of concept on participatory sensing of disasters in a remote setting.

Effective disaster risk reduction is often hampered by a general scarcity of reliable data collected on disastrous events, particularly in the Global South. Novel approaches are therefore necessary to alleviate this constraint, particularly with regard to reducing extensive risks. A geo-observer network, consisting of 21 reporters, was established in the Rwenzori region (Uganda) in February 2017 to collect data on eight different disasters using smartphone technology.