A Public Good Conservation Approach For Underwater Cultural Heritage Management Through Citizen Science

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

To know what is happening to underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites from natural and cultural activity, sites must be monitored regularly and systematically. Currently, UCH management agencies are largely reliant on a few existing professionals to collect comparable data for science-based decision making. This presentation discusses an initiative from Australia called the Gathering Information via Recreational and Technical (GIRT) Scientific Divers programme. GIRT was developed to more effectively harness the potential and interest of the public, through citizen science, to better understand the condition of sites. Provisional results from GIRT demonstrate to UCH management agencies the potential value of pivoting to a public good conservation approach for better site management, public engagement and legislative/regulatory compliance outcomes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology