Contribute to science: Join the City nature challenge-2024!

ALFAwetlands project and Neusiedler See – Seewinkel National Park are inviting you to take part in the City nature challenge-2024! Join and report all the animals, plants and fungi you discover in the determined area in April 2024!

City nature challenge at Austrian-Hungarian area

The City Nature Challenge will take place in the Neusiedler See / Seewinkel region for the 4th time in 2024. The area covers the entire Neusiedler See – Seewinkel National Park, all municipalities east of Lake Neusiedl, the Lake Neusiedl – Leitha Gebirge Nature Park and all lakeside municipalities. This year, the Hungarian part of the Lake Neusiedl and Südhansag as well as their surrounding communes are also included!

It’s easy to take part: upload your observations via the app or website using your smartphone or camera and indicate where you found them.

Be prepared, the challenge will take place from April 26, 2024 till April 29, 2024!

Let’s show the world together how biodiverse this region is! All observations from the relevant period will automatically be added to the City Nature Challenge – every observation counts!

Bioblitz campaign

City nature challenge is a citizens engagement activity, often implemented with the support of iNaturalist.

A bioblitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species within a designated location and time period as possible.

iNaturalist helps to identify the plants and animals around you while generating data for science and conservation. You can get connected with a community of millions scientists and naturalists who, in return, can help you to learn more about nature. Furthermore, by recording and sharing observations, you will create research-quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect the nature.

Austrian Hungarian Living Lab

The Neusiedler See/Seewinkel City Nature Challenge 2024 is a part of ALFAwetlands project activities and is implemented withing the Austrian-Hungarian project Living Laboratory.

The Austrian-Hungarian Living Lab is one of the ALFAwetlands Living Labs, which  support and integrate interdisciplinary and multi-actor research on ecological, environmental, economic and social issues.

ALFAwetlands project

ALFAwetlands is the Horizon Europe research project with the ultimate goal to:

• improve the geospatial knowledge base of wetlands
• evaluate the pathways of wetland restoration
• incorporate a co-creation process.
• provide information and indicators for sustainability to maximise climate change mitigation, biodiversity and other benefits.

Citizens´ engagement into ALFAwetlands activities is an integral part the project. The project includes citizen science and related Open days, building on successful past initiatives and knowledge from other WPs, with the motto: ‘Help your wetland with citizen science’.

City Nature Challenge is one of them.

Therefore, join the City Nature Challenge 2024: Neusiedler See/Seewinkel with us in April and stay tuned for more news!