Daylighting Rivers - Science Education for Civic Ecology

Daylighting Rivers - (http://www.daylightingrivers.com/) Science education for civic ecology is a European project funded under the Erasmus+ Programme and it involves research organisations and high schools from three Mediterranean countries (Italy, Greece and Spain) and the UK. The project engages secondary school students in hands-on, interdisciplinary investigations of their local environment, focusing on the changes urban land cover, particularly on the rivers that flow through the cities and are affected by urbanization. DAYLIGHTING RIVERS acknowledges that due to accelerated urban development, many rivers have been diverted or covered, in favour of urban infrastructures and new neighbourhoods. This has increased the risks of flooding, led to the loss of biodiversity along the streams, increased water pollution and impaired other types of community services connected to the flowing water. The process by which the culverted or covered rivers are uncovered and re-exposed to the environment is known as ‘daylighting’. DAYLIGHTING RIVERS also refers to ‘daylighting’ in terms of youth consciousness-raising awareness and inspiring global action for sustainability among those who will determine our collective future. In the project, the students undertake activities in physical science, human impacts on river ecosystems, effects of the rivers on microclimate and its biodiversity, but also in the historical, social and economic aspects of urban rivers. Partners: Water Right Foundation, IBE-CNR and Liceo Sensale in Italy, CEBAS-CSIC and IES Espinosa in Spain, PRISMA and Rafina Lyceum in Greece, ICASE in the UK.