GROD is a citizen science based research project focused on locating river obstructions around the globe. Volunteers will use satellite imagery paired with center-lines following all the world's rivers greater than 30 meters in width to find obstructions, and then classify them according to categories we have specified. The outcome of this project will be a new global database providing the spatial location and "class" of thousands of river obstructions. Much of this information is not currently available in a free or accessible format. Upon completion, this database will be of great use to scientists, policy makers, water managers, environmental agencies, and the general public.
However, before we can complete the database we must first validate our project. We will accomplish this by having volunteers locate and identify obstructions on 4 small river sections. This data will be used to validate the methods of our project and ultimately allow for the completion of the entire database.
