Embracing community science to study broadscale landscape change: successes, failures, challenges, issues of sustainability, and advice

With the rise of new technological tools/platforms, community science programs have expanded dramatically in both quantity and spatiotemporal reach. This growth is fueled by increasing demand for complex data, the cost of transitional fieldwork, and greater emphasis on public engagement. While community science holds immense potential to enhance public understanding and contribute to meaningful scientific research, it also presents unique challenges related to program design, implementation, and impact. This paper explores the successes, failures, and long-term considerations of such initiatives, drawing on relevant literature and direct experience from the Interdisciplinary Citizen-based Coastal Remote Sensing for Adaptive Management (IC-CREAM), a program developed to address landscape and environmental challenges. This paper highlights lessons in community engagement, communication strategies, and program sustainability. We argue that while community science programs offer transformative opportunities, they require thoughtful planning, adequate and ever adaptive resources, realistic expectations, and backup strategies to succeed and endure.