Named after a very caring manga character in his community, the MIZURA project proposes to accelerate changes in society regarding disabled citizens, now better called functionally diverse, who are stereotypically perceived as burdens, by demonstrating that their functional diversity provides them with adaptive advantages to think, face, and solve scientific questions from which the whole society benefits by their inclusion. Battery powered wheelchairs provide a power supply for scientific equipment, are more stable than carrying instruments by hand, and can reach places where drones or Google Street View cars cannot, taking advantage also of being human driven. With these adaptability advantages in mind, MIZURA proposes these citizens will collect new information from an unprecedented platform, that will fill a data gap in cities and surrounding areas, serving as digital twins of Earth satellite remote sensing data to study not only wildfires but other topics like thermal comfort, air quality, or feed Artificial Intelligence to make management decisions in urban and exurban areas. Disabled citizen scientists suffering motor neuron diseases, like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, build three-dimensional (3D) models using a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor mounted on their power wheelchairs and operated by them. MIZURA provides opportunities for significant societal contributions from these citizens at high risk of social exclusion, motivating them to actively contribute to one-of-a-kind research. MIZURA also reaches out to decision making authorities and communications outlets to raise awareness on the specific research topic, together with promotion of the importance of inclusion for functionally diverse people towards creating a more diverse, sustainable, and resilient society.

About the Speaker

Image

Dabiz Riaño, is a Researcher at Speclab of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of California Davis. He acquired his PhD in Environmental Sciences with honors at the University of Alcalá (Spain) and obtained a Fulbright scholarship, before becoming Senior Scientist at the CSIC a few months before being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2009. Despite this, his scientific and dissemination activity continue to be very active. He studies carbon balance, biogeochemical cycles and climate change from remote sensing, publishing more than 70 articles in research journals and leading projects funded by NASA and the European Union. David is a leader in promoting the inclusion in society of functionally diverse disabled citizens. In 2021, his inspiring documentary of a 6 month journey in a camper van through Eastern European countries @7lagos7vidas served to raise awareness of full inclusion, reaching film festivals around the world and movie theaters in Spain. A nature lover, he has traveled the landscapes of more than 30 countries in 5 continents in his wheelchair.