Real change starts with the people who live and work beside the water. TULIP invites neighbourhood associations, fish-farm cooperatives, school groups and municipal planners to sit at the same table as microbiologists and hydrologists. Together they decide what needs to be measured, where to collect samples and which solutions fit local realities.
Community volunteers deploy low-cost biofilm traps and smartphone apps that log plastic litter in real time; youth “story-mapping” walks turn lived experience into spatial data; and farmers test nature-based buffers that keep run-off out of streams. Because residents help design and run the studies, the findings feel like their evidence, not an outside verdict. That shared ownership builds trust, speeds up behavioural change and anchors projects long after researchers leave.
By weaving scientific know-how with local wisdom, TULIP turns each field site into a living laboratory for resilience — and proves that the most powerful tool against pollution and resistance is an informed, engaged community.