---
# System prepended metadata

title: How to enter a Local Observation
tags: [english]

---

---
tags: english
---

# How to enter a Local Observation 

If you have a observed a climate change impact and want to report it in OpenTEK, we encourage you to do so by submitting a "Local Observation" entry type.

This video explains how to enter a Local Observation in less than 5 minutes, guiding you through the process with an example observation: 

<div style="position: relative; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 56.25%;">
  <iframe     style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0;" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CRZRXJjlZSs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>

---


**Go to OpenTEK**

When you enter opentek.eu into our browser you get to the start page of the platform. Here you press the plus button at top-center of the map and get directly to the page where you create a new local observation. 

You need to answer a few questions about the observation: 

**Title:** :name_badge:

First you need to give the observation a short title, so anyone can quickly read what the observation is about. For example: Tomatoes in November 

**Description:** :lower_left_ballpoint_pen: 

Second, you need to give a more detailed description of the observation. Note anything that you think is important, including the interlinked cause and effect relationships you observed.

**Observer:** :man-raising-hand:
 

After that you need to report who made the observation.

There are many options to choose from. You can select multiple options, but some options exclude others. For example, when you select: “only me” the other options cannot be selected anymore. 

**Observation classification:** :deciduous_tree:

Next, you have to classify the observation. There are many categories of changes. In order to find the right one, navigate through the tree until you can find the right one step by step. In the description of this video is a link to another page that explains the classification a bit more detailed. First, you choose the category that is most suitable from the four main systems. Then you select the subsystem. Then you choose an impact category and if you can also the direction of change.  **[You can read more about the classification here](https://hackmd.io/@opentek/licci-tree)**
The Direction can be left away if you are not sure about it. 
In fact **The LICCI classification is optional**. But in that case, the entry needs to be validated by an editor. The editor will select the right LICCI in make the entry public. In the case that you observation is actually not a LICCI (Something like the report of an oil spill), the entry will not be published.

**Drivers of change:** :8ball:

Following the timing, you can detail the drivers of this observation. A driver is a factor causing or influencing the observed change, that you know about. Drivers can be climate change observations so you can select as many as you need following the same classification tree as before. However, in this case you don’t need to be so specific and can classify the driver in a higher level of the classification.

**Images:** :frame_with_picture: 

You can also add images. In some cases, this might be helpful to understand the observation better. But they are not required.

**Location:** :round_pushpin:
  
Lastly you need to locate the observation. You can search the location in the search box or select it on the map. You can roughly pin the location near the village where you are observing the change if you don't want to give the details of your location. There are several ways to protect the exact location of your observation. By default, it publicly shows a random point 50km around of where you click.

**License, Access... and Submitting!** :gem:
 
Great, the observation has now all the information it needs. When you are registered and logged in you can specify the license of your entry and decide if you want to display it publicly or keep it private. When you set the privacy to private you can still grant other people you know access to it. 

You can also submit an entry without registering but then the entry needs to be verified by somebody before it gets published. 


**[:back: MAIN MENU](/0qT1D6owQVSYxITO4pUKMw)**