Adapting Citizen Science for Environmental Research in Post-War South Lebanon: Civilian Science in Action

War severely affects ecosystems, yet assessing environmental damage during conflict is constrained by restricted access, safety risks, and institutional disruption. This article examines whether citizen-led soil sampling can produce fit-for-purpose environmental evidence under wartime conditions. To assess war-induced soil contamination in South Lebanon following the 2023–2025 bombardments, the study adopted a citizen science approach adapted to conflict settings, often described as civilian science, in which local residents contribute to environmental observation and data collection when formal monitoring is disrupted. Through coordinated efforts involving farmers, students, and municipal staff, 161 soil samples were collected from 29 bombed villages. Volunteers were trained in simplified, standardized sampling protocols and produced valid georeferenced samples, generating the first community-derived dataset of war-affected soils in Lebanon. Laboratory quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) validation indicated that the accepted citizen-collected samples were methodologically adequate for identifying contamination patterns in sampled locations. The study supports the procedural feasibility of community-based soil monitoring and its ability to generate usable, spatially explicit evidence where conventional monitoring is not possible. At the same time, the findings are context-specific rather than fully representative of all affected areas. The article offers a bounded methodological contribution on the possibilities and limits of participatory environmental monitoring in conflict-affected settings.