Citizen Science for Cultural and Natural Heritage

Deep Time

Map. Understand. Protect.

Beneath every field, coastline, and hillside lies a record of thousands of years of change. But the landscapes we love are changing faster than they can be mapped, leaving critical gaps in the evidence needed to protect them.

Deep Time trains citizens to uncover habitats, heritage, and ecological change at a scale no single organisation could achieve alone. Taking part builds skills, connection, and a shared stake in the places that matter, creating high-quality, verified, actionable data for landscape intelligence.

Over 6,500 people. 5,300 km² mapped. An evidence base that grows with every mission, trusted by land managers and policymakers.

Help our landscapes from home

Across the UK, thousands of archaeological sites and ecological habitats are at risk from climate change, development, and neglect. The organisations responsible for protecting them need far more data than they can gather alone.

That’s where you come in. From home, using Earth Observation data, historic maps, aerial imagery, and AI, Deep Time participants help identify and map the features that matter most, building the evidence base that drives real decisions about conservation, land management, and nature recovery.

A woman sitting on her sofa using the Deep Time mapping tool on a laptop.


Take Part

Join thousands of people learning new skills, contributing real data, and helping protect the landscapes they love.

Become a partner

Commission a Deep Time mission and get a continuously improving evidence base, built with your communities, trusted for your decisions.

Deep Time FAQs

What is Deep Time?

Deep Time is a landscape intelligence service that trains citizens to map habitats, archaeological sites, and ecological change using satellite imagery, historic maps, AI, and LiDAR. It combines trained participants, three-tier quality assurance, and professional interpretation to produce validated evidence trusted by land managers, conservation bodies, and policymakers.


How reliable is citizen-generated data?

Independent assessment found that data produced by Deep Time participants matched or outperformed machine-learning baselines in 88% of cases. Every mission includes structured training, a tiered quality assurance process, and expert validation to ensure outputs meet professional standards.


Do I need any experience to take part?

No. Deep Time provides free online training that takes you from beginner to confident contributor. Pastronauts and Futurenauts learn to identify and map features from aerial and satellite imagery using a user-friendly, purpose-built GIS tool. All you need is a screen and some curiosity!


Who uses the data?

Deep Time evidence has supported heritage protection, nature recovery, and land management decisions for organisations including the National Trust, Natural England, Wildlife Trusts, and multiple National Landscapes. Outputs integrate directly into partners’ spatial planning systems, and the evidence base deepens over time as communities grow and repeat missions track landscape change.


What's in it for me?

Participants gain real skills in spatial analysis, historic monument and habitat identification, and digital mapping. But feedback shows that most people stay for something less tangible: a sense of connection to the landscapes they map, a community of people with shared purpose and interest, and the knowledge that their contribution makes a measurable difference.


Who are Pastronuats and Futurenauts?

Pastronauts are members of our Deep Time community who have completed their training and contributed to missions focused on identifying archaeological sites and historic features in the landscape.

Similarly, Futurenauts are members of our Deep Time community who have completed their training but have gone on to contribute to missions with a focus on nature and ecology.


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