Citizen scientists monitor water quantity and quality in Kenya

Citizen scientists monitor water quantity and quality in Kenya PDF Author: Rufino, M.C.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
Key messages Low-cost, reliable methods for monitoring water levels and water quality are needed to assist water-resource managers in their decision-making.'Citizen scientists' willing to take part in simple monitoring activi

Citizen scientists monitor water quantity and quality in Kenya

Citizen scientists monitor water quantity and quality in Kenya PDF Author: Rufino, M.C.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

Get Book Here

Book Description
Key messages Low-cost, reliable methods for monitoring water levels and water quality are needed to assist water-resource managers in their decision-making.'Citizen scientists' willing to take part in simple monitoring activi

Digital innovation in citizen science to enhance water quality monitoring in developing countries

Digital innovation in citizen science to enhance water quality monitoring in developing countries PDF Author: Pattinson, N. B.
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN: 9290909617
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
Freshwater systems are disproportionately adversely affected by the ongoing, global environmental crisis. The effective and efficient water resource conservation and management necessary to mitigate the crisis requires monitoring data, especially on water quality. This is recognized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, particularly indicator 6.3.2., which requires all UN member states to measure and report the ‘proportion of water bodies with good ambient water quality’. However, gathering sufficient data on water quality is reliant on data collection at spatial and temporal scales that are generally outside the capacity of institutions using conventional methods. Digital technologies, such as wireless sensor networks and remote sensing, have come to the fore as promising avenues to increase the scope of data collection and reporting. Citizen science (which goes by many names, e.g., participatory science or community-based monitoring) has also been earmarked as a powerful mechanism to improve monitoring. However, both avenues have drawbacks and limitations. The synergy between the strengths of modern technologies and citizen science presents an opportunity to use the best features of each to mitigate the shortcomings of the other. This paper briefly synthesizes recent research illustrating how smartphones, sometimes in conjunction with other sensors, present a nexus point method for citizen scientists to engage with and use sophisticated modern technology for water quality monitoring. This paper also presents a brief, non-exhaustive research synthesis of some examples of current technological upgrades or innovations regarding smartphones in citizen science water quality monitoring in developing countries and how these can assist in objective, comprehensive, and improved data collection, management and reporting. While digital innovations are being rapidly developed worldwide, there remains a paucity of scientific and socioeconomic validation of their suitability and usefulness within citizen science. This perhaps contributes to the fact that the uptake and upscaling of smartphone-assisted citizen science continues to underperform compared to its potential within water resource management and SDG reporting. Ultimately, we recommend that more rigorous scientific research efforts be dedicated to exploring the suitability of digital innovations in citizen science in the context of developing countries and SDG reporting.

The Accuracy of Water Quality Monitoring Data

The Accuracy of Water Quality Monitoring Data PDF Author: Ashley Murphy Shelton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental monitoring
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description


From Silos to Synergy

From Silos to Synergy PDF Author: Srishti Gupta
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The world's water resources are in crisis due to human activities and global warming. Countdown to `Day Zero' in Cape Town, South Africa, lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, and groundwater loss in northern India are some vivid examples of recent water crisis around the world. In the last few decades, citizen-based approaches to ensure adequate local supplies of good quality water have become a popular way of monitoring and ensuring water quality. Greater citizen-based volunteer activity in local water systems is associated with better water quality. Citizen-based monitoring activities are termed as citizen science, where citizens of a community participate in scientific endeavors in various capacities. However, citizen science projects leaders and volunteers often face common challenges such as lack of appropriate technical infrastructure for data management, insufficient protocols to ensure data quality control and assurance, and limited opportunities for community engagement and visibility. These challenges lead to citizen science data and work becoming undervalued and under-leveraged by the government and decision-makers. Innovations addressing these socio-technical challenges can be shared among various citizen science groups through peer-to-peer collaboration. However, water quality primarily presents a regional concern for citizen science groups, leading them to operate in isolation and redundantly reinvent solutions to address these shared challenges. Encouraging distributed or peer-to-peer collaboration between different citizen groups holds the potential to streamline citizen science activities, preventing unnecessary expenditure of resources and time on issues that can otherwise be efficiently resolved through information and resource exchange. This dissertation aims to facilitate collaboration among distributed citizen science water-monitoring groups. My goal is to design an online community for these groups, fostering knowledge sharing, providing infrastructure support, and elevating the visibility of their activities. This networked community promotes inclusivity in science by facilitating learning, knowledge exchange, and collective problem-solving among citizen science groups, ultimately amplifying their impact and visibility. Towards this vision, I used a sustainable human-centered design approach that places communities and their water resources at the center of the design endeavor. I structured my research roadmap into three developmental stages: initiating with an exploratory analysis of current practices, followed by an exploration of the design space, and culminating in the development and evaluation of a collaborative system. In the initial stage, I conducted exploratory research to understand citizens' motivations for participating in scientific endeavors and their approaches to monitoring and safeguarding local water resources. Subsequently, participatory design hackathons were organized to explore practices, challenges, and propose design recommendations. In the second stage, I analyzed the design landscape of citizen-based water quality monitoring applications, informing the development of a comprehensive citizen science data platform aligned with the goals and requirements identified in the first stage. Finally, I focused on designing and evaluating collaboration systems to assess the feasibility of such platforms, deriving design implications and directions for facilitating effective distributed collaboration. This was achieved by investigating whether a platform supporting social networking and distributed collaboration could effectively address the requirements and goals outlined in the initial two stages. A user study of a community watershed social networking application was conducted for this purpose. Based on the findings, collaboration with key citizen science stakeholders led to the design and development support of the final collaboration system, the "Water Data Collaborative," a platform connecting distributed citizen science groups. Participatory design sessions were conducted to assess its design and elicit recommendations for enhancing the Water Data Collaborative. This dissertation is situated within the multifaceted context of sustainable HCI and CSCW, highlighting citizen science as a pivotal component of both areas of research. It integrates the interdisciplinary realms of sustainable HCI, CSCW, citizen science, and community informatics to offer a fresh perspective on empowering communities to embrace data-driven practices, mutual learning, and the preservation of local water and environmental resources.

A Citizen Science Water Quality Monitoring Project's Contribution to Environmental Education, Social Learning and Adaptive Management

A Citizen Science Water Quality Monitoring Project's Contribution to Environmental Education, Social Learning and Adaptive Management PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Citizen science -- Community-based monitoring -- Social learning -- Environmental education and adaptive management -- Burgerwetenskap -- Gemeenskapmonitering -- Sosiale leer -- Omgewingsopvoeding en aanpasbare bestuur.

Development of Citizen Science Water Resource Monitoring Tools and Communities of Practice for South Africa, Africa and the World

Development of Citizen Science Water Resource Monitoring Tools and Communities of Practice for South Africa, Africa and the World PDF Author: Mark Graham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780639200309
Category : Water-supply
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description


Citizen Science for Water Quality Monitoring and Management in KwaZulu-Natal

Citizen Science for Water Quality Monitoring and Management in KwaZulu-Natal PDF Author: Hlengiwe Colsie Cele
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic development projects
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description


Open Citizen Science Data and Methods

Open Citizen Science Data and Methods PDF Author: Anne Bowser
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832507263
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description


Water Quality for Ecosystem and Human Health

Water Quality for Ecosystem and Human Health PDF Author: Geneviève M. Carr
Publisher: UNEP/Earthprint
ISBN: 9789295039513
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
This document is intended to provide an overview of the major components of surface and ground water quality and how these relate to ecosystem and human health. Local, regional and global assessments of water quality monitoring data are used to illustrate key features of aquatic environments, and to demonstrate how human activities on the landscape can influence water quality in both positive and negative ways. Clear and concise background knowledge on water quality can serve to support other water assessments.

The Science of Citizen Science

The Science of Citizen Science PDF Author: Katrin Vohland
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030582787
Category : Communication
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
This open access book discusses how the involvement of citizens into scientific endeavors is expected to contribute to solve the big challenges of our time, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities within and between societies, and the sustainability turn. The field of citizen science has been growing in recent decades. Many different stakeholders from scientists to citizens and from policy makers to environmental organisations have been involved in its practice. In addition, many scientists also study citizen science as a research approach and as a way for science and society to interact and collaborate. This book provides a representation of the practices as well as scientific and societal outcomes in different disciplines. It reflects the contribution of citizen science to societal development, education, or innovation and provides and overview of the field of actors as well as on tools and guidelines. It serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to get involved in and learn more about the science of citizen science.