Citizen science for hydrological risk reduction and resilience building

Jonathan D Paul,Arnulf Schiller,David M Hannah,Simon Allen,Jagat Bhusal,Bhanu Neupane,Robert Supper,Art Dewulf,Markus Stoffel,Juan A Ballesteros‐Cánovas,Janak Lal Nayaval,Julian Clark,Paul J Smith,Wouter Buytaert,Katarzyna Cieslik,Megh R Dhital,Wei Liu,Sumit Dugar

doi:10.1002/wat2.1262

Abstract

In disaster risk management (DRM), an emerging shift has been noted from broad‐scale, top‐down assessments toward more participatory, community‐based, bottom‐up approaches. Arguably, nonscientist local stakeholders have always played an important role in knowledge risk management and resilience building within a hydrological context, such as flood response and drought alleviation. However, rapidly developing information and communication technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and social media have already demonstrated their sizeable potential to make knowledge creation more multidirectional, decentralized, diverse, and inclusive. Combined with technologies for robust and low‐cost sensor networks, a ‘citizen science’ approach has recently emerged as a promising direction in the provision of extensive, real‐time information for risk management. Such projects work best when there is community buy‐in, when their purpose(s) are clearly defined at the outset, and when the motivations and skillsets of all participants and stakeholders are well understood. They have great potential to enhance knowledge creation, not only for data collection, but also for analysis or interpretation. In addition, they can serve as a means of educating and empowering communities and stakeholders that are bypassed by more traditional knowledge generation processes. Here, we review the state‐of‐the‐art of citizen science within the context of hydrological risk reduction and resilience building. Particularly when embedded within a polycentric approach toward risk governance, we argue that citizen science could complement more traditional knowledge generation practices, and also enhance innovation, adaptation, multidirectional information provision, risk management, and local resilience building. WIREs Water 2018, 5:e1262. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1262This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water Extremes

Highlights

Within the emerging trend of democratizing science, the participation of nonprofessional scientists in research projects that involve data collection, interpretation, and analysis is often termed ‘citizen science.’[1,2,3,4,5] The constant demand for research to be societally relevant has helped involve more citizens in research projects.[4,5] As a practice, citizen science is receiving increasing attention in many disciplines
There is increasing interest in improving the risk perception by engaging all actors involved in Disaster Risk Management (DRM).[1,18]
The 2015 UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, for instance, states that ‘[d]isaster risk reduction requires an all-ofsociety engagement and partnership [in which] special attention should be paid to the improvement of organized voluntary work of citizens.’[19]

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Within the emerging trend of democratizing science, the participation of nonprofessional scientists in research projects that involve data collection, interpretation, and analysis is often termed ‘citizen science.’[1,2,3,4,5] The constant demand for research to be societally relevant has helped involve more citizens in research projects.[4,5] As a practice, citizen science is receiving increasing attention in many disciplines. Hydrology remains a highly data-scarce science; in many regions, if data exist, the lengths of the time series are insufficient.[17] From a policy perspective, there is increasing interest in improving the risk perception by engaging all actors involved in Disaster Risk Management (DRM).[1,18] The 2015 UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, for instance, states that ‘[d]isaster risk reduction requires an all-ofsociety engagement and partnership [in which] special attention should be paid to the improvement of organized voluntary work of citizens.’[19] These points are highly relevant in the context of risk reduction and resilience building. Several studies have discussed the motivation of volunteers for engaging in citizen science.[1,2,3,5,20]

Participatory science 2 Distributed intelligence 1

CONCLUSION