Usability of Existing Volunteer Water Monitoring Data: What Can the Literature Tell Us?

Kelly Albus,Forrest Mitchell,Ruthanne Thompson

doi:10.5334/cstp.222

Kelly Albus, Forrest Mitchell + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.222

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Abstract

For decades citizen science has been used in environmental monitoring, and perhaps most commonly in water quality monitoring, as a tool to supplement professional data. Hundreds of volunteer monitoring efforts have generated datasets that cover large geographic areas over multiple years, and these large-scale datasets have been shown to be especially valuable for monitoring changes over time. Although volunteer water monitoring programs continue to grow worldwide, research shows that many of the existing datasets are still underutilized due to concerns about the accuracy of volunteer-collected data. An increasing number of “comparison studies” have attempted to address quality concerns by comparing volunteer data to professional data to assess relative accuracy, and the majority have reported that volunteer data are of a quality comparable to professional data. Nearly all of these studies, however, focused on a small subset of volunteer program data or data collected under experimental controls, and as such the results may not be applicable to existing, large-scale datasets with unknown controls and high levels of variation. Through a comprehensive look at water quality comparison studies to date, this review reveals a need for additional studies that specifically address the quality of highly variable, large-scale volunteer datasets and ultimately serve as a framework by which decades of volunteer efforts already in existence across the country can be better utilized.

Highlights

Introduction and PurposeCitizen science projects have involved volunteers in monitoring the environment for decades (Silvertown 2009; Devictor et al 2010; Kobori et al 2016)
Comparison studies: Existing volunteer data far, this review has revealed that a majority of comparison studies used experimental protocols consisting of modified procedures and/or prescribed sampling events to collect volunteer data and demonstrated positive results regarding the ability of volunteers to collect data comparable to those collected by professionals
Conclusion and Directions for Future Research The hundreds of citizen science water quality monitoring programs that already exist, as well as the growing number of programs being formed in recent years, has led to questions about volunteer data quality and its usefulness in water management (Canfield et al 2002; Safford and Peters 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and PurposeCitizen science projects have involved volunteers in monitoring the environment for decades (Silvertown 2009; Devictor et al 2010; Kobori et al 2016). The National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) website includes more than 350 volunteer monitoring groups registered across the country as of 2018 Many of these groups have been collecting water quality sampling data such as dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and conductivity for decades, and have generated continuous, long-term databases that often cover large regions, watersheds, or states. Many potentially valuable datasets already exist, they are rarely used This lack of use often results from concerns about the accuracy of volunteer-collected data (Canfield et al 2002; Nicholson et al 2002; Hoyer et al 2012; Stepenuck 2013; Barrows et al 2016; Safford and Peters 2017)

Objectives

Conclusion