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  6. The future role of Citizen Science in catchment management (physical science)

The future role of Citizen Science in catchment management (physical science)

Supervisor(s): Prof Kate Heppell (c.m.heppell@qmul.ac.uk QMUL Geography), Prof Muki Haklay (UCL) 

Potential CASE Partner: Helena Soteriou (Thames Water)

Project description

Citizen Science and public participation in the collection of environmental observations for water management (ecosystem health, water quality and resources issues) is a growing field of research activity and long-term monitoring in the water sciences. Some initiatives are top-down driven by the scientific community, whilst others are led by community groups and NGOs brought together by local water management challenges. Advances in technology, including telemetry and data processing capabilities on smartphones, coupled with emerging low-cost sensor networks have led to the creation and growth of Citizen Science-based observation networks such as CrowdHydrology and CrowdWater. However questions of data accuracy, data visualisation techniques and how to best promote ongoing communication between Citizen Scientists, scientists and other stakeholders (e.g. Environment Agency, water companies etc) need to be addressed.

Thames Water are launching The Smarter Water Catchments Initiative with the aim of working with key stakeholders in the Thames Region to build better functioning river catchments. The project will be piloted in three sub-catchments of the River Thames that comprise an urban-to-rural gradient in the South East of the UK (Rivers Crane, Chess and Evenlode). Each river has an established group of Citizen Scientists collecting data to inform water management in the catchment. The programme offers a unique opportunity to research contrasting approaches to Citizen Science and evaluate the relative success of the different techniques being used. The project offers a test bed to evaluate data accuracy and visualisation methods, and to better understand how developing partnerships between scientists, policymakers and Citizen Scientists might be nurtured to optimise collaborative catchment management.

Research Relating to this Project

Mao F, Khamis K, Krause S, Clark J & Hannah D (2019) Low-Cost environmental sensor networks: recent advances and future directions. Frontiers in Earth Science, 7:221, doi: 10.3389/feart.2019.00221.

Davids JC, Rutten MM, Pandy A, Devkota N, van Oyen WD, Prajapati R & van de Giesen N (2019) Citizen-science flow – an assessment of simple streamflow measurement methods. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 23, 1045-1065.

Lowry CS, Fienen MN, Hall DM & Stepenuck KF (2019) Growing pains of crowdsources stream stage monitoring using mobile phones: the development of CrowdHydrology, Frontiers in Earth Science, 7:128, doi: 10.3389/feart.2019.00128.

For further information about the project, please contact Prof Kate Heppell

How to apply

Opportunities for funding include London NERC DTP. For further information about the project, eligibility and future application deadlines in 2019/20, please contact Prof Kate Heppell.



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