Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals: Building Social and Technical Capacity through Data Collection in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

Engaging youth and women in data-scarce, least developed countries (LDCs) is gaining attention in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) arena, as is using citizen science as a multi-faceted mechanism for data collection, engendering personal empowerment and agency. Involving these populations in citizen science is a powerful synergy that simultaneously addresses the Leave-No-One-Behind promise in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, yet most citizen science takes place in the Global North, and attention to LDCs is needed. This article highlights a four-year, four-location, hydrology-focused, interdisciplinary citizen science initiative (CSI) in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Through a systematic evaluation, we explore scientific applications of the hydrologic data, as well as the social dimensions in the CSI, towards building a social and technical capacity that supports the SDGs at the local and international scale. In the CSI, Ethiopian high school students received training from local university faculty and graduate students, collecting river stage and groundwater level measurements, and farmers conducted soil resistivity measurements using a novel sensor technology developed for the study area. We found the datasets to be ample for use to locally validate regional groundwater models and seasonal forecasts on soil moisture and streamflow. We conducted written interviews with the students, which revealed their ability to perceive benefits of engagement in the CSI, as well as recognize their increased individual technical capacity. An analysis of the hydrological data demonstrates the readiness of the datasets to be used for evaluating water-related interventions that facilitate the SDGs, broadly, by building synergies between individuals and institutions. As such, we map how both the hydrologic data and experiences of the citizen scientists support the SDGs at the Goal and Target-level, while forging new social and technical pathways.

Groundwater Monitoring through Citizen Science: A Review of Project Designs and Results

“…Information on the frequency of monitoring is available in 19 out of 33 cases. In most cases, data was collected on a weekly basis (Manda and Allen 2016; Haile et al 2019; Khadim et al 2020; Alther et al 2021; Bernedo Del Carpio et al 2021; Goldin et al 2021; Manda et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022). In two cases, data was collected daily (Ferede et al 2020; Gowing et al 2020), and there are examples of data collection once in 2 days (Walker et al 2016), monthly (Prajapati et al 2021a; Prajapati et al 2021b), and once in 2 months (Little et al 2016).…”

“…Examples are the validation of groundwater models (Khadim et al 2020), examining the potential extent of chloride concentrations in groundwater (Pieper et al 2018), understanding the implication of variations in rainfall and land use on groundwater level fluctuations (Prajapati et al 2021a), or assessing the extent of groundwater and marine inundation in response to future sea‐level rise scenarios (Manda and Allen 2016). The second group of cases focuses more on citizen science, thus (1) generally promotes monitoring of groundwater through citizen science (Peckenham and Peckenham 2014; Little et al 2016; Eastoe and Clark 2018; Ferede et al 2020; Bernedo Del Carpio et al 2021; Goldin et al 2021; Gómez et al 2021) or (2) aims at addressing issues of trustworthiness of citizen science data and at increasing the benefits and use of citizen‐generated groundwater data (Thornton and Leahy 2012; Peckenham and Peckenham 2014; Walker et al 2016; Khadim et al 2020; Alther et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022). Sometimes, these two goals of addressing data scarcity and citizen involvement are explicitly present.…”

“…Particular examples of concerns regard the ‘implications of groundwater on stormwater flooding and potable water supply’ (Manda et al 2021) and the potential contamination of private wells due to shale gas extraction (Penningroth et al 2013) or poor sanitary conditions (Gómez et al 2021). In four cases, citizens also received tokens of appreciation, such as an award for monitoring (Jamieson et al 2020) or monetary compensation (Haile et al 2019; Bernedo Del Carpio et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022). Interestingly, two cases also highlighted the motivation of networking for increasing job opportunities through citizen science (Goldin et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022).…”

“…In four cases, citizens also received tokens of appreciation, such as an award for monitoring (Jamieson et al 2020) or monetary compensation (Haile et al 2019; Bernedo Del Carpio et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022). Interestingly, two cases also highlighted the motivation of networking for increasing job opportunities through citizen science (Goldin et al 2021; Rigler et al 2022).…”

“…Information on awareness was available in 7 out of 33 cases only. In these five cases, different types of awareness have been reported, namely (1) awareness of water quality and its effects (Baalbaki et al 2019; Rigler et al 2022), (2) awareness of water use (Haile et al 2019), (3) awareness of monitoring needs (Eastoe and Clark 2018), (4) awareness of scientific methods (Peckenham and Peckenham 2014), and (5) awareness of problems such as flooding/ climate change (Wanda et al 2017). Reported levels of awareness were different, with partly high awareness regarding the need for water level monitoring or slightly lower awareness when it comes to water quality problems or scientific methods.…”