Early Influence of the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Volunteer Water Monitoring Programs in the United States and Canada

Abstract

Volunteer water monitoring programs generate new scientific knowledge, contribute data to decision‐making processes, and increase social networks, technical knowledge, and skills of participants. Declaration of the COVID‐19 pandemic threatened the ability of these programs to continue to engage volunteers to achieve such outcomes. A national water monitoring network hosted a brainstorming webinar to facilitate communication across programs to identify potential solutions to pandemic‐influenced challenges. Following that webinar, a survey of United States and Canadian volunteer monitoring programs that was conducted about 3 months into the pandemic revealed that 72% of 80 responding programs planned to carry on through the 2020 field season despite most having experienced delayed starts. Other common program modifications implemented in the first months of the pandemic included adding COVID‐19 safety information to program guidance, changing field team composition, monitoring timing and logistics, and adopting new communications strategies. Most programs reported loss or anticipated loss in number of data observations (74%) and volunteers (66%), while 44% reported known or anticipated losses in funding. Seventeen percent of responding programs were able to swiftly develop distance learning tools to train participants, which led to increased program capacity to reach broader audiences.

Why do people participate in app-based environment-focused citizen science projects?

“…For instance, enhanced gaming functions (e.g., leader boards), publicly displayed volunteer recognition accolades (e.g., years of participation lists), or other types of online acknowledgement (Cappa et al, 2018) could be established. Another option might be to establish online gatherings for volunteers, which was observed to be an effective way to bring together participants from expansive geographic areas during the COVID-19 pandemic (Stepenuck and Carr, 2022). The CrowdWater project now organizes online meet-the-team events, where participants can also meet each other.…”

Community science to the rescue: capturing water quality data during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Although these programs can be useful for biodiversity monitoring, water monitoring, which often requires access to a laboratory, was harder to conduct during the pandemic; the largest community science program in Ontario, the Lake Partner Program, was shut down for the entirety of the spring and summer of 2020 (Dorset Environmental Science Centre 2020). Alternatively, a survey of U.S. and Canadian community science water monitoring program coordinators (Stepenuck and Carr 2022) found that 72% of programs planned to continue through the 2020 field season, despite delays. highlighting the flexibility of community science as a water monitoring tool.…”