Monitoring biological water quality by volunteers complements professional assessments

Abstract

Progressively more community initiatives have been undertaken over last decades to monitor water quality. Biological data collected by volunteers has been used for biodiversity and water quality studies. Despite the many citizen science projects collecting and using macroinvertebrates, the number of scientific peer-reviewed publications that use this data, remains limited. In 2018, a citizen science project on biological water quality assessment was launched in the Netherlands. In this project, volunteers collect macroinvertebrates from a nearby waterbody, identify and count the number of specimens, and register the catch through a web portal to instantaneously receive a water quality score based on their data. Water quality monitoring in the Netherlands is traditionally the field of professionals working at water authorities. Here, we compare the data from the citizen science project with the data gathered by professionals. We evaluate information regarding type and distribution of sampled waterbodies and sampling period, and compare general patterns in both datasets with respect to collected animals and calculated water quality scores. The results show that volunteers and professionals seldomly sample the same waterbody, that there is some overlap in sampling period, and that volunteers more frequently sampled urban waters and smaller waterbodies. The citizen science project is thus yielding data about understudied waters and this spatial and temporal complementarity is useful. The character and thoroughness of the assessments by volunteers and professionals are likely to differentiate. Volunteers collected significantly lower numbers of animals per sample and fewer animals from soft sediments like worms and more mobile individuals from the open water column such as boatsmen and beetles. Due to the lack of simultaneous observations at various locations by volunteers and professionals, a direct comparison of water quality scores is impossible. However, the obtained patterns from both datasets show that the water quality scores between volunteers and professionals are dissimilar for the different water types. To bridge these differences, new tools and processes need to be further developed to increase the value of monitoring biological water quality by volunteers for professionals.

Opportunities, approaches and challenges to the engagement of citizens in filling small water body data gaps

“…Many of the long-standing citizen science programmes have involved the collection of biological data, but these are often confined to a few countries and focussed on macroinvertebrate water quality indicators. For example, in the USA there are approximately 1700 volunteer water quality monitoring programmes ( http://volunteermonitoring.org/ ) and according to Peeters et al ( 2022 ), circa 50% of these involve macroinvertebrate indicators. Other well-established programmes noted by Peeters et al ( 2022 ) include the British Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (described in more detail later) and the New-Zealand Wai Care programme ( https://localgovernmentmag.co.nz/wai-care-programme/ ).…”

“…For example, in the USA there are approximately 1700 volunteer water quality monitoring programmes ( http://volunteermonitoring.org/ ) and according to Peeters et al ( 2022 ), circa 50% of these involve macroinvertebrate indicators. Other well-established programmes noted by Peeters et al ( 2022 ) include the British Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (described in more detail later) and the New-Zealand Wai Care programme ( https://localgovernmentmag.co.nz/wai-care-programme/ ). Whilst monitoring water quality can be based at relatively high-level taxonomic identification (e.g.…”

“…org/) and according to Peeters et al (2022), circa 50% of these involve macroinvertebrate indicators. Other wellestablished programmes noted by Peeters et al (2022) include the British Anglers' Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (described in more detail later) and the New-Zealand Wai Care programme (https:// local gover nment mag. co. nz/ wai-care-progr amme/).…”

Ecological characterisation of urban ponds in the Netherlands: a study based on data collected by volunteers

“…nl'. The web application then calculates a water quality score (Peeters et al 2022) based on the information provided and sends this score back to the volunteer as a reward. A comparison has been made between data collected in the Netherlands by professionals and volunteers and this showed that only a minority of the samplings by professionals was in the urban environment (roughly 10% of yearly investigations) while volunteers sampled more frequently (roughly 20% of their samples) (Peeters et al 2022).…”

“…The web application then calculates a water quality score (Peeters et al 2022) based on the information provided and sends this score back to the volunteer as a reward. A comparison has been made between data collected in the Netherlands by professionals and volunteers and this showed that only a minority of the samplings by professionals was in the urban environment (roughly 10% of yearly investigations) while volunteers sampled more frequently (roughly 20% of their samples) (Peeters et al 2022). Since only a limited number of private garden ponds has been monitored in the past in the Netherlands (Peeters et al 2022), knowledge on the biodiversity and water quality of these aquatic systems in the urban environment remains very limited.…”