Citizen Science Networks as a Water Quality Monitoring Tool

摘要

Citizen scientists collecting water quality data can participate in global environmental reconnaissance by uploading their data into worldwide data bases, such as the EarthEco Water Challenge (http://www. worldwatermonitoringday.org). While these portals are popular, the data collected within is often gathered by one or, at most, a small number of individuals with a local interest in water quality acting independently. We consider these aggregated communities of citizen scientists to be data "nodes" and contend that an aggregation of these nodes can create a highly functional data acquisition network. For this to occur, the network needs to be constructed with three components in mind at the outset: adequate sensors, an overriding issue that cements the nodes together and a community-sensitive data aggregation system. When all three of these components are put into place, the network becomes very powerful and can aggregate data that is both geospatially and temporally coordinated and relevant.