EAGER: Collaborative Research: Role of Citizen Science in Watershed Hydrology Research: Relationships between Volunteer Motivations, Data Quantity and Quality, and Decision-Making

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1644860/1644862Mayer/JonesThere is growing interest in using citizen science projects, public participation in scientific research, to measure hydrologic parameters. Hydrologic variability requires repeated measurements over long periods of time and over a wide range of locations. Citizen science could be a cost-effective approach for hydrologic monitoring, but concerns about data reliability remain; this reliability includes aspects of data quality and quantity, where quantity refers to both temporal frequency and spatial distribution. The overall goal of this project is to advance scientific understanding of the linkages between citizen science project design, the quantity and quality of hydrologic data collected, and the contribution of this method of scientific research to informing payments for watershed services program design and support.This project is innovative in that it explores the impact of citizen science data reliability "end-to-end" including, recruitment and retention of citizen science volunteers, citizen science data collection, incorporation of citizen science data in engineering tools, and informing policy design and decision-making. The project objectives are: (1) to determine the factors affecting retention in citizen science programs, (2) to test the effect that norm-based messaging can have on the quantity and quality of data collected, and, (3) to evaluate the impact of the quantity and quality of citizen science data collected on hydrologic model reliability, corresponding payments for watershed services program decision-making, and support for payments for watershed services programs. These objectives will be met by: (1) recruiting citizen science volunteers in two watersheds in Veracruz, Mexico with ongoing hydrologic data collection and payments for watershed services programs; (2) implementing an experimental design to test the effect of norm messaging by randomly allocating "nudges" to citizen science volunteers; (3) simultaneously collecting rainfall and stream discharge data with citizen science volunteers and accepted hydrologic science protocols; (4) estimating the precision and accuracy of the citizen science data against the data collected with the accepted scientific protocols; (5) calibrating a watershed hydrology model with and without the citizen science data, including the effects of data precision and accuracy; and, (6) determining priority areas for payments for watershed services with and without the citizen science data. Mexico has one of the world?s longest running payments for watershed services programs. The National Forest Commission, responsible for payments for watershed services programs in Mexico, plans to use citizen science volunteers for monitoring hydrologic outcomes of local payments for watershed services programs. Thus, the proposed work could improve payments for watershed services program design and monitoring and evaluation protocols, especially if there are indirect benefits of citizen science participation through improved knowledge, behaviors, and support of payments for watershed services programs. The PIs plan to generate several refereed papers and presentations from this work on the social science, biophysical and integrated aspects of this work. Additionally, this project will support training of two PhD students contributing to at least two dissertations.