EAGER: PPER: Validation and Utilization of a New Tool for Citizen-Led Water Quality Monitoring in Agricultural Watersheds

这个研究项目测试了一种使用智能手机应用程序来测试水质的新工具。该应用程序依赖于智能手机摄像头检测化学测试条上颜色变化的能力，其精度和准确度远远高于人眼。该手机将数据和测试位置传输到数据库，供项目研究人员和公民科学家访问。该项目的目标是确定使用该应用程序准确监测整个流域水质的可行性，评估用户使用该应用程序的兴趣和参与度，并帮助利益相关者确定水质“热点”，以便实施改善水质的项目。在这个研究项目中，一款水质监测智能手机应用程序正在两个独立的实地活动中与利益相关者进行试点：爱荷华州东部的Clear Creek流域（2017年秋季）（收集与应用程序的准确性、易用性和用户体验相关的初步数据）和爱荷华州的Clear Creek和中部雪松河流域（2018年春季和夏季）（向流域管理当局和其他水质监测志愿者介绍该应用程序）。这两项活动提供了足够的数据，以确定新应用程序在公民主导的监测方面的潜力，从而提供科学可信的水质特征。拟议的公民科学项目建立在爱荷华大学IIHR -水文科学与工程现有的水文和水质专业知识的基础上。IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering最近还开发了爱荷华州水质信息系统，任何有互联网接入的人都可以通过部署在爱荷华州水文环境中的传感器查看实时水质信息。该项目的直接影响包括使用该工具为选择和安置数百种保护措施提供信息，以减少爱荷华州流域方法项目流域的洪水和改善水质。爱荷华州自然资源部也可能采用这款新的应用程序，用于其志愿者水质监测项目。该项目的长期影响是，更广泛的科学界可能采用一种新的水质测量工具，这种工具允许任何拥有智能手机的人对水质进行准确测量，并将数据分享到一个共同的在线平台上，花费很少的精力或成本。该应用程序将帮助研究人员、州政府机构、流域管理者和公众更好地监测、了解和描述当地流域的水质问题。

This research project tests a new tool that uses a smartphone app to test water quality. The app relies on the smartphone camera's ability to detect the color change on a chemical test strip to a much higher level of precision and more accurately than the human eye. The phone relays the data and test location to a database for access by the project researchers as well as citizen scientists. The project goals are to determine the feasibility of using this app to accurately monitor water quality throughout a watershed, to assess user interest and engagement in using the app, and to help stakeholders identify water-quality "hot spots" for the potential implementation of projects to improve water quality. In this research project, a water quality monitoring smartphone app is being piloted with stakeholders in two separate field campaigns: Clear Creek Watershed (Fall 2017) in eastern Iowa (to collect preliminary data related to the app's accuracy, ease-of-use, and user experience) and Clear Creek and the Middle Cedar River watersheds (Spring and Summer 2018) in Iowa (to introduce the app to watershed management authorities and other water-quality monitoring volunteers). The two campaigns are providing sufficient data to determine the new app's potential for citizen-led monitoring to provide scientifically credible characterization of water quality. The proposed citizen science project builds on existing hydrology and water-quality expertise at the IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa. IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering also recently developed the Iowa Water Quality Information System, with which anyone with internet access can view real time water-quality information from sensors deployed across Iowa within its hydrologic context. Immediate impacts of this project include the use of this tool to inform selection and placement of hundreds of conservation practices to reduce flooding and improve water quality in eight Iowa Watershed Approach project watersheds. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources may also adopt this new app for use by its volunteer water-quality monitoring program. The long-term implications for this project are the broader scientific community's potential adoption of a new water-quality measurement tool that allows anyone with a smartphone to take accurate measurements of water quality and share that data to a common online platform with very little effort or cost. The app will help researchers, state agencies, watershed managers, and the general public better monitor, understand, and characterize water-quality problems at the local watershed scale.