EAGER: PPER: Enable Crowdsourcing in Microbial Water Quality Monitoring in Water Distribution Networks

供水网络中饮用水的微生物污染可能发生在不特定的地点、不特定的时间，并由于各种原因，造成重大的公共卫生问题和不确定因素。供水管网中微生物污染的最后一个关键控制点是发生人类用水的水龙头，但水龙头的水质监测对自来水公司来说是一项重大的操作挑战。然而，这一具有挑战性的问题是参与和激励公众参与水质工程研究的绝佳机会，因为水客户处于完美的位置，而且往往有兴趣和动力了解自己家中的水微生物质量。如果水客户能够获得能够实现的低成本工具，这可能成为一个很好的例子，说明如何培养和利用公民科学来解决复杂的、否则难以解决的水质工程问题。让公民参与这一众包办法的两大技术差距包括：(1)在家庭和低成本工具内收集可靠的水微生物质量数据，以及(2)鼓励和促进自愿和有效的数据共享。该项目的研究目标是通过具体和有效地解决这两个技术差距来实现众包。该项目使用迭代的公民咨询过程来优化众包方法，使自来水消费者能够低成本和高质量地测量饮用水样本中的总大肠菌群和大肠杆菌。具体地说，正在采用一种常用的环境保护局方法，并对其进行修改，以便使用常用的家用工具进行家庭实施。研究的两个目标是：(1)定义、测试和优化所提出的众包方法；(2)研究使用集成设备进行一步水样采集和后续处理的可行性。该项目涉及一大群本科生，他们来自一个以通勤为主的校园，拥有不同的公民科学家背景。他们的参与不仅为众包方法的设计、测试和优化提供了反馈，也为参与者提供了一个很好的机会来了解配电网水质数据收集的重要性和复杂性。

Microbial contamination of drinking water within the distribution networks can occur at unspecified locations, at unspecified times, and due to diverse reasons, causing significant public health problems and uncertainties. The final critical control point against microbial contamination within the water distribution networks is at the tap where human water consumption occurs, yet water quality monitoring at the tap represents a major operational challenge to water utilities. This challenging problem, however, is an excellent opportunity for involving and motivating the public in water quality engineering research, as water customers are perfectly situated and often interested and motivated in knowing water microbial quality at their own homes. If enabling, low-cost tools are available to water customers, this could become an excellent example of how citizen science can be cultivated and harnessed to solve a complex and otherwise intractable water quality engineering problem. Two major technology gaps for involving citizens in this crowdsourcing approach include: (1) collecting reliable water microbial quality data within households and low-cost tools, and (2) encouraging and facilitating voluntary and efficient data sharing. The research goal of this project is to enable crowdsourcing by specifically and effectively addressing these two technology gaps. This project uses an iterative citizen consultation process to optimize a crowdsourcing approach that enables low-cost and high-quality measurements of total coliform and E. coli in drinking water samples by water consumers. Specifically, a commonly used EPA method is being adopted and modified for home implementation using commonly available household tools. The two research objectives are (1) to define, test, and optimize the proposed crowdsourcing approach, and (2) to investigate the feasibility of using an integrated device for one-step water sample collection and subsequent processing. The project involves a large group of undergraduate students at a largely commuter campus with diverse backgrounds as citizen scientists. Their participation not only provides feedback to the design, test, and optimization of the crowdsourcing approach, but also provides the participants with a great opportunity to understand the importance and complexity of water quality data collection in the distribution networks.