Citizen Science's Broader Impacts: Does Participation in Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Provide More Than Data?

Citizen science programs are often promoted as avenues to not only increase data collection and participation in science, but to also increase people’s knowledge and awareness about environmental issues. In order to make... [ view full abstract ]

Citizen science programs are often promoted as avenues to not only increase data collection and participation in science, but to also increase people’s knowledge and awareness about environmental issues. In order to make these broader educational claims about citizen science’s outcomes we need to evaluate participant’s knowledge and opinions to measure if there is a change due to participating in citizen science programs. In 2012 a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program called Utah Water Watch was launched by Utah State University Extension and the UT Division of Water Quality. The goal of the program was to collect water quality data to assist in statewide monitoring efforts and increase the public’s awareness of the importance of water quality. Before volunteers were trained they completed an evaluation form for baseline information about their knowledge and opinions of water quality and the professional organizations in Utah that monitor water quality. In less than three years over 150 volunteers have been trained and reported over 1,000 monitoring events on 91 sites. In 2014 we conducted a follow-up survey to see if volunteers’ knowledge or attitudes about water quality changed. We used an online survey of Utah Water Watch volunteers to answer the following questions:
• Do volunteers report increase knowledge or improved attitudes about water quality?
• Does the number of times volunteers talk to people in their community about water quality increase?
• Did volunteers' opinions about professional water quality monitoring improve?
• How do these measures relate to volunteer participation (number of monitoring events; length of time in program)?

We also surveyed volunteers about their motivations for participating with Utah Water Watch, their knowledge of water quality, and perceived benefits from participating in a volunteer water quality monitoring project.