Citizen scientists keep a watchful eye on the world’s streams, catching intermittent streams in action and filling data gaps to construct a more complete hydrologic picture.
Do you drive, bike, or hike by streams on your way to a field site, the office, or home? Are you interested in how streams change through the seasons and years? If so, consider joining a growing crowd of people logging streamflow data using their mobile phones.
Two new projects—CrowdWater and Stream Tracker—focus on crowdsourced hydrologic measurements, and both have recently launched free smartphone applications to facilitate data collection along stream networks.
The status of intermittent streams can be recorded using six categories: flowing water, standing water, connected pools, isolated pools, wet streambed, and dry streambed. Measurements for streams that are not on the map help to document the existence of the intermittent stream network. For soil moisture, another qualitative scale (based on the work of Rinderer et al. [2012]) is used.
So far, almost 400 CrowdWater stations have been established, and 121 different participants have made more than 1,000 measurements. Everyone can participate, and all participants in the project can view and request the data. Participants can see a time series of the data collected at each site when they enter new data in the field, and they can use the data to monitor their environment or to plan kayak outings or fishing trips.
The project organizers will also use the data to test their usefulness for hydrologic model calibration and for improving understanding of streamflow dynamics. The long-term goal is to be able to obtain crowdsourced data in countries that have little hydrometric data or to supplement the available data.
Stream Tracker sites can be established on any stream through the project website on the citizen science platform CitSci.org. Ideal sites are streams that do not flow continuously, are publicly accessible, and have an evident channel that will be easy to see even when the stream is not flowing. Anyone can join the project, establish sites in locations of interest, and track the streams over time.
Current participants range in age from elementary school students to retired teachers and include not only stream experts but also people who have never monitored streams before. Project members can navigate to the sites using mobile phones or GPS units and can enter data on whether the stream is flowing through the free CitSci.org mobile app.
For researchers who regularly visit field sites, stream tracking is an easy add-on to a field day. Researchers can identify stream crossings on their route to field sites, add these locations as monitoring points on Stream Tracker, and upload data after each field visit. All Stream Tracker data are freely accessible through the project website.
Crowdsourcing hydrologic data is also an easy means to promote public engagement and education about streams and watershed processes. As these and other hydrology-related citizen science projects develop, we will continue to work toward creating accessible tools suited for a wide variety of locations and applications. We welcome any input from others interested in crowdsourcing hydrologic data. You do not need to be a hydrologist to be able to contribute to these projects. It is easy and accessible, and anyone can participate. So get outside and track some streams!
To learn more, share your own streamflow observations, or get involved, visit our websites for CrowdWater and Stream Tracker.
CrowdWater is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 163008). Stream Tracker is funded by NASA award NNX17AF96A. We thank all of the CrowdWater and Stream Tracker participants who have contributed to the networks so far.
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Stephanie Kampf (email: stephanie.kampf@colostate.edu), Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins; Barbara Strobl, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland; John Hammond and Alyssa Anenberg, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins; Simon Etter, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Caroline Martin and Kira Puntenney-Desmond, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins; and Jan Seibert and Ilja van Meerveld, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Citation:
Kampf, S.,Strobl, B.,Hammond, J.,Anenberg, A.,Etter, S.,Martin, C.,Puntenney-Desmond, K.,Seibert, J., and van Meerveld, I. (2018), Testing the waters: Mobile apps for crowdsourced streamflow data, Eos, 99, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EO096355. Published on 12 April 2018.
Text © 2018. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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