SmartPhones4Water: Lessons from Asia, Africa, Europe, North American, and Beyond

Abstract:

SmartPhones4Water (S4W) sees water data gaps as educational opportunities. Water managers and researchers endlessly echo the same refrain: "we need more data." Truth is they're right. Many parts of the world do lack accurate and accessible measurements of rainfall, streams, groundwater, and water quality. As Lord Kelvin, a famous Scottish mathematician and scientist, reminds us, "we can't manage a resource we don't measure." At the same time, all around the world, hundreds of thousands of young researchers (i.e. students aged 12 to 25) study water and related topics. Unfortunately, these studies often lack practical data collection and analysis modules, even though such activities have the potential to make the water cycle come alive. If measurements are made, they are usually recorded on paper, and lost and forgotten when the exercise is done. S4W believes that both of these problems can be solved by systematically mobilizing young researchers to generate these missing data with their smartphones, and sharing these data with anyone who is interested. There are several benefits of this approach. First, young researchers benefit greatly from learning how to make primary observations of freshwater quantity (e.g. rainfall, streamflow, groundwater level, etc.) and quality (e.g. electrical conductivity). Second, water managers gain a valuable, cost effective, and scalable source of water data. Further, smartphones are a perfect took to ensure the quality of these data. For example, saving the GPS location ensures that the location or the measurement is known. Pictures can provide verifiable evidence of the accuracy of the observation. S4W is now busy at work in Nepal with an engagement of over 700 citizen scientists, and is launching efforts in Ghana, The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Palestine, and the US. Importantly, our experience has shown it is critical to integrate academic institutions responsible for development of curricula and outputs for these young researchers into this approach. We will share lessons from our successes and (many) failures from our efforts to apply these principles in Nepal.