HydroCrowd - Citizen Science in Hydrology

Climate change has a worldwide impact on water availability and on the occurrence of extreme weather events. Reliable hydro-climatic data is urgently needed to inform sustainable water management and develop strategies for climate change adaptation. The involvement of citizens in hydro-climatic monitoring (i.e. citizen science) is recognized as a potential strategy to increase data availability at relatively low costs. This could be especially relevant in countries in the Global South, where limited resources for monitoring are available. By implementing and evaluating different approaches to engage citizens in hydro-climatic monitoring in regions in Tanzania, Honduras and Ecuador, the project HydroCrowd aims to strengthen the acceptance of citizen science as a valid approach. Citizens will measure rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity, river water level and turbidity using simple, low-costs methods and transmit the data with a smartphone application. In Honduras, the approach will be targeted at the local community, whereas the project will engage local and international tourists in Ecuador and Tanzania, respectively. A survey among participants will be used to evaluate the motivation of citizen scientists to participate. Besides, the effectiveness of engagement strategies and the performance of the target groups will be analysed to inform the design of future citizen science monitoring programs. Finally, a hydrological model will be developed using citizen science data combined with remote sensing data to demonstrate the value of the data for modelling and forecasting.