Citizen Science for Water Management and Sustainable Development

Citizen science projects and initiatives often extend beyond ‘mere’ data collection to other steps of the scientific method, and to public and community participation in decision making. As such, citizen science has the potential to trigger shifts in the role of citizens and communities in environmental management and related decision making, with significant (potential and realised) impacts on existing water management, governance processes and sustainable development.

Grounded in the ‘science of citizen science’, the course features lessons learned throughout from extensive hands-on experiences with citizen science in different socio-economic, political and geographic contexts.

Topics covered include:

• Types of citizen science projects: characteristics and typologies of citizen science projects
• Stages in a citizen science project
• Citizen science stakeholder motivations, roles, and engagement, especially in resource-constrained contexts
• From design to implementation: best practice principles, tools and techniques for (co-) designing and implementing water-related citizen science projects, incl. data management and Open Science principles
• Creating and measuring impacts of Citizen Science
• Case studies from around the world for distinct water management challenges

The short course is designed as problem-based active learning. You are encouraged to share expectations, concerns, and experiences with citizen science, whether as participants or coordinators. Practical exercises will allow you to work in teams on a case study that you bring to the course; alternatively, you can work on existing, real life examples that will be provided.