Citizen science: An alternative way for water monitoring in Hong Kong

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 8;15(9):e0238349. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238349. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Nowadays, citizen science has become increasingly popular, especially in Western countries. In Hong Kong, citizen science projects are mostly used for public education, while utilizing citizen scientists in published scientific research is very rare. On the other hand, with the increasing threats to global water security, Hong Kong requires new adaptation and strategy in facing the impairment of local freshwater systems. However, unfortunately, the number of full-scale urban river research appears to be declining. In this regard, citizen science can offer an alternative option as one of the new integrated water management strategies in Hong Kong. In this study, the water quality of seven rivers and streams in Hong Kong was studied monthly for two years by a group of citizen scientists. The main goal is to examine the reliability of data collected by citizen scientists by comparing it with the official data from the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong (EPD). Results show that the water temperature and conductivity data acquired by the citizen scientists were highly comparable to the official data. Also, moderate to strong correlations in water pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen levels were found between citizen scientists and official data. Since the citizen science data remained as high as 70% of relevance to the official data, we believe that this may serve as a supplement to the lacking official or professional water quality monitoring data in Hong Kong. Even though the use of volunteer data in water quality monitoring unavoidably exists with errors and bias, this study demonstrates a successful outcome of utilizing citizen science programme in urban river monitoring in Hong Kong.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Citizen Science / methods*
  • Community Participation
  • Conservation of Natural Resources / methods*
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Hong Kong
  • Humans
  • Quality Improvement*
  • Rivers / chemistry*
  • Water Quality / standards*

Grants and funding

This work belongs to one of the regional studies of Freshwater Watch which is under the scope of HSBC Water Programme. We thank HSBC Bank Hong Kong for their essential sponsorship of the whole project, and our collaborator Earthwatch Institute for implementing the key elements of citizen science into our research and providing all the necessary supports in volunteer training and organization. The funders were majorly responsible for the coordination part in this work. The study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, and preparation of the manuscript were done by the three authors.