Open Water - A Citizen Science Monitoring Platform

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Ensuring the health of coastal marine ecosystems has emerged as one of the primary environmental concerns of this century. Frequent monitoring of water quality is required to establish baseline levels and enable early detection of problems. Citizen science programs have been shown to provide a highly effective method of monitoring water quality. Creare is developing an open-source water quality monitoring system that is both easy to use and inexpensive. Our system incorporates a wireless sensor along with a cloud-based data repository. During Phase I we developed and demonstrated a prototype version of the system and demonstrated it to environmental researchers and water quality experts. During Phase II, we will finalize development and validation of the system and use the system in a pilot citizen science water quality monitoring study. Hardware designs and software developed during the project will be placed in the public domain.SUMMARY OF ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The project will provide citizen scientists with a cost-effective and reliable framework for monitoring water quality. In addition, the system will provide the scientific community with a set of powerful tools for data assurance, visualization, and analysis.