Crowdsourced Public Water Quality Monitoring at Consumer Taps

This research aims to design, assess, and understand a novel and generalizable contest-based crowdsourcing scheme to engage the public in continuous yet random water quality monitoring activities at the consumer tap. The approach is intended to allow early response, risk management, and harm reduction in a public water quality crisis like Flint, MI. Two contests with different public recognition reward schemes, one that focuses on rewarding participants for the number of samples collected at different locations and another that focuses on rewarding participants for the number of new recruits to the program, were carried out in a testbed area. The experimental design of each contest includes online pre-contest surveys, sample collection by the participants, paper-based post-contest surveys and interviews, and centralized sample analysis at one lab facility. We used survey instruments to collect information regarding participants’ motivation, socioeconomic characteristics, and perceptions of the proposed scheme. The research facilitates identification and understanding of optimal program design features and demographic factors that influence outcomes related to data quality, use of science in decision-making, scientific literacy, and networking changes from contest-based crowdsourcing efforts.

Funding

• National Science Foundation EAGER Grant, #1743997

Relevant Publications

• S Jakositz, R Ghasemi, B McGreavy, H Wang, S Greenwood, W Mo, “Tap-Water Lead Monitoring through Citizen Science: Influence of Socioeconomics and Participation on Environmental Literacy, Behavior, and Communication,” Journal of Environmental Engineering 148 (10), 04022060, 2022. 

• S Jakositz, L Pillsbury, S Greenwood, M Fahnestock, B McGreavy, J Bryce, W Mo, “Protection through participation: Crowdsourced tap water quality monitoring for enhanced public health,” Water Research, 169, 115209, 2020.