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DEVELOPMENT of Cltlzen Sclence WATER RESOURCE %&7&-01.&/50'$*5*;&/4$*&/$&8"5&3 3&4063$&.0/*503*/(500-4"/% $0..6/*5*&40'13"$5*$&'034065)"'3*$" "'3*$""/%5)&803-% 77 Development of Citizen Science Water Resource Monitoring Tools and Communities of Practice for South Africa, Africa and the World Mark Graham & Jim Taylor WRC Report No. TT 763/18 September Obtainable from Water Research Commission Private Bag X03 GEZINA, 0031 [email protected] or download from www.wrc.org.za The publication of this report emanates from a project titled Development of Citizen Science Water Resource Monitoring Tools and Communities of Practice for South Africa, Africa and the World (WRC Project No. K5/2350). This report is supplemented with an inserted USB at the back containing 19 Appendices related to the report. DISCLAIMER This report has been reviewed by the Water Research Commission (WRC) and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views and policies of the WRC nor does mention of trade names or commercial product constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. ISBN 978-0-6392-0030-9 Printed in the Republic of South Africa © Water Research Commission ii iii This page was deliberately left blank iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ‘Environmental pollution, from filthy air to contaminated water, is killing more people every year than all the war and violence in the world. One out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 (about 9 million) can be attributed to disease from toxic exposure’ – The Lancet Medical Journal. Water is the life-blood of every nation. In South Africa freshwater and estuarine ecosystems are highly threatened. Concerted efforts to ‘turn the situation around’ are simply not working and water quality, quantity and indeed social equity issues remain a top priority for South Africa’s future well-being. Human- created problems require human-centred solutions and these require different ways of thinking to those that created the problems. Africa is a continent with rich biodiversity, ecological infrastructure and strong traditional social connections, yet it is often cast as a continent with an obscure future. Whilst one cannot argue against the immense challenges facing Africa there are definite grounds to assume a more positive outlook and draw on the good-will and ground-breaking research opportunities that are starting to turn this situation around. The democratisation of science, through citizen science processes, supported by practical and accessible ‘tools of science’, is one area of work that is showing encouraging results. The essence of this research project was in finding and developing appropriate citizen science tools, interventions and social processes so as to better respond to the challenges around water resources within our region. An exciting social movement is developing in partnership with this research project. An example of this is how miniSASS (one of the leading tools), has supported people around the world to engage in an experience of investigating and taking action around local streams and rivers. miniSASS has also been the basis of the fieldwork component of the Leadership Seminars, which are offered by WESSA in partnership with CoGTA. These seminars support Councillors and Traditional Leaders to understand and engage with local catchment and water supply issues. As noted by the former deputy minister of Water and Sanitation (Pam Tshwete) after she had undertaken a miniSASS experiment: “with miniSASS, I became a scientist for the day!” The focus of this project is reflected in the challenges and disconnection between civil society and water resource management in southern Africa. Pollution from industry and domestic households, increased infestation of alien/invasive plant species and the increased enrichment of nutrients within fresh water systems are just a few of the many examples reducing catchment health and resilience. Complexities increase when transboundary catchment management is required to manage the pressures and demands placed on water resources as observed in many of South Africa’s catchments. While the challenges persist, and indeed become more complex, the authorities generally do not have sufficient capacity to monitor, manage and overcome the issues. In addition, a significant divide between the various stakeholder groups exists, e.g. between scientists, government, NGOs, private organizations, civil society and nation states sharing river basins. This typically dampens integrative solutions and catchment management on a broad scale. This project researched the potential for citizen science to effect meaningful change in water resource management and thus work towards improved catchment conditions. The vision is one of citizens who are able to go beyond awareness-raising, to more tangible, action-taking processes of co-managing their water resources. Most encouraging about the research is the manner in which it has achieved an encouraging impact at a global, regional and local level. These impacts are outlined later on in this executive summary. In order to harness the rising enthusiasm from a wide range of groups, to better understand the health of their catchments and to meet societal needs where they are most required, this research project focused on exploring different social change models of learning and educational change, as well as a suite of possible tools. Such tools can then be used to engage with the various aspects of water resources in the southern African context. These emerging orientations included public mobilisation and the democratisation of science (citizen science) and water-related understanding as an emerging response to the water crisis. v Citizen science (CS) is described as a form of public participation in scientific investigations – seeking answers, collecting data or analysing results (Miller-Rushing et al., 2012; Tweddle et al., 2012). Wikipedia defines it as: “Citizen Science (also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or networked science) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists, often by crowd sourcing and crowd funding. Formally, citizen science has been defined as "the systematic collection and analysis of data; development of technology; testing of natural phenomena; and the dissemination of these activities by researchers on primarily a vocational basis". Citizen science is sometimes called "public participation in scientific research." In many instances, it is a concept growing in popularity and interest in many scientific and social circles across the globe. What is relevant to this project is the concept of engaging with citizen scientists to improve catchment management within southern Africa, particularly with respect to their ability to improve understanding, both from the bottom-up (citizens understanding of catchment issues and societies impacts on water resources), but also from the top-down (authorities understanding where there are key resource issues and problems). This project seeks to understand the underlying socio-ecological processes driving both management and mismanagement within catchments. For the purpose of producing a socially applicable and sound ideological foundation for the project, a range of social change theories have been assessed and accordingly modified or adapted to address the above research question. Study aims This project researched the potential for citizen science to effect meaningful change in water resource management. The premise is that if citizens' knowledge of water resources (and associated impacts) is improved, the greater understanding and insight as to the state of their resources empowers them to interact with authorities and co-manage their resources in a more meaningful way. The research shows that where the learning included an action component, such as investigating and addressing issues at a local level/stream, the outcome of more informed action-taking was much more likely, than if it was merely an awareness raising exercise. This engaged action-taking will, in turn, effect greater change and better management of resources. The specific project outcomes include the following: 1. In collaboration with partners in South Africa and involving neighbouring trans-boundary countries, existing and new rapid tools for citizen and school-learner monitoring of water resource and catchment health indicators were identified and developed. 2. Citizen science in relation to wetlands, estuaries and springs was researched and a framework was produced for the development of citizen science monitoring tools covering wetlands, estuaries and springs in southern Africa. 3. The developed tools were packaged into an integrated water resource & catchment monitoring toolkit, known as ‘Capacity for Catchments’ for roll-out within South Africa and neighbouring countries. Web- based monitoring tools, including the use of mobile phone functionality to facilitate wider access to the developed citizen science monitoring tools, were explored with some success. 4. School lesson plans were developed as a component of the tool-kit and these materials were integrated into the school curriculum. 5. The developed toolkit to promote citizen and school level education was disseminated and awareness of catchment and river health issues were engaged with. 6. Through dissemination and application of the toolkit, the growth of trans-boundary citizen science covering water resource health within South Africa, neighbouring countries and beyond was
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