Water Wheel Nov/Dec 2024: Citizen Science

Abstract

State of rivers: A citizen science perspective The limitations of mandated institutions to monitor the condition of river systems across South Africa has hindered the ability of annual reporting on the national state of rivers (DWS, 2021) and global commitments to reporting on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.3.2 (Stats SA, 2019). Against the backdrop of limited river health monitoring, and the importance of staying abreast of the challenges which rivers systems are facing, a current Water Research Commission (WRC)-funded project is evaluating the potential for citizen science to inform broader water resources management through the generation of a Citizen Science State of Rivers Report for 2024. Citizen practices for generating environmental data have seen a global growth in application as noted by Carlson and Cohen (2018) mentioning South Africa as one of the countries where this trend has been noted. The accessibility of citizen science tools means that individuals with limited technical training can contribute effectively to accurate data collection.

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