Abstract
Citizen science has been increasingly applied in environmental monitoring projects as a way to address large-scale social-environmental problems, including a lack of awareness of such problems as well as the capacity for using science to inform decision making. While studies have found that citizen science can help improve environmental literacy and engage participants, knowledge about the extent of such changes in environmental literacy and behaviors as well as how these changes are influenced by participants’ socioeconomic characteristics remains limited. In response, we have developed a contest-based citizen science study focused on drinking water quality data collection and education. We sought to understand how socioeconomic characteristics affect participant knowledge in the context of drinking water quality and lead contamination, willingness to take preventative actions to improve health protection, and frequency of communication about water quality issues with those around them. Comparison of pre- and post-surveys showed statistically significant increases in participants’ likelihood to communicate about drinking water. With respect to knowledge, this project showed success in improving scientific literacy relating to key lead information and provided self-assessed educational benefits to those who participated. This project demonstrates that citizen science methods could be used to actively engage and inform participants in water quality monitoring efforts, creating a more scientifically literate and active public.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation under an EAGER Award (#1743997). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We would also like to thank Mr. Ian Rohrbacher and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services for their support of this project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 10 • October 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 27, 2021
Accepted: Jun 1, 2022
Published online: Aug 5, 2022
Published in print: Oct 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jan 5, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Data collection
- Decision making
- Drinking water
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering profession
- Environmental engineering
- Methodology (by type)
- Pollution
- Practice and Profession
- Professional development
- Project management
- Research methods (by type)
- Social factors
- Water (by type)
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water pollution
- Water quality
- Water treatment
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