The Importance and Application of Citizen Science in Hydrology and Water Resources Management

The science of hydrology is the basis for decision-making in water resources management and assessing related risks including floods, droughts, and pollution. Despite its vital relevance to the society, this discipline is facing a severe shortage of data in appropriate spatial and temporal scales. This is especially true in low-income and underdeveloped countries due to lack of information and high cost of the monitoring process. Therefore, data collection by local communities and volunteers and monitoring through public involvement is considered effective in this regard. Citizen science entails the involvement of researchers and local volunteers in the process of data collection and analysis, scientific knowledge development, sharing information and encouraging interaction and responsiveness between local communities and natural environment. Literature review shows a limited number of social studies on hydrology and water resources, indicating low leaning to citizen science in water resources management compared to other disciplines such as ecology and astronomy, but there is an increasing trend due to increasing the importance of water resources. Results of researches show that if citizens are adequately educated, the reliability of collected data by citizens can be acceptable. Therefore, considering the potential of citizen science and use of technologies, the reliable, timely and long-term hydrological data can be obtained and used in decision making and management of water resources.