Demonstrating synergies in combined natural and engineered processes for water treatment systems

“Over the last decade, the participation of citizens in science (or citizen science – CS) has received in- creasing interest of scholars, professionals in the field and citizens themselves. Benefits of this method are recognized on an individual, scientific and system level. The aim of the AquaNES project subtask on citizen science is to theoretically assess whether and how a citizen science initiative might effectively support the monitoring and control activities for any of the demonstration sites characterized by nat- ural treatment processes, such as bank filtration, managed aquifer recharge and constructed wetlands, combined with engineered pre- and post-treatment options.
Given that each demonstration site is unique in terms of, among others, technological design, location, governance and broader social context, this guidance takes the view that professionals closely involved to the sites are best equipped to answer the questions of whether, how and under which circumstances a citizen science initiative may be meaningful for their particular site. AquaNES demonstration sites are characterized by natural treatment processes, such as bank filtration, managed aquifer recharge and constructed wetlands, combined with engineered pre- and post-treatment options, and these nat- ural elements can be part of the public domain and accessible for citizens. This guidance is meant to encourage and support professionals at such sites in undertaking a citizen science initiative. Besides guidance regarding the whether and how deliberations, it is also meant as a self-explanatory citizen science design guidance.
This guidance takes an outcome oriented approach placing the individual, scientific and system out- comes of a CS project at the forefront of the project design. The aim is to incite projects that are rele- vant on all three levels. This guidance is grounded in the latest research on citizen science and enriched by various examples from practice. By providing a five-step approach, professionals in the field are encouraged and guided to consider a CS project. The five steps are desire (the outcomes), define (the strategy and target public), design (the spatial and temporal scale and the CS type), develop (various protocols and a recruitment strategy) and detail (the training, manual and logistic plan). Going through these steps, this guideline offers a logical sequence of decisions to be made, as well as critical checks allowing for a reconsideration of the suitability of CS for a specific project.
For the purpose of illustration, a completely hypothetical citizen science case is included in this guid- ance. This case, which is loosely based on the actual cNES site Lange Erlen in Basel, Switzerland, al- lows to illustrate each step in the guidance, and connect it to the realm of AquaNES.”

(Citaat: Brouwer, S., van Aalderen, N., van Dorssen, A.J., Smith, H. – Demonstrating synergies in combined natural and engineered processes for water treatment systems – D5.4 Guidance on citizen science approaches – AquaNES (2019))