Citizen Science Applications for Water Quality Monitoring. A Review

Abstract

In recent years citizen science emerged as apromising technology in environmental science and hy-drology with the potential to overcome the lack of in-situ measurements and create efficient ecosystems. Thispaper provides an up-to-date systematic literature reviewof applications of citizen science technology in water qual-ity monitoring and estimation. A bridge between citizenscience and remote sensing will be established to providea sound framework for comprehensively discussing thevarious approaches and applications. A scrutinizing of var-ious water quality parameters and associated measurement& estimation methods is provided, delving into variousremote sensing systems (microwave and optical systems)and imaging techniques (hyperspectral and hyperspectralmethods). A special interest is focused on reviewing existingrelevant crowd-sourcing mobile apps such as EyeOnWater,HydroColor, EnviObserver, Sechhi App, Hydro Crowd,and SIMILE-Lake monitoring, detailing their workingmechanisms, algorithms, data acquisition processes, usedsensors, and measured water quality parameters. Finally,the paper summarizes key knowledge gaps, challenges andpromising directions in this research field.