Oral Presentation Australian Society for Limnology Conference 2016

Waterwatch and EstuaryWatch portals: a collaborative research partnership to develop online tools to enhance citizen science, data collection and provision, and information sharing (#84)

Birgita Hansen 1 , Peter Dahlhaus 1 , Andrew Macleod 1 , Rose Herben 2 , Deirdre Murphy 3 , Paul Feely 1 , Angela Murphy 1
  1. Federation University Australia, Mt Helen, VIC, Australia
  2. Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, Geelong, VIC, Australia
  3. Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, Colac, VIC, Australia

Citizen science has an increasingly recognised role in contributing monitoring data, facilitating societal education and improving understanding about the environment (and other issues). Citizen science has been contributing data for more than a century and the value from these longitudinal environmental monitoring data sets is only just being realised, particularly at the research and policy level. EstuaryWatch and Waterwatch are two long-term citizen science programs, supported by Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. Waterwatch is an Australia-wide program that monitors water quality in waterways. Since its establishment in 1993, over 3300 volunteers have collected data at over 6500 sites on Victoria's waterways. The strategic direction and activities of the program include increasing the knowledge of the community and waterway managers to inform waterway management decisions and encourage waterway stewardship. The EstuaryWatch program was established in 2006 with the aim of raising awareness and providing educational opportunities to community in estuarine environments, and enabling communities and stakeholders to better inform decision making on estuarine health. It has nearly 100 active and trained members operating over 17 estuaries. Future objectives and approaches for both programs overlap considerably with each aiming to establish, maintain and review monitoring sites and plans, and to increase engagement with community in monitoring waterway and estuary health. Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation at Federation University is collaborating with EstuaryWatch and Waterwatch to develop improved information management systems using web-based interoperable data portals and visualisation tools. Existing program databases were re-developed and integrated, and new “sister” websites developed for both programs. EstuaryWatch and Waterwatch websites and data management portals were developed in consultation with key members of each program and refined to increase useability, data accessibility and visualisation, and interoperability between both data systems and with other relevant agency data.