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The UF/IFAS Water Watch program is a community-based volunteer water quality monitoring program that was created in 2014 by UF/IFAS Sea Grant extension agents in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties to promote awareness of the importance of water quality and the connections between land-use and aquatic health. Volunteer “boots on the ground” provide an effective means to leverage limited funding and foster stakeholder support, and these models have expanded to a statewide Water Watch program. Successful expansion is contingent on volunteer participation and ensuring volunteer data could be used for resource management. Since the real value of volunteer-generated data depends on consistency, it is imperative to begin program development by defining standard operating procedures (SOPs) for reliable, verifiable data collection. Working with the Environmental Protection Agency, we developed a quality assurance project plan to ensure quality-assured/quality-controlled (QA/QC) volunteer data. Currently, these programs are undergoing further validation SOPs with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in order for these volunteer data to be used by natural resource managers in coastal Florida. Designed as a Train-the-Trainer program, each Extension Agent Coordinator trains volunteers using the same Water Watch Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Water quality parameters are chosen to meet data needs and funding availability of local entities and include analysis for pathogens, nutrients and other physical and chemical parameters to track ambient water quality conditions over time. To date, these two pilot programs have expanded statewide to 11 counties, collecting data from more than 90 unique sites. Although Water Watch focuses on water quality, its development can provide examples of lessons learned for other applications and best practices for citizen science initiatives. |
