Netlake working group 3: citizen science monitoring program

NETLAKE Working Group 3 focuses on the establishment of a Europe-wide citizen science initiative. We will report on our 2015/2016 initiative in which a Europeanwide Water Awareness survey was done and a citizen science monitoring program was launched across NETLAKE sites. Our on-line survey was aimed at determining whether people from different demographic and geographical regions have different attitudes towards water usage, perceive water quality differently and are interested in monitoring and protecting local waters (n=498). Preliminary data suggest that the participants not only underestimated their direct, but even more their indirect water use. The results of the survey allow for more targeted water education and water awareness outreach. Additionally, the outcome of the survey allows us to further improve our strategy towards more effectively involving citizen scientists in lake sampling campaigns. In our Citizen Science lake sampling campaign we will focus on two environmental challenges, carbon storage in aquatic systems, and pollution by microplastics. Motivated citizens collaborating with local scientists will address these challenges by placing temperature loggers, measuring Secchi depth and water colour, placing tea bags to assess decomposition rates and sampling for plastics using homemade sampling equipment. By actively involving citizens in the whole process of doing science, we not only are able to work with citizens as sensors, but also increase environmental and scientific literacy of local end users.