Achieving High Quality Data in Community-Based Water Quality Monitoring: Fulfilling Community & Scientific Objectives

Accuracy and reliability are metrics of quality that scientists and policy makers are often most concerned with when using data collected by non-professionals for research or decision making. We address concerns about the accuracy and reliability of data collected by non-professionals by examining a community-based water-quality monitoring project in the context of a standard data life cycle: plan, collect, assure, and describe; as compared to professional scientific activities. The Indigenous Observation Network (ION) is a community-based, water-quality monitoring project based in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska and Canada collaboratively managed by the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), an Indigenous non-profit organization and the US Geological Survey (USGS), a federal scientific agency. ION relies on community technicians to collect surface-water samples from as many as 50 locations across the Yukon River Watershed. This sample collection program fulfills the goals of monitoring the health of the Yukon River and its major tributaries as well as maintaining a long-term record of baseline data against which future changes can be measured.

We will present the results of comparing ION data to two datasets collected by professional scientists at the same sampling location as ION. Field and laboratory protocols and procedures of ION were compared to those used by professional scientists and a retrospective statistical analysis of a set of water-quality parameters reported by all three projects over the years 2009 through 2014 was completed. There were no statistical differences among the three projects for pH, calcium, magnesium, or alkalinity. There were statistically significant differences for sodium, chloride, sulfate, and potassium concentrations, but these differences were small and likely not significant in terms of interpreting the data for a variety of uses. Our results suggest that ION data are accurate and reliable and with consistent protocols and participant training, community-based monitoring projects can collect data that fulfill the objectives of scientists, policy-makers, and communities alike.