Water Quality and Sediment Behaviour of the Future: Predictions for the 21st Century (Proceedings of Symposium HS2005 at IUGG2007, Perugia, July 2007).  IAHS Publ. 314, 2007, 217-228

 

Community-based monitoring and the science of water quality

 

C. Conrad

Department of Geography, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

cconrad@smu.ca

 

Abstract Reductions in funding for hydrological monitoring by government agencies, the recognition of the need to involve communities and stakeholders in the planning and delivery of sustainability, increasing mistrust of the government’s care of the environment and the continued rise in environmental consciousness are all factors which have led to the proliferation of community based monitoring (CBM) initiatives. CBM is a process in which concerned citizens, government agencies, industry, academia, community groups and local institutions collaborate to monitor, track, and respond to issues of common community concern. The UNEP has stated that public participation is an essential component of sustainability, and it has been argued that the integration of community-based monitoring into resource management is one of the most significant developments in this area since the environmental movement itself. The Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) Science Plan, among other purposes, intends to “actively promote capacity building activities in the development of appropriate scientific knowledge and technology to areas and communities where is it needed”. This paper draws on the expertise and experience of working on CBM initiatives through Environment Canada’s Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) as well as the Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Network in Nova Scotia. Examples are drawn from Nova Scotia, where community watershed groups have undertaken water quality monitoring activities in more than 10 of Nova Scotia’s watersheds. Since the early 1990s they have gathered in excess of 55 monitoring-years of water quality data at over 200 sampling sites. CBM initiatives, in close collaboration with govern­ment and academia, following standardized monitoring protocols with careful quality assurance and quality control programmes, have the ability to address otherwise uncertain changes as a result of land-use alterations and climate change. Science alone is not well equipped to model and understand future changes and scientists are even less equipped to reach decision-makers. The community serves a role and a purpose here.

 

Key words community; environment; monitoring; public participation; volunteers; sustainability; watersheds; water quality