Crowdsourcing
Leveraging the power of communities to understand and develop solutions to complex issues, CCI has developed a framework and guidelines for implementing crowdsourcing projects (see below). These methods benefit both the citizens and resource agency/organizations:
Citizens:
Easy to use technologies that provide immediate response
Knowledge about the quality of the water they use
Satisfaction from contributing to the general understanding of water quality conditions
Resource Agencies/Organizations:
More data points with less input error
Less expensive: about than 1/10th the cost of traditional lab methods
Real-time data for rapid response to water quality issues
Data for evaluating policy, research, and management
Educational vehicle for informing citizens
Joint benefit between citizens and resource agency/organization, improved communications due to better informed users with increased trust in the resource agency/organization.
The CCI Crowdsourcing Method is effective for monitoring drinking water, industrial applications, agricultural influent/effluent, and natural resource conditions as well as emergency response protocols.
Crowdsourcing Water Quality Data: A Conceptual Framework
Based on the theory of change and principles of citizen science and crowdsourcing for the World Bank, CCI provided the theory and developed the methodology for implementing a water quality assessment approach using mobile apps in India. The project resulted in the Conceptual Framework for Crowdsourcing Water Quality in India, a guidance document providing the background for citizen science, crowdsourcing, water resources sampling and a project outline for implementing this type of project in developing countries. Based on the conceptual framework, as part of a World Bank team CCI provided guidance and evaluated the implementation process of assessing water quality using mobile applications in three arsenic affected villages in Punjab. The result was an improved behavior change communication methods, far greater spatial and temporal density of water quality screening data in the villages, and recommended methods for the use of mobile technologies to monitor water quality throughout India.