High school students in NSW monitoring water quality using a smart phone app. Photo: CSIRO
The CSIRO is asking everyone to help keep an “Eye on Water” by measuring local water quality using a phone camera app.
The agency is working with collaborators from across industry, research and government to co-design and deliver a “weather service for water quality” called AquaWatch Australia to provide a national water quality monitoring and forecasting service.
Eye on Water (EyeOnWater) is a citizen science app to help citizens add data from their local waterways to the AquaWatch system.
AquaWatch has developed an activity for schools to help measure water quality and submit data using the EyeOnWater app.
This allows anyone, anywhere, to get a photo of the water and submit it to AquaWatch Australia.
CSIRO spokesperson Maigan Thompson said it brought together data streams from satellite sensors, water-based sensors, and citizen science in an advanced data hub.
“From there, we can process the data into insights people can use to make better decisions about land and water management,” she said.
“The system will even provide forecasts, allowing people to avoid unsafe water or plan ahead for water quality issues.
“EyeOnWater is the perfect platform to get kids involved in water quality science. With just a smart phone, they can add their own data from local waterways.”
Ms Thompson said years seven and eight students from Wellington High School in NSW learned this when they visited the Macquarie River to assess water quality and upload their measurements.
“They also had the opportunity to learn how to gather extra data using water quality instruments, both high tech and homemade,” she said.
“The extra details from these parameters can be added to the photographic data in EyeOnWater.”
Wellington High School science teacher Andrew Owen, said was great to show kids that science isn’t all in a lab.
“It really benefits the kids to get outside and see that science can mean understanding what’s going on in your environment,” he said.
“It gives them to the chance to contribute to the broader AquaWatch system and log in to see their data on the map.”
Ms Thompson said they were also using satellites 600km above the Earth to get a national view of Australia’s water quality.
“But we need other data streams from closer to home to validate what we’re seeing from space and help calibrate the satellite data,” she said.
The app can be downloaded at research.csiro.au/eyeonwater/ .
