2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

6/08/2017 | 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM | OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS FOR VOLUNTEER FRESHWATER MONITORING IN NEW ZEALAND | 301A

OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS FOR VOLUNTEER FRESHWATER MONITORING IN NEW ZEALAND

As government-led “Freshwater Reforms” provide new opportunities for volunteers to contribute their knowledge and values to freshwater management in New Zealand, the public is becoming increasingly proactive in freshwater monitoring. In an 18-month study, we showed that volunteers participating in stream monitoring increased awareness and understanding of local freshwaters, and attentiveness to local and national freshwater issues. Most volunteers shared their knowledge with their community, and developed relationships with their regional government (the main water management agencies), while some became more interested in engaging in freshwater decision-making. Regional government staff recognised and welcomed these benefits, and also the value of volunteer monitoring to fill gaps in government monitoring. However, they perceived significant barriers to supporting volunteer monitoring (limited staff time and resources) and using volunteer data (data reliability). Our research confirmed the need for investing time in volunteers, but also addressed data concerns, showing good agreement between volunteer and professional data for key water quality and biological variables. Our current work aims to improve resources and systems for volunteers to contribute high quality data to freshwater management, and demonstrate volunteers’ ability to contribute data to research on stream restoration success.

C21 Communicating Science
C17 Bioassessment
S25 Do mesocosm experiments play a meaningful role in freshwater research x S28 Shared pathways: contributions of citizen science to our freshwater future

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Presenters/Authors

Richard Storey (), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand, richard.storey@niwa.co.nz;