Webinar: Implementing a complex citizen science project: Lessons from Off the Roof

What does it take to design and implement a complex citizen science project? What barriers are you likely to encounter and what enablers might help you leverage to overcome these barriers? Learn what barriers were encountered when creating and implementing a complex citizen science project and the enablers the project team was able to leverage to overcome them!

Why Off the Roof? Increasing demands on diminishing water supplies and the movement for urban areas to use more local water supplies has intensified interest in alternative water sources (e.g., roof runoff). Lack of data on the potential human health risks of these alternative water sources and the treatment required to meet water quality standards has impeded use of these sources for both potable and non-potable applications. Data on pathogens in roof runoff is limited given the rigorous sampling campaign needed to encompass a large number of roofs in multiple regions and the complexities associated with measuring human pathogens. These needs served as the motivation for the Off the Roof citizen science project

But then the real challenges emerged. The team had to deal with recruiting willing participants that met certain criteria across many cities, large time commitments from volunteers, extensive work requirements of participants, irregular participation surges relating to significant weather events, and handling complex chain of custody issues relating to the samples collected and analyzed.