Abstract:
Citizen science is gaining popularity as a way to engage people to participate in
environmental projects. In addition to potential challenges regarding data quality and
the choice of variables, a key factor in the success of participatory monitoring projects is
the active participation of volunteers, the “citizen scientists.” To learn more about the
motivation of citizen scientists to participate and their socio-economic background, a
telephone survey was implemented with participants of a citizen science water level
monitoring program in the Sondu-Miriu basin, western Kenya. We analyzed the data using
descriptive statistics and random forest models to elucidate the characteristics of the
participant population, underlying motivations, and the challenges and opportunities to
develop recommendations for sustainable community-based water monitoring programs.
As citizen scientists who engaged long-term were 30–49 years old, had primary or
secondary school education and passed by the monitoring station frequently, targeting
sensitization activities at people with such background could increase participation in
community-based water monitoring. Sensitization meetings were key in engaging longterm volunteers, but participants indicated that continued feedback through education and
communication of the project findings is required to keep volunteers motivated. The use of
cellphone credit to submit data was identified as challenge for participation, highlighting the
need for data submission methods that do not incur costs for the participants. Greater
volunteer support could also be achieved by active involvement of the members of Water
Resource Users Associations, since membership increased the likelihood of continuous
engagement in water monitoring under the participants. Furthermore, many participants
indicated that their motivation was to help water management and conservation, as most
people rely directly on rivers for their water supply. Providing a platform to contribute to
better water resources management could therefore result in direct benefits (e.g.,
improved water supply) for the participants, and thus an incentive to participate actively
