Involvement of Citizens in the Measurements of Water Salinity Using Test Kits in the Medjerda Watershed (Northern Tunisia)

Chaabane, Safa;Fehri, Raed;Riahi, Khalifa;Khlifi, Slaheddine;Vanclooster, Marnik
(2022) Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation : Water-Energy-Nexus in the Ecological Transition — ISBN: [9783031008078], p. 241-243, published

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Authors
  • Chaabane, Safa
    Author
  • Fehri, Raed
    Author
  • Riahi, Khalifa
    Author
  • Khlifi, Slaheddine
    Author
  • Vanclooster, Marnikorcid-logoUCLouvain
    Author
Abstract
Citizen science-based (CS) water quality monitoring (WQM) is considered as an innovative approach to enhance the hydrosystems’ monitoring. The main objective of this study is to assess the salinity monitoring adopting CS-based WQM for Medjerda watershed, the main hydrosystem of Tunisia, using test kits. The study focused on total dissolved solids (TDS) and electrical conductivity (EC) of water. 96 samples were collected to assess water salinity, from 12 sampling sites located in the Medjerda river or its main tributaries. Water salinity monitoring tests, for wet (January–March 2020) and dry (June–July 2020) periods, were performed by test kits. Regression analysis, determination coefficient (R2), F test, and Cronbach’s alpha (αC) test were performed to statistically assess the difference between the citizens’ dataset and the standard values. Results show that TDS and EC-sensitive test kits were reliable for measuring a wide range of concentrations of 207–6073 ppm and 415–9999 µS/cm, respectively. There was also a good agreement between the citizen-based outcomes and the analytical methods. Nevertheless, the reliability depends on the citizen and the parameter to be tested. Finally, the rapid and simple measurements using the test kits appear suitable to be used as CS-WQM for Medjerda hydrosystem if instructions are strictly followed, and test kits are correctly used. With more consistent training, the test kits should allow for reliable, sensitive, and precise monitoring of water quality.
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Chaabane, S., Fehri, R., Riahi, K., Khlifi, S., & Vanclooster, M. (2022). Involvement of Citizens in the Measurements of Water Salinity Using Test Kits in the Medjerda Watershed (Northern Tunisia). In Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation : Water-Energy-Nexus in the Ecological Transition (p. p. 241-243). 2022 Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00808-5_55