Assessment of Nitrates Water Quality Test Strips in a Citizen Science Based Monitoring Program in the Medjerda Watershed (Northern Tunisia).

Riahi K.;S. Chaabane;S. Khlifi;E. Slama;Vanclooster, Marnik
(2022) Soil and Water resources management for Combating Desertification in Drylands under Climate Change (SWDCC 2022) — Location: Djerba Island, Tunisia (14.June.2022)

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Efficient and effective monitoring strategies for the quality of water resources are strongly needed for the management of vulnerable hydrosystems. Citizen Science (CS) applied to Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) is considered nowadays such as an innovative monitoring approach that can partially overcome data gaps in traditional WQM systems. The main objective of this study is to assess the performace of a CS-based WQM program for nitrates based on test water quality strips for the Medjerda watershed in Tunisia. For this purpose, 33 citizens were selected to participate to the CS-program. In total, 137 samples were collected in 24 sampling sites in the Medjerda watershed. Each sample was red by at least one citizen. Five citizen types were identified according their educational, socio-economic background and recruitment modality (social media, training sessions,...). Statistical tests (Pearson correlation, determination coefficient, and αCronbach) and multiple correspondence analyses were performed to assess the goodness of fit of citizens’ data considering their socio-economic profile. Results indicate a good agreement between observations based on the five citizen types and the analytical methods for nitrates. Nevertheless, the nitrates reliability and accuracy using test strips seem to be sensitive to turbidity and citizen’s typology. A compensation data equations model was developed to compensate for turbidity interference, considering each citizen type. Additional efforts in term of communication, training, feedback culture, and modality of motivation connection could help to enhance this participatory approach in order to reinforce conventional methods and tools in WQM. KEYWORDS: Citizen Science, Water Quality Monitoring, Nitrates Test Strips, Data quality, Medjerda River, Tunisia.
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Riahi K., S. Chaabane, S. Khlifi, E. Slama, & Vanclooster, M. (2022). Assessment of Nitrates Water Quality Test Strips in a Citizen Science Based Monitoring Program in the Medjerda Watershed (Northern Tunisia). Soil and Water resources management for Combating Desertification in Drylands under Climate Change (SWDCC 2022), Djerba Island, Tunisia. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/240698