Key points
- We are continuing to develop AquaWatch Australia to provide a national water quality monitoring and forecasting service.
- Eye on Water (EyeOnWater) is a citizen science app to help you add data from your local waterways to the AquaWatch system.
- We have developed an activity for schools to help measure water quality and submit data using the EyeOnWater app.
Fred Hooper, a proud Murrawarri man, is snapping a photo on Ngemba Country. He's at the site of the famous Brewarrina fish traps. But Fred is not getting a picture of the weaving pattern of stone traps. He’s pointing the phone straight down at the water flowing past, and contributing to science via an app.
Our EyeOnWater app allows anyone, anywhere, to get a photo of the water and submit it to AquaWatch Australia, the national water quality monitoring service we’re developing.
AquaWatch brings together data streams from satellite sensors, water-based sensors, and citizen science in an advanced data hub. From there, we can process the data into insights people can use to make better decisions about land and water management. The system will even provide forecasts, allowing people to avoid unsafe water or plan ahead for water quality issues.
Citizen science on Country
Fred is helping us to connect with Indigenous communities along the Barwon-Darling River system in regional New South Wales (NSW). He's helping us identify how AquaWatch can help communities to monitor and forecast water quality.
Fred said water quality is a key issue for this section of the river because of its connection with the health and wellbeing of the people relying on it.
"Health, connection and wellbeing. It’s simple. A healthy river is vital to our survival," Fred said.
"AquaWatch is a wonderful program where we can put sensors in the river, with satellite feeds, to map the health of the river system."
Janet Anstee, deputy lead for AquaWatch Australia, said citizen science is set to be an important part of testing AquaWatch for Indigenous-led projects.
"What we’re starting to hear from the community is that they want their young people and Elders involved in monitoring the health of their local water," Janet said.
And that’s where EyeOnWater comes in.
Science outside the lab
EyeOnWater is the perfect platform to get kids involved in water quality science. With just a smart phone, they can add their own data from local waterways.
Students from Wellington High School in NSW, in years seven and eight, learned this when they visited the Macquarie River to assess water quality and upload their measurements.
They also had the opportunity to learn how to gather extra data using water quality instruments, both high tech and homemade. The extra details from these parameters can be added to the photographic data in EyeOnWater.
Wellington High School science teacher, Andrew Owen, said it’s great to show kids that science isn’t all in a lab.
"It really benefits the kids to get outside and see that science can mean understanding what’s going on in your environment," Andrew said.
"It gives them to the chance to contribute to the broader AquaWatch system and log in to see their data on the map."
From ground to space
To get a national view of Australia's water quality, we’re using satellites 600km above the Earth. But we need other data streams from closer to home to validate what we’re seeing from space and help calibrate the satellite data.
Janet said EyeOnWater empowers local communities and schools to help us calibrate and validate the satellite data on water quality.
"It’s important to check satellite data with point measurements from down on Earth," Janet said.
"One way we’re doing this for AquaWatch is to use data from a network of water-based sensors we have installed on buoys at test sites around the country, but we can’t have these everywhere.
"When people upload their photos via EyeOnWater, it gives us more locations we can use for satellite calibration and validation."
AquaWatch Australia continues to empower communities to actively engage in water-quality monitoring. Blending Traditional Knowledge with cutting-edge technology we are striving to safeguard Australia’s waterways for generations to come.