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Citizen science for hydrological risk reduction and resilience building

Paul, Jonathan D.; Buytaert, Wouter; Allen, Simon; Ballesteros‐Cánovas, Juan A.; Bhusal, Jagat; Cieslik, Katarzyna; Clark, Julian; Dugar, Sumit; Hannah, David M.; Stoffel, Markus; Dewulf, Art; Dhital, Megh R.; Liu, Wei; Nayaval, Janak Lal; Neupane, Bhanu; Schiller, Arnulf; Smith, Paul J.; Supper, Robert

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Authors

Jonathan D. Paul

Wouter Buytaert

Simon Allen

Juan A. Ballesteros‐Cánovas

Jagat Bhusal

Julian Clark

Sumit Dugar

David M. Hannah

Markus Stoffel

Art Dewulf

Megh R. Dhital

Wei Liu

Janak Lal Nayaval

Bhanu Neupane

Arnulf Schiller

Paul J. Smith

Robert Supper



Abstract

In disaster risk management (DRM), an emerging shift has been noted from broad-scale, top-down assessments toward more participatory, community-based, bottom-up approaches. Arguably, nonscientist local stakeholders have always played an important role in knowledge risk management and resilience building within a hydrological context, such as flood response and drought alleviation. However, rapidly developing information and communication technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and social media have already demonstrated their sizeable potential to make knowledge creation more multidirectional, decentralized, diverse, and inclusive. Combined with technologies for robust and low-cost sensor networks, a ‘citizen science’ approach has recently emerged as a promising direction in the provision of extensive, real-time information for risk management. Such projects work best when there is community buy-in, when their purpose(s) are clearly defined at the outset, and when the motivations and skillsets of all participants and stakeholders are well understood. They have great potential to enhance knowledge creation, not only for data collection, but also for analysis or interpretation. In addition, they can serve as a means of educating and empowering communities and stakeholders that are bypassed by more traditional knowledge generation processes. Here, we review the state-of-the-art of citizen science within the context of hydrological risk reduction and resilience building. Particularly when embedded within a polycentric approach toward risk governance, we argue that citizen science could complement more traditional knowledge generation practices, and also enhance innovation, adaptation, multidirectional information provision, risk management, and local resilience building.

Citation

Paul, J. D., Buytaert, W., Allen, S., Ballesteros‐Cánovas, J. A., Bhusal, J., Cieslik, K., …Supper, R. (2018). Citizen science for hydrological risk reduction and resilience building. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 5(1), Article e1262. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1262

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 22, 2017
Online Publication Date Oct 24, 2017
Publication Date 2018-01
Deposit Date May 9, 2022
Publicly Available Date May 9, 2022
Journal WIREs Water
Electronic ISSN 2049-1948
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 5
Issue 1
Article Number e1262
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1262

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Authors. WIREs Water published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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