GEOSPATIAL BASED CITIZEN CENTRIC WATER QUALITY MEASUREMENT SOLUTION

Abstract

Citizen science has emerged as a game changer in various scientific endeavors, wherein scientific data for understanding the phenomenon could be collected by volunteers/non-specialist in a quick possible time. Citizens nowadays play an important role by functioning as “sensors” helping government/institutions by collecting and analyzing data. The advancements and convergence of technologies (Information and communication technologies (ICT)), especially the Internet and mobile technology has further assisted in such efforts. Moreover, the location sensors (GPS) and camera on board the mobile devices enables citizens to collect geotagged data. The classic example is the OpenStreetMap project where volunteers contribute towards the mapping of the planet. This paper highlights the geospatial solution based on citizen science to collect geotagged data about the water quality (turbidity). This solution is developed using open source tools and consists of an Android based mobile app and web based dashboard on the server side for real time data visualization and analysis. The web application is designed and developed using PHP, JavaScript, HTML & CSS and allows user to view the interpolated geotagged data about water quality over various background maps like OSM, Bhuvan etc. PostgreSQL/PostGIS are used as the backend geospatial data server for storing the geotagged dataset. Such solution will be very useful for water quality monitoring as part of national level project like Clean Ganga Mission using the citizen centric approach.