Participatory Science for Monitoring Aquatic Environments
As part of the establishment of a long-term monitoring system for the Aghien Lagoon, the Wasaf project has developed a participatory science application for the communities living near the lagoon.
This participatory approach aims to involve local populations in the production of knowledge on the ecological status of the lagoon, in addition to the monthly monitoring of water quality carried out by researchers at the Institut Pasteur Institut of Ivory Coast.
In addition to providing data on the state of the lagoon, this participatory approach should also contribute to (i) a better understanding of local knowledge and perceptions of the risks of lagoon degradation in relation to its different uses and (ii) to sensitize these local populations on these questions of protection of the environment in which they live.
All these elements will make it possible to propose, over time, measures to protect the lagoon to the institutions in charge of their implementation.
The mobile application
• The participation of the villagers is based on a free mobile application (EpiCollect5, available on Google Store and developed by the Imperial College of London) that allows to complete a short questionnaire dedicated to the Wasaf project and to take a geo-localized and dated photo.
• The questionnaire is sent over the internet and all the data collected and geo-localized are visible on a map in real time : https://five.epicollect.net/project/wasaf
Algae
Gas
Dead fish
Waste
The collected data visible on a map in real time
Who participates and how ?
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One of the difficulties in implementing participatory science projects is to convince and maintain the interest of the people who are called upon to contribute.
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In order to manage this difficulty, the project team uses two types of informants :
1. Referring informants - who were identified in each of the four villages involved in the project. The referents were chosen by the traditional chiefdoms of the villages, with whom the team discussed in detail the approach to be implemented. In some villages, they are school teachers (who can thus develop educational actions to raise children's awareness of environmental issues), or members of chieftaincies. Referrals (also referred to as "local sentinels") were trained and received a smartphone to regularly participate in data collection. These people commit, as far as possible, to make each week via the application EpiCollect5, a questionnaire entry and sending a photograph taken in the same place of the lagoon. In addition to these weekly observations, it is also advisable to take additional photographs at other places on the lagoon, if particular events are observed
2. Villagers - who can send their observations via this same application, when they notice unusual phenomena that they consider important to report. Focus groups were organized in each of the villages with three groups of people: a group of men, a group of women and a group of young people. They identified local concerns about the ecological status of the lagoon and presented the mobile application.
The mobile application with the 'wasaf' questionnaire is available since November 2017.
Interest of the approach
1. A better knowledge of the spatio-temporal dynamics of cyanobacteria blooms.
Real-time monitoring of these blooms (green algae) is very important because efflorescence can develop very quickly and have fairly short life cycles (one - two weeks). Moreover, these cyanobacteria have very heterogeneous distributions in the lagoon. For these reasons, they can escape the monthly monitoring done by scientists.
The dynamics of cyanobacteria can be considered as a good indicator of the "ecological health" of the lagoon, because they reflect the trophic state of this environment. Furthermore, they disturb the functioning of ecosystems and also represent a health risk for animal and human populations exposed to their toxins during the various activities carried out on the lagoon.
When researchers find significant concentrations of cyanobacteria, a search for cyanotoxins is performed.
Examples of Cyanobacterial blooms observed in the lagoon
Complementarity of knowledge:
1. Researchers - Monitoring water quality by monthly sampling in 6 stations (S1-S5)
2. Villagers - Daily visual monitoring of the entire lagoon. For the moment, three villages (Débarcadère, Akandjé and Aghien Télégraphe) are involved in participatory monitoring. The application will be presented soon in a fourth village (Akoyate), to cover the longitudinal transect from north to south of the Lagoon.
2. Sensitization of populations to the environmental degradation problems
In order to maintain the village mobilization, several tracks are being defined:
- Regular returns (quarterly or monthly) to villages in the form of lagoon health bulletins, based on the pooling of scientific observations and village observations.
- Educational activities in schools (preparation of posters, photo prints, educational experiences during the installation of mesocosms in February 2018)
- Organization of a photo contest, ...
3. A better understanding of local practices and perceptions of the ecological status of the lagoon.
- The comparison of the data collected by the researchers and the populations, as well as sociological data on the local uses of the lagoon, will allow to better understand the perceptions of the ecological quality and the health risks.
- Conducting sociological surveys with participants (and non-participants) will also help to better understand their motivations, concerns, expectations, etc.
