From relaxing on the sailboat to farming oysters to exploring critters in a tide pool, the ways in which people connect with and their concerns about coastal and estuarine waters is as diverse as the shorelines themselves. These varied relationships shape what individuals want to know about the health of the water, the specific locations they consider most important for monitoring, and the ways in which they use and respond to water quality data.
To develop a monitoring network that truly supports the full diversity of information needs and uses, it is essential to understand the varied ways people are connected to coastal and estuarine waters and how that affects what water quality data is relevant or useful to them.
This research seeks to determine what makes water quality monitoring data spatially relevant to people and how to efficiently collect data that will serve a diversity of interests and needs.
Stage 1: Ongoing. Statistical models are being developed that use historical water quality datasets to determine how much information is gained from adding or changing monitoring locations.
Stage 2: Summer 2026. Members of the public will be interviewed to determine what guides people’s perceptions of the relevance of monitoring locations. Participants will share information about their connections to coastal and estuarine waters and, while interacting with a computer mapping application, discuss their perspectives about the locations for which it would be valuable to have information about water quality.
If you are interested in participating, or if you want more information, please contact watermonitoringstudy@umass.edu.
We seek participants across a range of backgrounds. No prior knowledge of water quality monitoring is necessary.
Stage 3: Future. Insights from Stages 1 and 2 will be used to develop algorithms to optimize numbers and locations of monitoring stations. This will provide information that people say is relevant and useful while promoting efficient data collection.
Stay tuned, updates will be posted here as the study progresses.