Water connects and is the basis for the existence of all life forms on earth. However, current human water- and land-use patterns undermine the capacity of natural ecosystems in water and on land to regenerate themselves. The health of interconnected water and soil systems is deteriorating at an ever-faster pace. Just reducing our harmful impacts will no longer suffice, we need to take regenerative action. Restoring healthy water bodies is also a fundamental need to make nature and humans more resilient to the potential impacts of climate change. But where should we act first, and what actions promise success? EU and national data sets relating to water quality are expensive to obtain and accordingly scantly distributed across time and space. Most data related to large rivers but not smaller streams that may flow through biodiversity-rich areas.
Citizen science can play an important role in complementing official data sets on water quality to identify pollution hot spots, in particular in small streams that are not usually monitored by experts (König et al., 2020). The WaterLinx Citizen Science App provides a citizen science tool to explore water quality and ecosystem health wherever you stand and can take action. Data collected with this App can
- inform any citizens in an accessible manner on where regenerative action for healthy water bodies might be most urgently needed,
- open new windows on compliance with EU water quality standards and on the effectiveness of Luxembourg policy making and implementation,
- be used by scientists (experts and citizens) to evaluate and learn from regenerative projects.
If you would like to engage in both monitoring with this APP and regenerative action, you can seek inspiration for practical projects with impact on www.transformation-lab.lu and www.aktioun-nohaltegkeet.lu .