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Posted on November 25, 2017

For this month’s story, we have a special report from a recent conference held in Kathmandu that SmartPhones4Water had the honor of participating in. It was written by two hard-working and creative young scientists on staff with S4W-Nepal who were able to attend the conference. We hope you enjoy!

George Bernard Shaw once said that if you exchange the same number of apples with someone else, the number of apples you have won’t change. However, if you exchange same number of ideas with someone else, your ideas will double. With the goal of providing a forum for exchanging ideas, research findings, and knowledge related to various aspects of mountains, their unique ecosystems and environment, and how we as humans interact with and affect them, the second international conference on “Mountains in the Changing World” (MoChWo) was held on October 27th and 28th of this year at The Radisson Hotel of Kathmandu in Nepal. It is an annual event organized by the Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS), and it is attended by many national/international scholars, researchers, policy makers and students. SmartPhones4Water staff and volunteers had the opportunity to attend and participate in this important conference.

The major theme of MoChWo 2017 was “Air Pollution: Mechanisms and Consequences”. However, it also covered a broad range of other topics including disasters, biodiversity conservation, climate change, environmental pollution, forest management, soil, water and atmospheric research, agriculture and agro-ecology, and sustainable livelihood. The presentation of these topics are covered through four symposiums and a poster presentation session. Smartphones4Water Nepal (S4W-Nepal) was mainly involved in “Citizen Science for a Sustainable Mountain Future” symposium which aimed in understanding the essence of applying citizen science in several topics of research to generate critical environmental data. Another focus of the symposium was on combining citizen science with low cost technologies for implementing citizen science projects in Nepal. One major noteworthy result of this symposium was the establishment of the Citizen Science Association of Nepal (CSAN). This brings all national organizations, researchers, policymakers, and students working with citizen science together under one umbrella.

S4W-Nepal provided 17 scholarships to student researchers (which covered either partial or full conference registration fees) through a competitive process based on qualitative evaluation of abstracts the students had written about their research. Similarly, an independent award evaluation committee led by Dr. Rashila Deshar evaluated all oral presentations and posters presented by students. As a result, four best awardees were awarded with certificates and a token of love. Ms. Anusha Pandey, one of our S4W-Nepal staff members, won best undergraduate oral presentation award! 🙂

Her presentation was on the evaluation, identification, and implementation of the most plausible flow measurement technique for citizen science.

Two members of S4W-Nepal’s advisory board, Dr. Steve Lyon (Professor of Department of Physical Geography from Stockholm University, Sweden), and Dr. Ram Devi Tachamo Shah (Project Coordinator, Aquatic Ecology Centre, School of Science, Kathmandu University), chaired the “Citizen Science” symposium. Dr. Steve gave a presentation about connecting hydrological modelling to stakeholder participation and Dr. Ram Devi on sustainable approaches for biomonitoring of water bodies. Additionally, some of our friends from TU Delft, Netherlands gave a presentation about the influences of land use on the quantity and quality of water sources inside Kathmandu Valley, including a discussion of utilizing citizen science in the future to help collect the data that they collected and used for their study.

Overall, the conference was a very productive two days of a variety of people from diverse backgrounds and interests coming together to discuss ideas, projects, and research in our beloved home country of Nepal. All of us from S4W-Nepal were honored to be a part of the conference and have the chance to bring some of our own apples to share with others, and we’re pleased to report that George Bernard Shaw was right. We left with more apples than we came with.

By Anusha Pandey and Anurag Gyanwali

Posted on September 27, 2017

We’re excited to present our third interview with one of our citizen scientists that we have the privilege of working with to collect important data about water resources in the Kathmandu Valley! Hope you enjoy 🙂

Q: What is your name?  A: My name is Pawan Giri.

Q: How old are you?  A: I’m 21 years old.

Q: Where were you born?  A: I was born in Tikabhairab , Lalitpur.

Q: Where do you live in the Kathmandu Valley?  A: I live in Tikabhairab, in the Lalitpur District.

Q: Can you walk us through a typical day of life? What are the activities you’re doing?  A: I don’t have a job currently, but S4W has provided me with a part time job as a citizen scientist.

Interviewer’s Note: S4W-Nepal is thankful for the opportunity to provide small employment opportunities to people like Pawan in a way that adds value to their lives, improves our understanding of Nepal’s water resources, and thus benefits society in general.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your family?  A: I have one sibling, a younger sister. I  live with my father, mother, and her.

Q: What is (or was) your favorite subject in school?  A: Nepali is my favorite subject.

Q: Can you tell us about a favorite moments of yours?  A: My favorite moments of my life are from when I was in school.

Q: How did you hear about the S4W-Nepal project?  A: I met some members of the S4W team while they were completing a flow measurement in the  Nakkhu River near my house. They described the project to me, and when I learned that there was an opportunity to participate, I eagerly joined the movement as a citizen scientist.

Interviewer’s Note: Within the Kathmandu Valley, the Nakkhu River is one of most “pristine” watersheds remaining.  Population in the lower watershed is growing quickly and agricultural diversions have greatly increased in the last 10 to 20 years.  Many locals recall the times when they used to swim and fish in the Nakkhu River at the Nakkhu Pul (i.e. bridge) upstream of the confluence with the Bagmati river, even in the dry season.  Now, the river is essentially dry for several months of the year.

Q: What has been your experience as a citizen scientist with S4W so far?  A: It has been fun to learn about water resources. I have been involved in this project as a citizen scientist and it’s been a great experience for me. I am collecting precipitation, water level, and water quality data. I believe preserving groundwater for the future is important.

Pawan is playing a critical role in S4W-Nepal as a citizen scientist.  Each day,  Pawan uses an Android application called Open Data Kit (ODK) to record rainfall collected by an inexpensive locally made rain gauge (each costs about $1.50) and to record water level as seen on a gauge installed  in the Nakhhu River near his house. Pawan is motivated to participate in the project because he feels a sense of responsibility and because he can earn an extra 65 rupees (roughly $0.65) every day through recording observations of precipitation, water level, and water quality (25 rupees are awarded for every precipitation measurements and 40 rupees for water level, temperature, and electrical conductivity (EC) measurements).

S4W-Nepal is a collaboration between S4W-USA, Himalayan Bio-Diversity and Climate Change Center (HimBioCliCC), Tribhuvan University Institute of Engineering (TU IoE), Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS), Delft University of Technology, the Swedish International Development Agency, and Stockholm University.  Water is our most precious resource.  Lord Kelvin, a famous Scottish mathematician, once said, “you can’t manage a resource you don’t measure.”  S4W-Nepal’s goal is to generate the data necessary to support wise water management decisions. S4W aims to accomplish this with a three pronged approach of Research, Education, and Employment. This project in the Kathmandu Valley is our first project.

The overall objective of SmartPhones4Water’s work in the Kathmandu Valley is to assist with generating the data required to guide water management decisions and allow for wise stewardship of water resources, and it has a rather long time scale associated with it. You need continuous data over an extensive period of time to understand how available water supplies are changing and to pick up on trends and respond accordingly. For example, in the United States, many of the data records regarding stage and flow in streams and rivers, and water levels in groundwater wells, go back around a hundred years into the early 20th century. This lengthy data record allows water managers and policy makers to better understand how factors such as increasing urbanization, changes in agricultural practices and land use, and climate change affect water resources. We are just beginning to generate and collect these data in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal with all of our local project partners, but we know that over time, as the length of the data records grow, the value of the data records grow as well.

However, after that lengthy aside as an introduction, this month’s story is about how the data we are collecting can also be immediately useful and positively impact the lives of people. There may be some additional follow-up stories on this same topic (as there is a lot to explore and a lot to say), but this will serve as an introduction to the flow measurement data we are collecting at stone spouts scattered across the Kathmandu Valley.

Stone Spouts

Stone spouts (known as dhungadhara by phonetically-spelling Nepali words in English, or as ढुङ्गे धारा for those who can read Nepali) serve as communal water sources for people living in the Kathmandu Valley. They are locations where the groundwater system naturally discharges into a spring or surface water body (e.g. underground water appears on the surface). Many of these have been developed and the discharge points have been channeled into these ‘stone spouts’ to aid in water collection and usage. People, especially the poor and underprivileged, come here to collect water for use in their homes, to do laundry, to bathe, etc.

As we’ve mentioned in a previous story, the population in the Kathmandu Valley has drastically increased over the last 50 years or so. This has put great stress on the water resources of the valley and is one of the reasons that we chose this location for our initial pilot project. For those who can afford to drill and operate wells, groundwater provides a consistent, reliable supply of water. However, as groundwater extractions in the valley increase, groundwater levels decline (we’re targeting groundwater level data collection as another component of our project).  Consistent groundwater level decline can result in various negative impacts on both people and the environment.

Since we’re scientists and engineers (i.e. nerds, or enginerds, as some of us like to say), we like reading, because we actually think reading is fun and because we learn stuff by doing it. In case you feel similarly, there’s a great paper that was published by Charles Theis in 1940 that explains how pumping groundwater affects surface water (the USGS has a summary of it available here). Basically, all water discharged from a well represents a loss of water somewhere else.  Typically this process starts as a loss of water storage in the underground aquifer that the well is tapped into. However, with sufficient pumping over time, that resulting loss of water can present itself as reduced flow in streams and rivers, or reduced flow at springs such as the stone spouts in the Kathmandu Valley. Reduced flow is our main concern at these stone spout locations, especially since they serve as the primary water source for many of the poor and underprivileged (i.e. those who don’t have access to water from a well or could not afford to pay for water pumped from a well should the stone spouts dry up).

The flow measurement data collection the S4W staff completes at these stone spout locations is very simple, but also very effective. We utilize the same SmartPhone app that we use to record precipitation data (find out more about how it works here), but for this application we are measuring a volumetric flow rate. All that you need to record the flow rate at these locations is a bucket of known volume and a stop watch timer (a feature that basically all SmartPhones have). The bucket is held under the stone spout, the timer is started, and the time it takes to fill up the bucket is recorded, and voila, you’ve measured the flow rate. For example, if you have a ten liter bucket and it takes 20 seconds to fill up, the flow rate (as measured in liters per minute) would be:

We’ve included a photo of a staff member performing one of these measurements below, recording the volume of caught over a certain amount of time.

The data that we have already collected at stone spout locations helps define existing conditions, and continuing data collection will show any changes (once again, with the main concern being decreases in flow) that occur over time. These stone spout locations are critical communal water sources that especially the poor and underprivileged are dependent on; if they are affected, people in these communities may find themselves without access to water, one of the most basic needs that people have.

If you’re interested, you can read another article about the stone spouts in the Kathmandu Valley here.

Posted on July 12, 2017

This is our second story about one of our fantastic citizen scientists (you can read the first one here). Hope you enjoy meeting another important member of the team!

Q: What is your name?  A: My name is Suraj Ghimire.

Q: How old are you?  A: I’m 11  years old.

Q: Where were you born?  A: I was born in Jhor, Kathmandu.

Q: Where do you live in the Kathmandu Valley?  A: I live in Jhor, in the Kathmandu District, in the northern part of the Kathmandu Valley.

Q: Can you walk us through a typical day of life? What are the activities you’re doing?  A: I go to school at 9:30 am and come back home around 4:00 pm. After school I do my homework, watch TV, and collect precipitation data for S4W-Nepal.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your family?  A: I have a brother and sister; I am the youngest in my family.

Q: What is (or was) your favorite subject in school?  A: English is my favorite subject, and I don’t like science at all.

Interviewer’s Note: While it was sad to hear Suraj say he doesn’t like science, we are glad he can still play an active role in S4W-Nepal. We are confident that he will warm up to science one day!

Q: Can you tell us about a favorite moments of yours?  A: My favorite moment is whenever I ride my bicycle.

Q: How did you hear about the S4W-Nepal project?  A: The S4W-Nepal team was in the area near our home, looking for willing citizen scientists to participate in the project. I was one of those willing citizen scientists!

Q: What has been your experience as a citizen scientist with S4W so far?  A: I have enjoyed learning about something new!  I am also receiving encouragement from the people around me as well; they are proud of me for getting a job.

Suraj is playing a critical role in S4W-Nepal as a citizen scientist.  Each day, Suraj uses an Android application called Open Data Kit (ODK) to record rainfall collected by an inexpensive locally made rain gauge (each costs about $1.50).  Suraj is the youngest citizen scientist participating in S4W-Nepal. He is motivated to participate in the project because of a desire to take care of the water resources he and his family rely on, and because each observation he makes earns him 25 rupees (roughly $0.25).

S4W-Nepal is a collaboration between S4W, Himalayan Bio-Diversity and Climate Change Center (HimBioCliCC), Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS), Delft University of Technology, the Swedish International Development Agency, and Stockholm University.  Water is our most precious resource.  Lord Kelvin, a famous Scottish mathematician, once said, “you can’t manage a resource you don’t measure.”  S4W-Nepal’s goal is to generate the data necessary to support wise water management decisions. S4W aims to accomplish this with a three pronged approach of Research, Education, and Employment. This project in the Kathmandu Valley is our first project.

Posted on June 25, 2017

The S4W-Nepal team was pleased that the Pre-Monsoon Workshop held in Tinkune on June 17th was a success! Thanks to everyone who was able to attend and participate in this important discussion. We are planning to have a Post-Monsoon celebration, so stay tuned for details. Also, please consider participating in the Kathmandu Institute for Applied Science (KIAS) Mountains in a Changing World (MoChWo) Citizen Science Symposium on October 27th and 28th 2017.

SmartPhones4Water (S4W) was created with the mission of utilizing mobile technology and citizen science to enrich lives in the developing world by improving our understanding and management of water resources. Collectively, we are passionate about (1) people in the margins and (2) wise stewardship of our natural resources. We believe that water links these themes in a most profound way.

Now all of that sounds really great, but what does it actually mean? On a practical level, what does our attempt to fulfill our mission look like? How do citizen scientists use smartphones to collect the data necessary for wise stewardship of water, one of our most precious natural resources? Great questions! Keep reading for the answers 🙂

Our first project is focused on the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal (find out more here). Currently, one of our priority goals is to collect precipitation data for the upcoming monsoon season (approximately June through September). All of the available water resources in the Kathmandu Valley originated as precipitation, and for current and continuing management of water resources in the valley, it is critical to understand the location, timing, and quantity of precipitation input to the Kathmandu Valley. If we don’t know where, when, and how much is coming in, we can’t know how much supply is available to be safely and sustainably used to the meet the various water demands in the valley.

We have a team of staff and citizen scientists scattered across the valley currently at work collecting these important data, and we’ll run you through a typical precipitation measurement as an example of citizen scientist data collection using a SmartPhone. Buckle up! Here we go!

We’ve developed a rain gauge that uses locally available materials and can be constructed for approximately 150 NPR (roughly $1.50). Over the last few months, S4W staff have installed these across the valley to characterize rainfall in different areas.  These gauges are maintained and measured by citizen scientists. In one location, three different types of rain gauges are installed alongside our “homemade” gauge as a test of the accuracy and to better understand different measurement methods of precipitation and any biases that may exist.  The three other types of gauges are: (1) Onset Hobo tipping bucket rain gauge, (2) Nepal Department of Hydrology and Meteorology standard rain gauge, and (3) CoCoRaHS 4” rain gauge.

As precipitation occurs, the gauge is filled with water and the amount of precipitation can be manually read off of the gauge. Citizen scientists are encouraged to take daily measurements of precipitation, and they are able to record them on their smartphone using the Open Data Kit (ODK) application and tools, which is a free and open-source technology originally developed with support from Google with the goal of using technology to improve the lives of underserved populations around the world.

The measurement process in ODK guides users through recording a precipitation measurement in the following step-by-step process:

1. Confirming accuracy of SmartPhone’s date and time and recording them as the time of measurement
2. Using SmartPhone’s internal GPS to record location (i.e. latitude, longitude, altitude, and accuracy) of measurement
3. Selecting the parameter to measure
   • Precipitation would be selected for a rain gauge measurement, although the other parameters that S4W is collecting data on include water level, water flow, water temperature, groundwater levels, and water quality.
4. Manually entering the precipitation measurement as read from the S4W rain gauge
5. Taking a photo of the rain gauge and resulting precipitation measurement
   • This step is important for QA/QC purposes. All of the measurement are reviewed by a member of the S4W team to confirm that the manually entered value matches what is seen in the photo.
6. Entering any comments about the precipitation measurement (optional)

Figure 3 through Figure 5 below visually demonstrate the measurement process through SmartPhone screenshots and a few pictures from the field.

After the measurement has been completed, it is transmitted over the cellular network to a centralized server where it is imported into a ODK Aggregate database.  These data are then exported to a custom-built database that has be designed to run automatic QA/QC procedures and organize and summarize the data into a user-friendly format. Through the database, manual QC/QA procedures (e.g. the photo review described above) can be completed, and the data can be processed and organized to determine results over time, which is ultimately what we’re really interested in.

Hopefully that clears up the picture of how citizen science and SmartPhone technology intersect in our best attempt to fulfill our mission of utilizing mobile technology and citizen science to enrich lives in the developing world by improving our understanding and management of water resources.

Check back next month for another story of one of our citizen scientists 🙂

Every month we will be posting a story about the work we are currently doing in Nepal. We will be alternating between science-focused and citizen scientist-focused stories. The citizen scientist stories will be interviews with some of the wonderful citizen scientists that we are privileged to be partnering with to collect this important data. This is our first one; we hope you find it interesting and enjoy 🙂

Q: What is your name? A: My name is Sabina Shrestha.

Q: How old are you? A: I’m 25 years old.

Q: Where were you born? A: I was born in Sindupalchowk.

Interviewer’s Note: This was one of the areas greatly affected by the earthquake in 2015, especially the second main shock centered to the northeast of Kathmandu.

Q: When did you move to the Kathmandu Valley? A: I moved to the Kathmandu Valley after getting married 8 years ago.

Q: Where do you live in the Kathmandu Valley? A: I live in Chovar, in the Kathmandu District.

Interviewer’s Note: Chovar is on the south side of the Kathmandu Valley, right where the Bagmati River leaves the Valley and heads south towards the Tarai (the plains on the border with India).

Q: Can you walk us through a typical day of life? What are the activities you’re doing? A: I help to run a small store near the entrance of a Hindu Temple, and I raise two children.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your family (Spouse, Children, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, etc.)? A: I have a husband named Roshan, my first son named Abusan who is 7, and another son named Asirbad who is 14 months. We live in the home that my husband’s mother (Iswari) was born in 64 years ago.

Interviewer’s Note: it is quite common for 3 or 4 generations of families to live together in one household in Nepal (and much of Asia for that matter).

Q: What is (or was) your favorite subject in school? A: Nepali!

Q: Can you tell us about a favorite memory of yours? A: My favorite memories are of my two sons being born.

Q: How did you hear about the S4W-Nepal project? A: The S4W-Nepal team was looking for a place to store some extra equipment while they were taking measurements in the Bagmati River a few months ago. We let them keep the equipment in our courtyard, and we have been friends since then.

Q: What has been your experience as a citizen scientist with S4W so far? A: It has been fun to learn about something new!

Sabina is playing a critical role in S4W-Nepal as a citizen scientist. Each day, Sabina uses an Android application called Open Data Kit (which you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about next month if you keep checking back!) to record rainfall collected by an inexpensive locally made rain gauge (each costs about $1.50 to construct) and the water level in the Bagmati River just below her house. Sabina is motivated to participate in the project because she feels a sense of responsibility to care for the river, and because each observation she makes earns her an extra 25 rupees (roughly $0.25).

S4W-Nepal is a collaboration between S4W, Himalayan Bio-Diversity and Climate Change Center (HimBioCliCC), Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS), Delft University of Technology, the Swedish International Development Agency, and Stockholm University. Water is our most precious resource. Lord Kelvin, a famous Scottish mathematician, once said, “you can’t manage a resource you don’t measure.” S4W-Nepal’s goal is to generate the data necessary to support wise water management decisions. S4W aims to accomplish this with a three pronged approach of Research, Education, and Employment. This project in the Kathmandu Valley is our first project.

Posted on April 22, 2017

The location of the first SmartPhones4Water (S4W) project is the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, which is an area of approximately 587 square kilometers or 227 square miles. It is also home to somewhere between 1.3 and 5 million people. Assuming a 2.5 million person population, and assuming that the population is evenly spread out over the entire watershed (which it isn’t), that’s nearly 4,300 people per square kilometer or 11,000 people per square mile. It’s a lot of people in a little space!

Much of this population growth has occurred over the last 50 years or so, as people have moved to the Kathmandu Valley to escape from political unrest and civil war, or to seek economic opportunities in the big city that weren’t available in more rural areas. This rapid population growth has placed a great deal of stress on the water resources of the Kathmandu Valley. However, how population pressures have impacted water resources have not been fully quantified, and as our favorite Scottish mathematician Lord Kelvin once said, ‘You can’t manage a resource you don’t measure.’ S4W is working to collect the hydrologic data necessary to characterize over time and space the quantity and quality of water in the Kathmandu Valley, all of which will be required to make informed water management decisions in this important water basin.

With such a huge undertaking, where do you begin?

With a map of course! We needed to define the area of interest and better understand the spatial extent and characteristics of the Kathmandu Valley and its water resources. In order to successfully design and implement a successful hydrologic monitoring network, we need to understand where the water is in the Kathmandu Valley.

Our initial dataset was produced by NASA as part of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) mission and is publically available for free. DEM stands for Digital Elevation Model, and it is essentially a very detailed digital topographic map with elevation for every 30 meter by 30 meter area of land (or “pixel”). This is shown in Figure 1.  To get a sense of scale, each pixel in a SRTM DEM takes up roughly the same amount of area as the infield of a Major League Baseball diamond field.  Within the Kathmandu Watershed (KTM_Watershed) there are over 652,000 pixels, and each pixel has a value corresponding to the average elevation above mean sea level in meters (colors ranging from 1298 to 2700).  Using Quantum GIS (QGIS), an open-source GIS software platform, a GRASS module was run on the DEM to develop a coverage of stream networks. The operation analyzes drainage directions from adjacent cells within the DEM, and the user defines the minimum number of cells that need to accumulate (i.e. have upstream cells) before the drainage area is classified as a stream. This was completed, and the results have since been verified through hiking expeditions and exploring the Kathmandu Valley, which is something we’d love to do anyways, so it’s a win-win. The resulting stream network for the Kathmandu Valley can be seen below in Figure 2.

The Kathmandu Valley is in the shape of a giant bowl, with all of the major rivers flowing down to the valley floor, joining together, and then exiting through one outlet. There are nine perennial (flowing year round) tributaries to the Bagmati River within the Valley. Beginning from the furthest south and working our way around the rim of the bowl in a counterclockwise direction, they are the Nakkhu, Kodkhu, Godawari, Hanumante, Manohara, Bagmati, Dhobi, Bishnumati, Manamati, and Balkhu. The Bagmati river starts up in the northern most portion of the Valley on the south slopes of Shivapuri peak, and flows southward all the way through and out of the valley, and the others are tributaries to it.

Once the map has been developed and the spatial extent of the study area is understood, the monitoring network can be designed. The objective of a monitoring network is to accurately characterize existing conditions through the data that are collected. Over time, this data record will demonstrate seasonal and annual variations and changes, trends (such as decreasing stream flows or lowering groundwater levels, which are symptoms of an over-exerted water basin) can be seen, and these results can guide leaders to make informed water management decisions. S4W is currently in the process of installing data collection sites and hiring citizen scientists as part of the monitoring network in the Kathmandu Valley. To date, approximately 50 stations have been installed and nearly 1,500 measurements have been taken by a diverse team of 25 citizen scientists, science students, and researchers, and we are continuing to grow. One year from now we aim to have 10 to 20 fixed stream flow monitoring points, 120+ total monitoring locations, 100 citizen scientists, and 4 to 6 full time staff working hard to develop the data necessary to make good water management decisions. Finally, the measurements that have been taken to date can be seen in Figure 4 below.

We could keep going on for a long time on this stuff (we think it’s pretty fascinating), but we’ll wrap this one up here for now. That’s just a little taste of what we’re up to in Nepal; we hope you found it interesting!

As you read this, we are continuing to expand our monitoring network with the installation of new data collection points, our team of citizen scientists with new additions that are also quickly becoming friends, and our dataset with new measurements that will provide the baseline data necessary for wise stewardship of the Kathmandu Valley’s water resources. Thanks for your interest and your support!

Check back next month for our first story on one of our wonderful citizen scientists!