River metrics by the public, for the public

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Ecosystem Services
• Social Science

Background:

• River management necessitates data on river condition, but monitoring is limited by budget and complexity.
• Decisions on data collection are typically made by scientists, potentially overlooking societal needs.
• Understanding public interest ensures river data is relevant and useful for society.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate public interest in various aspects of river condition.
• To identify key themes and metrics of public interest in rivers.
• To inform river monitoring and management strategies by incorporating societal values.

Main Methods:

• Engaged nearly 100 urban and rural participants through focus groups and semi-structured interviews.
• Utilized concepts of "final" ecosystem services to guide discussions beyond common stressors.
• Analyzed participant feedback to identify and distill key themes and metrics of public interest.

Main Results:

• Public interest in rivers is extensive and diverse, contrary to stereotypes of ambivalence.
• Key interests include water quality and quantity, aquatic life, vegetation, and human-use features.
• Identified consolidated themes and specific metrics reflecting public priorities for river health.

Conclusions:

• Public feedback provides valuable, methodically generated hypotheses for river monitoring design.
• Incorporating public interest into monitoring decisions can improve the societal relevance of river data.
• Results align with, but also offer nuances compared to, existing river restoration valuation studies.