Crowdsensing for successful water resource monitoring
Clara Mloza-Banda, Brenda M. Scholtz · 2018
Crowdsensing empowers citizens to collect and share sensed data from their surrounding environments using their mobile devices as sophisticated sensors. However, whilst many studies have done research on crowdsensing, very few researchers have investigated the potential participation profile of citizens. Understanding these profiles can assist with designing crowdsensing systems with appropriate incentive mechanisms to achieve adequate user participation and good service quality. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the participation profiles (intentions and motivations) of citizens who potentially could participate in crowdsensing projects for water resource monitoring (WRM). The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to investigate citizens' intentions to participate and to determine the influence of their attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control on these intentions. An extended framework of motivational and demotivational factors for crowdsensing was used to determine citizens' motivations. The findings show TPB can be effective for predicting behavioural intentions, and that there is potential for citizens to submit data for WRM. The results of this study provide a fundamental basis that can assist researchers and practitioners to gain an understanding of citizens' perceptions of WRM. Recommendations for project coordination and data collection protocols are made that can be used to improve the success of crowdsensing for WRM.