Strategies for Success: Participatory Science Involvement in Water Quality Environmental Governance

Abstract Participatory science (PS) merges non‐traditional scientist groups and mainstream research, and has been increasingly used to fill data gaps in research, engage and educate community participants, and, to a more limited extent, inform environmental policy and management among government actors. We see this limited extent, especially in the United States, as a missed opportunity to face environmental challenges in ways that synergize the capacities of government, institutions, and communities. This paper uses an expanded environmental governance (EG) framework to understand how PS projects, in relation to government and other actors, can successfully contribute to environmental management. From EG literature, we identified four criteria that could lead to successful PS projects: how local problems are identified; the nature of institutional linkages; data management practices; and quality assurance protocols. We then analyzed 5 PS water quality programs with divergent actor networks according to these four criteria to identify how each criterion determined success. We describe examples of PS program data's influences on environmental management decisions and recommend high‐impact PS practices. Overarching all of these factors is the issue of trust among actors in PS programs, although trust can be developed through different criteria in different project contexts. We suggest additional factors, such as technology and deeper attention to the political dimensions of PS projects, that should be explored in practice and research to extend the usefulness of PS approaches in environmental management. These findings may be useful in developing PS programs within and outside of government agencies that aim to deepen participation.