People monitor surface water to find out the health of the water body at the particular point in time. People may monitor a site to evaluate the trends of the stream's health. Another important reason for monitoring is to determine the impact of best management practices on the health of a stream. Many people use citizen monitoring data. Citizens themselves use the data to educate their neighbors and law makers about the health of streams and the effect of land use practices on the streams.
Educators also use citizen data to teach students about ecology and land use.
Currently, citizen data has limited use by state water quality agencies. However, in the future, the use of citizen data will be expanded. Some citizen data will be used to assess the quality of waters that are not currently monitored by state agencies. Most importantly, citizen data can be used to enhance studies on impaired streams to determine the source of impairment. Citizens perform all sorts of stream monitoring activities.