People at the heart of river recovery
Rivers need better evidence to drive real change. CaSTCo (the Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative) brings together more than 30 organisations to co-develop a shared framework, principles, and tools for collaborative monitoring, all backed by real-world testing by catchment collaboratives. By aligning citizen science with professional expertise, CaSTCo is helping communities and decision-makers turn trusted data into healthier rivers.
A Collaborative Monitoring Framework
Collaborative monitoring is more than collecting samples: it’s about turning local effort into evidence for change. Working in eight Demonstrator Catchments as well as with national partners, CaSTCo has tested what works in practice and built the resources to support it: from the Methods Audit that helps compare approaches, to the Open Data Hub for sharing results, the Methods Library, and key concepts like Monitoring Tiers and Weight of Evidence. Together, these elements underpin the framework, making it possible for communities and professionals to generate trusted data that drives action.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 1
Make a plan
We need monitoring plans that can effectively answer our questions. Before you start, consider what your group wants to know, how you will utilise your data to create change, and what resources you have available. The remaining steps below should be incorporated into your plan.
We’ve created a guide and downloadable template to help you navigate the questions that will inform your plan.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 2
Define your purpose
Clear purpose keeps your monitoring focused. It helps you decide what questions to ask, what methods to use, and how to measure success. There are simple ways we categorise monitoring purpose. You can have more than one! Learn more about defining monitoring purposes
- Why are we monitoring?
- What objectives do we share for the river?
- How will we know if we’re succeeding?
When you define your purpose together, it becomes easier to choose the right methods, focus your energy, and show the impact of your work.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 3
Collect data
Good monitoring starts with good methods. The way you collect data determines how useful and trusted it will be. It’s defining the who, what, where, when and how!
- What methods in what monitoring tier best fit our purpose?
- Do our volunteers have the right tools and training?
- How can we make sure our data is reliable and comparable with others?
Use the resources in our Methods Library to find approaches that match your goals and explore CaSTCo’s Data Principles to understand how your collected data should be structured. By following shared standards and uploading to the Open Data Hub, your results become part of a weight of evidence that influences real decisions.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 4
Use your data
Data only makes a difference when it is analysed, shared, and applied to decisions.
- What patterns or changes can we see in our results?
- How does our data compare with official monitoring?
- Who needs to see this evidence for it to have an impact?
By combining multiple sources of information (citizen science, professional monitoring, historic records, and local knowledge), you create a Weight of Evidence that is harder to ignore. Visualisations such as maps, charts, and story dashboards make these insights clear and compelling, helping others see why action is needed.
Share your results to the CaSTCo Open Data Hub, where they can be viewed alongside other datasets to create a fuller picture of river health.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 5
Work collaboratively
River recovery is bigger than any one organisation. Working together builds trust, strengthens evidence, and increases impact.
- Who else is monitoring or working on this river?
- How can we share data and insights with partners?
- How can we support volunteers on the ground, safely?
- What decisions could we influence if we present a united case?
Collaboration means connecting citizen scientists, local groups, regulators, water companies, and technical experts. When evidence is shared openly, it creates common ground for decisions and collective action.
Collaborative Monitoring Plan
STEP 6
Make a difference
The true power of monitoring is when evidence leads to change, like healthier rivers, stronger communities, and better decisions.
- How will we share our findings with the people who can act?
- What change do we want our evidence to drive?
- How will we track and celebrate progress?
Monitoring results can influence planning decisions, secure funding for restoration, guide farm practices, or inspire behaviour change in local communities. Explore our case studies of organisations and collaboratives who are showing what is happening in their river, and creating evidence that sparks action.
Where is CaSTCo?
Our demonstrator catchments are located around the country and have been helping innovate new approaches, test new methods, and showcase the power of collaboration! We are preparing many more case studies and looking to make this map representative of the incredible efforts.
This map shows those beyond the demonstrator catchments: they’re groups making change for their local rivers.
We recognise that many more organisations and groups abide by CaSTCo principles and will be adding them regularly. If you believe your organisation should be here, request to be added.
Latest content
Creating resources collaboratively is ongoing and there are long-lists of methods and guidance documents we’re working on. In an effort to share insights quickly, we’re expediting posting content here (you may notice some are in draft format). Here are a few:
CaSTCo in practice
Our knowledge base shares best practices for individual methods, but the real magic happens when best practices are integrated, enlivened by the community, and co-managed by expert partners!
View stories that exemplify CaSTCo principles: they’re collaborative, impactful, open, rigorous, and future-minded.
- NEW! Western Sussex River Guardians
- Earthwatch: Great UK WaterBlitz
- Rivers Trust: Big River Watch
- Severn Catchment: Citizen science bacteria testing
- Thames21: EMPOWER Rivers
- Water Rangers: Community Lab
- Wensum catchment: Citizen science helps resolve pollution issue
Many organisations and collaboratives outside of the demonstrator catchments of this project also represent CaSTCo principles, and it’s important that they, too, are represented. Those organisations can now request to join.
CaSTCo’s path forward
Together, we’re demonstrating how citizen science and community monitoring methods can be used alongside professional monitoring to generate and share accessible data of known quality so that the information produced leads to better and more impactful decisions. A roadmap for the future of this movement is under development and will be available here soon.
People-powered
Citizen scientists are an important part of the ecosystem of monitoring and helping collect evidence to complement other types of monitoring. The strength is in numbers and their ability to be the eyes on the ground, noticing when things change.
Since 2022, our partner organisations (and those abiding by CaSTCo’s principles) have shown the power of citizen science in taking care of rivers.
This only represents a fraction of the hours and locations we know are out there! If your organisation would like to be included on our map and in our stats, please fill out this form.
42,000+
Volunteer citizen scientist hours
4,500,000+
Citizen science datapoints recorded and shared
10,000+
Locations monitored by citizen scientists
“We are both active partners in each of the CaSTCo demonstration catchments and through our internal project. Bring that all together and ensure that there’s some standardization and therefore the use of that data can be much more tangible for those amazing citizen scientists who are going out and collecting it.”
– Lydia Ashworth, Citizen science coordinator for West Midlands, Environment Agency. Read this case study
“It has been a momentous year for the Wensum Catchment Partnership, with citizen science making significant headway in not only removing pollution, but giving us the confidence to challenge the status quo of strategic models on nutrient apportionment. Our voice is now listened to round the table and much of this is down to your combined efforts.”
– Kelvin Allen, Chair, Wensum Catchment Partnership Read this case study
Project leads
This project was created through the OFWAT Water Breakthrough Challenge and led by United Utilities and The Rivers Trust.
Contributing organisations
