Powered by CaSTCo
CaSTCo (Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative) provides a framework and best practices so that organisations and groups can collect rigorous and useful data for river health and recovery.
CaSTCo (Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative) is co-creating pathways for collaborative monitoring and community data to make a bigger impact on our rivers’ future
Through innovative prototyping and collaboration, we are working together to test and build a national framework to support communities and citizen scientists, decision-makers, scientists, and industry to collect and combine data from community monitoring along with other datasets to deliver improvements to the water environment.
Projects powered by CaSTCo bring together expertise and buy-in from more than 30 organisations nationwide, including community and local partnerships, water companies, environmental charities, regulators, technical experts, academics, and the private sector.
Our framework
Audits tools and methods
so that we can set expectations and
trust data quality
Builds pathways for data sharing
so that data can be better integrated into decision-making
Provides resources to communities
so they can understand best practices and participate meaningfully
This project is funded by Ofwat’s Innovation Fund and led by The Rivers Trust and United Utilities.
The context
Our freshwater bodies are not adequately monitored across the UK. Due to limited resources, official regulating bodies and environmental groups are restricted to monitoring a limited number of locations, with different regions having different capacities to test. Water quality monitoring methods can vary from region to region, meaning data may not always be easily comparable, and can often take a long time to be shared. Data may also be collected at different times across different regions, and so environmental and weather variability can further affect comparability.
“I have gone from seeing the river running clear and full as a young person, to now, in my old home town the river being clogged with plants and algae due to the run-off of nitrates.”
– Jane Stewart, volunteer monitor on the River Colne
“To people out there who want to take action: go for it! If you’re concerned about the environment, then get involved in a citizen science project. The data you record will be really valuable!”
– Reg Godwin and the Holsworthy Kingfishers, environmental scientist and volunteer, River Deer
Methods
The Great UK WaterBlitz is a simplified protocol of the standard FreshWater Watch program. The campaign uses Kyoritsu Packtest low-range nitrate-nitrogen and Kyoritsu Packtest phosphate-phosphorus.
These tests have been compared and used by academics in the Earthwatch network and are part of over 100 peer-reviewed published papers.
FreshWater Watch includes simple instructions with their mailed-out supplies, plus online training videos. One of the benefits of the standardized methods is that it makes training and data interpretation easier.
2,630
People participated in the blitz, monitoring at 1,380 site
75%
Of the datapoints showed poor ecological health
Who
This event was run by Earthwatch Europe’s FreshWater Watch program, supported by hundreds of regional groups and engaged with thousands of citizen scientists. Professional scientists interpreted the results and presented them to participants, answering their questions about the health of rivers.
FreshWater Watch is a global citizen science project developed by environmental charity Earthwatch Europe.
Where
Samples were taken all over England, Scotland, and Wales (in the June 2024 Great UK WaterBlitz event, there were not enough data points from Northern Ireland to undertake meaningful analysis)
Data collection
FreshWater Watch data is open access and displayed in real-time on their website, with 44,237 datasets (which they define as all observations at a location on a particular date) collected globally. In the UK, 80 community groups collect and upload data on a monthly basis. Thanks to their unified methods protocol, Earthwatch offers built-in guidance and real-time interpretation for those entering data using the ArcGIS data entry system, answering the question, “What do the results of my testing mean?”.
Their map interface, which was developed using ArcGIS, shows you, at a glance, whether data are indicative of good (green) or bad (red) water quality and ecological health. You can filter the map by nitrate levels, phosphate levels, turbidity levels, group/event names, or sample data. They also show simple bar graphs for concentrations. They perform quality assurance on their dataset, and there is an option to download all their data from their platform (updated every Monday) in CSV or XLSX formats.
ArcGIS allows data from other sources to be added as “layers”. In Henley-on-Thames, citizen scientists also collect data on E. coli levels, for example. Freshwater Watch data is also used to report on SDG 6.3.2 in partnership with the UN Global Environment Monitoring Systems.
Social value
The blitz format is a great way to engage those interested in water quality and want to make the next step in learning more, while at the same time providing valuable data. Many monitoring programs are long-term commitments and so offering a way for those looking to ‘dip their toes’ into water stewardship builds both interest and skills in growing their capacity for participating. Of Great UK WaterBlitz participants surveyed, 46% had no involvement in the environment prior to the blitz, 60% improved their understanding of water quality issues and 22% reported a positive shift In their relationship with nature. Further, testing at a national scale helps people zoom out to understand the larger context and see their role in working together.
Demonstrating CaSTCo principles
While many have conducted localized blitzes, Earthwatch’s Great UK WaterBlitz is innovative in that they were able to fundraise for supplies, design a program that could be executed remotely and independently, and coordinate across the entire UK.
The entire program also shows how powerful a unified and simple protocol can be in engaging widely.
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
2,500 citizen scientists took over 1,300 measurements.
Tests for nitrates, phosphates, and site observations provided valuable data and context
75% of sites across the UK showed poor ecological health. Link to the full report is in the links at the bottom of this page!
Anglian and Thames river basin districts have the worst water quality (For example, of 452 samples in the Thames, 89% were poor).
Lorem Ipsum
is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
| Header label | Values | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Section 1 | 1 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 2 | 2 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 3 | 3 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 4 | 4 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 5 | 5 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 6 | 6 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 7 | 7 | Sept 2024 |
| Section 8 | 8 | Sept 2024 |
Supporting material
| About the event (Severn website) |
| Environment Agency’s page on Citizen Science integration |
| Water Rangers Community Water Lab |
| Severn Rivers Trust Project Page |
| Severn Water CaSTCo page (coming soon) |
In the media
| BBC: “Meet-up for volunteers testing river water quality” |
| X Environment Agency Midlands: “Find out about our work with partners including @severnrivers @stwater on a citizen science project in the #RiverTeme catchment #Shropshire #Herefordshire #Worcestershire.” |
| Environment Agency blog: “Citizen Science in the West Midlands” |
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