It is important to set down at the outset the major objectives both of your own group and those of your partners. This is so that you can agree where there is overlap for working together on a collaborative monitoring programme and where you may be doing work individually that is useful to the overall programme.
What are your organisation’s major objectives?
This question is often best answered individually by each group or organisation involved.
What are your objectives and concerns about the river?
Think about the key features of your river and your concerns about it. Gather background information related to your river and why it is the way it is today. It can be useful to mark these on a map.
What questions do you want your monitoring to answer?
Here are some example monitoring questions – see also additional list below:
- How healthy is the river?
- Is the water quality meeting Water Framework Directive (WFD) standards?
- How are sewage discharges/poorly maintained septic tanks/runoff from agricultural land affecting water quality?
- What citizen science methods are appropriate for answering our monitoring questions about sources of phosphate/soil health etc?
- How will a proposed development affect water quality?
- Where is the phosphate in the headwaters of the river coming from?
- Is the river safe to swim in?
- How well is the river hydro-morphology supporting a healthy ecology within the river and on the adjacent banks?
- What has been the impact of installing Natural Flood Management measures?
Examples of monitoring questions
Here are some examples of monitoring questions from the CaSTCo demonstrator catchments:
- Anglian (Wensum) – What and where are the sources of poor water quality highlighted in existing WQ data for the River Tud? What interventions are required to improve river health?
- Anglian (Lark) – What is the current physicochemical condition of the Lark’s tributaries? Is there evidence to suggest more attention given to the tributaries could improve the condition of the Lark?
- Arun & Rother – What is the health of the soils in the catchment?
- Beane – Where are the major sources of sediment/farm run off entering the river? Do other data sources already collected highlight this?
- Thames – Can we use monitoring and mapping tools to distinguish between misconnections or cross-connections as the main driver of persistently polluting outfalls? Can we identify areas of good water quality, pollution hotspots and gaps in existing data?
- North West – Can we improve spatial coverage of river health data in order to help target improvements? Can we increase our confidence in lower cost, volunteer-friendly survey methods?
- Tamar – How do we ensure Cit Sci volunteers see effective outcomes from their data collection? How do we encourage deeper engagement in water-related issues – leading to reduction in consumption and behaviours that contribute to pollution incidents?
- Teme – What is the extent of bacterial pollution within the Teme, with respect to bathing water and environmental standards?
- Usk – Can we develop the evidence base to support catchment markets in terms of Natural Flood Management and looking forward; Carbon Markets? Can we demonstrate reduced flood risk to towns such as Brecon, Abergavenny and Crickhowell?
How are you planning to use the data you collect?
After deciding on your monitoring questions, it helps to look ahead and think about how you will use your data. This will be vital in determining what type of equipment, procedures, and quality management measures you will use. It is also important to keep in mind your available resources, both time and money, and how you might need to prioritise your monitoring questions in any particular year.
Determine your impact: Making a difference
What changes would you like to see as a result of your monitoring?
How will you know if you succeeded? At the end of the day, your monitoring efforts should have a purpose.
Dive into data: Learn more about using your data
Examples of Demos’ Collaborative Monitoring Plans
Examples of Collaborative Monitoring Plans files (documents, spreadsheets, graphics) will be added here soon.