MoRPh is a tool for monitoring the detailed physical character and condition of short lengths of river channels and their margins. The MoRPh survey forms part of a modular approach to monitoring the physical character of rivers and how they change through time and across space. Indicators derived from MoRPh surveys describe different properties of the river’s physical habitat mosaic, an important control on the organisms that may live in the monitored river reach.
Following one day of training, volunteer surveyors record information on the form, sediments, vegetation structure, and human modifications of short river reaches, typically 10m to 40 m in length, allowing their physical character and condition to be tracked and the way these change in response to restoration and management actions to be quantified. Individual MoRPh surveys are often used to record the physical habitat around biological monitoring sites and are particularly helpful for interpreting the habitat of less mobile river organisms such as invertebrate species. By surveying ten adjacent (end-to-end) river lengths, indicators of habitat structure and quality are derived for extended lengths of river and so capture the habitats available for more mobile organisms, such as fish, as well as summarising the impacts of restoration and other management interventions.
Suitability for monitoring purpose:
| Monitoring purpose category | Likely tier(s) What’s this? | Suitability |
| Engagement: Education and raising awareness | 0-1 | ✖ |
| Surveillance: Ecosystem health screening | 1 (2) | ✓ |
| Investigation: Helping to target further action | 2 (3) | ✓ |
| Evaluation: Assessing the impact of actions | 2 (3) | ✓ |
Example monitoring questions that this method can inform:
- What is the quality of river habitats and the processes that support them within a reach of a river?
- Is there good connectivity between the river and flood plain habitats to support organism life cycles or are there opportunities for improvements?
- Does the physical condition of the river vary through time at a site or between sites. Does this help to explain variations in biological communities and, if so, how might the physical habitat mosaic be enhanced to support increased biodiversity?
- What is the baseline river condition at a site and what are the opportunities for condition uplift in terms of the best locations and designs of river restoration works?
- How has the removal of a weir or bridge or channel bank reinforcement changed the physical condition of a reach of river?
- How much have our nature based solutions (wetland creation and riparian habitat management) made a difference in the condition of the river?
- How much have our NFM measures made a difference to the physical character of the river?
Data System: Cartographer. https://modularriversurvey.org/map/
Cost: Significant. The main cost is for training.
Ease of Use: One day of training is required for volunteers and/or volunteer coordinators, with courses run by Cartographer on request. An app is available for collecting survey data.
Quality control: If a group wish to join together to form a team, this can be set up at no charge within Cartographer. Local experienced surveyors can be trained to co-ordinate a team, quality control their surveys, and train new surveyors. Train-the-trainer sessions are available for coordinators – prerequisite is having attended the initial training and completed a minimum of 30 good quality surveys on 3 different rivers covering the range of conditions found across the team’s area.
Coverage / Scale: The scheme is available in UK and Ireland, but has mainly been rolled out in the south, east and midlands of England.
Health & Safety: Training course covers health and safety.
Method sponsor/ owner / primary user: Cartographer Studios
Learn more: https://modularriversurvey.org/morph-citizen-science/
CaSTCo Investment: CaSTCo is reviewing and investing in this method to optimise data quality, ease of use and cost, including rolling out training and investing in data systems.