(Also known as ‘Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative’ or ‘ARMI’)
Overview of Riverfly
A simple, nationally standardised monitoring technique where volunteers undertake a monthly kick sample of the river bed at a fixed location and count the abundance of eight key groups of freshwater invertebrates, providing an overall score. This score is assessed against a ‘trigger level’ which can indicate severe changes in river water quality, and local RMI groups report trigger level breaches directly to their local ecological contact at the Environment Agency (EA)/Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)/National Resources Wales (NRW)/Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
Used alongside routine monitoring by the EA/SEPA/NRW/NIEA, this RMI scheme ensures that water quality is checked more widely and remedial action is taken at the earliest opportunity if any severe perturbations are detected. This active monitoring also acts as a deterrent to incidental polluters. Successful schemes are underway in catchments across the UK, with data stored on the Cartographer data system. Verified data is freely available to view and download under the terms of the Open Government Licence.
Suitability for monitoring purposes
| 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) | ✓✓ |
Data system: The Cartographer database for Riverflies launched in 2022, and a summary dashboard is publicly available
Cost: Moderate – costs of kick-sampling equipment, training and coordination are generally covered by coordinating local groups who fundraise locally.
Ease of use: Volunteers require 1 day of training (half of which is practical at a river location). Local coordinators support volunteers and answer any queries. Surveys take approximately 1-2 hours to complete.
Quality control: Volunteers receive a numbered certificate upon completion of training, and a local coordinator checks sample results.
Coverage/scale: National scheme covering the UK and Northern Ireland with thousands of volunteers active. A version of the survey has been developed independently for Ireland.
Health & safety: This is covered as part of the training, and volunteers undertake a dynamic risk assessment each time they go out to survey.
Method sponsor/owner/primary user: Riverfly Partnership (hosted by the Freshwater Biological Association).