Smart citizen science - WildFish
A new report published today (Monday 26 February) by WildFish evidences the increasing value of high-resolution citizen science in driving better protection for the freshwater environment: our rivers, lakes and streams.
SmartRivers is the highest tier of invertebrate monitoring in the UK conducted by volunteers, for which sample collection methods follow the guidelines set by regulatory agencies. The project’s 2023 Progress Report highlights the project’s increasing scale with coverage of 95 rivers across the United Kingdom. Without SmartRivers, the understanding of these rivers and their water quality would be significantly less.
Set against significant declines in regulatory monitoring (almost one-third less water quality samples were taken by the Environment Agency in 2022 compared to 2019), SmartRivers is a community-led solution to understanding the crisis facing our rivers, lakes and streams. The initiative, which samples aquatic invertebrates as indicators of water health, has recorded 4,528 hours of volunteer training since the project’s inception in 2019.
The power of smart citizen science
SmartRivers data documents the overall biodiversity of the freshwater environment and pinpoints sources of pollution for local restoration and management which drive on-the-ground improvements.
The data output from SmartRivers informs work on the ground and unlocks campaigning opportunities for healthier rivers. With support from WildFish, many of the volunteer hubs now have powerful data sets and are using this evidence to drive local change. In addition to being a launchpad for campaigning, the data can also be used to measure the impact of restoration projects and provide a benchmark of biodiversity to measure future change.
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Posted On: 26/02/2024