FreshWater Watch
Join the fight for healthier waterbodies. This is a global research project empowering individuals and communities as freshwater citizen scientists.
5 step guide
Read the guide to start your own FreshWater Watch
5 step guide
Read the guide to start your own FreshWater Watch
Complete the 30-day challenge and engage your community
- Engage an existing community group, or establish a new one. We suggest 5-20 members.
- As a group, agree what you would like to focus on in your FreshWater Watch project - do you want to monitor possible pollution sources? Understand the water quality at special sites? Monitor the impact of local restoration measures?
- Make sure you complete your 30-day challenge with ChangeX to access your funding.
FreshWater Watch set up
- Once you have completed your 30-day challenge with ChangeX and received your funding, Earthwatch will get in touch to confirm the details of your project, provide more information and share an Agreement for the Group Manager to sign.
- Together we will work out how many water monitoring kits you need to cover your FreshWater Watch activities for your first 12 months.
- We will set up a personalised page for your group on our FreshWater Watch platform and create a data survey which you can access via an app or an online form.
Online training
Earthwatch will share an online training session with you and share some additional training resources, to explain and demonstrate how to:
- Register a username on the online platform
- Safely use the water monitoring kits
- Set up the mobile app (optional)
- Upload your data (via the app or online form)
- Interpret and analyse your results
Using this information, the Group Manager will train up all volunteers within the group so that they can safely and accurately collect data, and confidently use the online platform and/or mobile app.
Start monitoring!
- Your group can now get outside and start monitoring your chosen waterbody / bodies!
- We suggest that you monitor once a month, but you can monitor more frequently if you wish.
- Upload your data in real-time via the mobile app, or use a paper datasheet and enter your written results through the online form at a desktop computer or laptop when you return home.
- You will be able to see your results live on our online map, with an instant feedback message showing whether your waterbody is in good, moderate or poor ecological health.
Analyse and take action
- Using the online visualisation tools, review and analyse your data.
- Work with Earthwatch to draw some conclusions from your data.
- Communicate your findings, with your group and wider - think about which local stakeholders you could engage to maximise the impact of your collected data.
- Action planning - with your group, consider what next steps you wish to take to take/drive action.
About FreshWater Watch
"“Joining Earthwatch’s FreshWater Watch community has had a massive impact on us and our fellow riverine dwellers. In the simplest sense, our river-living community is now an empowered group of citizen scientists. The process of testing our river water for clarity, nitrates and phosphates, is a practice that has deepened our concern for the lifeblood of our land and the need to better care for this much loved but neglected artery, the River Avon.""
Great for
- Members of local community groups
- People who are passionate about the environment
- Anyone who uses local waterways - fishers, swimmers, bird watchers
- Everyone who is keen to get involved in science and research
- All who want to see cleaner, healthier freshwater bodies
Time
Initial set up and training of members will take a couple of days. All online resources are provided for the Group Manager and learning is self-led. Monitoring using the kits will take around 30 minutes per person once a month, and you should allow a couple of hours to communicate with your group.
Resource checklist
- Local freshwater body / bodies of interest to you
- A group of interested people (suggest 5-20 people in a group)
- Basic IT skills and Internet access (computer or mobile)
- Water quality monitoring kits (provided by Earthwatch Europe)
- FreshWater Watch online platform and app (www.freshwaterwatch.org)