Better monitoring of river water quality in eight catchments in England and Wales has been made possible by a £7.5m award from the water regulator.

Citizen science will be used along with standardised data collection and management in the programme led by The Rivers Trust and United Utilities. The Rivers Trust says it the programme will revolutionise the way crucial water environment data is gathered and shared, with a particular focus on river catchment health.

“This is a revolutionary new approach to the way we gather and use evidence to drive collective action and make decisions about the water environment,” said Michelle Walker, deputy technical director of Rivers Trust, “Thousands of trained and resourced citizen scientists and local communities will work with different partners to carry out monitoring and collection of high-density data, complemented by a network of sensors and hi-tech monitoring.

“This wealth of information will be gathered and shared into a central visualisation platform, helping us all to be part of decisions to invest in the right priorities, to give the biggest improvement to the state of our rivers."

At present, just 14% of rivers in England and 46% in Wales are deemed to be in good ecological health, and monitoring in rivers has been limited and inconsistent. The Rivers Trust says delivering a catchment monitoring cooperative will harness the power of citizen science combined with other monitoring approaches, to create a much-needed, robust evidence base for tackling environmental challenges.

The funding will be used over three years in eight demonstrator river catchments across England and Wales. The project is one of the first tranche to be awarded by the water regulator Ofwat in a new Water Breakthrough Challenge.

Selwyn Rose, innovation strategy manager at United Utilities said, “We’re proud to have led the bid on behalf of our partners for this exciting and important initiative, and we can’t wait to get started."

John Russell, senior director of water regulator Ofwat said, “From Airbus and Microsoft to the Zoological Society of London and The Rivers Trust, the Water Breakthrough Challenge has led to the formation of exciting partnerships with water companies to improve services for customers and improve the environmental footprint of the sector.

“Each of the winners contribute to the resilience, sustainability and effectiveness of the water sector in the years to come for the benefit of customers across the country. Thank you to the independent judging panel for its challenge and insight in recommending these impressive winners.”

The eight river catchments in the programme are

• Upper Mersey
• Tame
• Broadland rivers and CamEO
• Usk
• Chess
• Salmon & Dollis Brooks
• Arun
• Tamar

Alongside the Rivers Trust and United Utilities, more than 20 other partner organisations from the water sector, environmental NGOs and academic institutions are involved:

Affinity Water
Centre
Severn Trent Water
South East Water
South West Water
Southern Water
Thames Water
UK Centre for Ecology and hydrology
Wessex Water
Wye & Usk Foundation
Yorkshire Water
Zoological Society of London