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FreshWater Watch

Empowering individuals and communities as citizen scientists to understand, monitor, and protect their local freshwater bodies.

Start a FreshWa... Near You
 

5 Step Guide to

FreshWater Watch

Overview


FreshWater Watch "Welcome! Follow these steps to get your project up and running." - Caroline Shepherd, Freshwater Programme Manager, Earthwatch

5 Steps

Who? Someone who...

Resource Checklist

Time

Initial set up and training will take a couple of days. Monitoring will take around 30 minutes per person once a month, and you should allow a couple of hours to communicate with your group.

  • 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.
  • Once you have completed your 30-day challenge with ChangeX and received your funding, Earthwatch will get in touch to discuss 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.

Earthwatch will invite you to an online training session and share some training resources, to explain and demonstrate how to:

  • Register on the online platform
  • Safely use the water monitoring kits
  • Set up the mobile app
  • Upload your data
  • 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.

  • Your group can now get outside and start monitoring your chosen waterbody / bodies!
  • We suggest 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 at a desktop computer or laptop when you return home.
  • You will be able to see your results live on our online map, with a feedback message showing whether your waterbody is in good, moderate or poor ecological health.
  • 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.
  • Action planning - with your group, consider what next steps you wish to take to take/drive action.
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