About this Event
Rugby River Champions is a citizen science project providing volunteers with the equipment and knowledge they need to monitor Rugby’s vulnerable rivers.
This training session will focus on two primary types of monitoring – water chemistry and ‘Urban Riverfly’. Water chemistry monitoring looks at pollution ‘cocktails’ in our rivers, with volunteers specifically assessing the temperature and clarity of the water, and the amount of phosphate and nitrate present.
Urban Riverfly is river’s answer to pond dipping, with volunteers sampling the macroinvertebrates that are living in the water. These macroinvertebrates are great “bioindicators”, meaning that their presence or absence can tell us a lot about the health of the river; the absence of a particularly sensitive species can indicate that the water is very polluted, for example.
Monitoring one site takes around an hour (15 minutes for chemical, 45 minutes for Urban Riverfly) and should ideally be done on a monthly basis per site (field conditions permitting).
This project is delivered by the University of Birmingham in partnership with Rugby Borough Council.
What should I bring?
Please wear sensible footwear, as well as weather appropriate clothing. You do not need to bring anything else.
What can Rugby River Champions offer you?
By becoming a Rugby River Champion, you will be offered free training, as well as free access to all of the equipment that you will need in order to complete your monthly monitoring.
You will also receive ongoing support from your trainer, as well as a hub to upload and review your data, that may be hopefully used to drive action for river protection in the future.
Why river monitoring is important
In the future, data from these monitoring activities will then be used by the Environment Agency to set monitoring “trigger points” -a value that, if ongoing monitoring meets, will trigger investigations on potential causes of ecological decline.
This data can also be used to support ongoing conversations with stakeholders, leading to action that protects rivers long term.
Event venue & nearby stays
Freemantle Play Park, Freemantle Road, Rugby, United Kingdom
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