Dataset

Ravensbourne Catchment Improvement Group's Water Quality Working Group

Dataset by Thames21

Dataset summary

About this dataset

Sewage pollution, road runoff and agricultural pollution are the main factors negatively impacting the water quality in the catchment. A'WaterBlitz' was carried out on 30th May 2023 to provide a snapshot of the impact of sewage pollution on the catchment's water quality around the catchment. More information and the results can be found here:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9500d931d7f34461969edd840092776f

As a result of this WaterBlitz, we could see where the sewage pollution hotspots and sites with good water quality were located. This has allowed us to set up monitoring sites at some of these locations to gather more regular water quality data in order to investigate the magnitude and source of the pollution and to gather baseline data.

Dissolved phosphate and ammonia are indicators of sewage pollution, so the dedicated citizen scientists of the RCIG's WQWG are monitoring these sites using:
Hanna checkers for phosphates (low-range) from 0.0 to 2.5 mg/L
Hanna checkers for ammonia (low-range) from 0 to 3 mg/L and ammonia (medium range) from 0.00 to 9.99 mg/L

Some of these monitoring sites are also being monitored by citizen scientists using the urban riverfly monitoring initiative (RMI) methodology and devices that measure physical parameters like temperature, pH and turbidity.