Citizen Science Evening - River Ecosystems

Steve Brooks, Riverfly Partnership Co-Chair and Natural History Museum “Using Riverfly to monitor river restoration and the development of RICT Target Scores”

The Riverfly Monitoring Initiative is one of the longest running national river citizen science schemes since its establishment in 2004. Steve Brooks, one of the founding members and Co-Chair of the Riverfly Partnership, will join us to discuss how the aquatic invertebrate survey can be used to assess river health and monitor restoration projects. Including recent developments of Extended Riverfly and the new RICT system of modelled target scores.

Dr Helen Moggridge, Cartographer “The MoRPh survey: a tool for understanding the physical health of rivers and improving river restoration outcomes”

MoRPh is a citizen science survey that assesses and monitors the physical health of rivers. At 10 years old, it has been widely adopted by volunteers, conservation organisations and professional bodies and over 10 000 surveys have now been conducted within the UK. Helen Moggridge who coordinates the national MoRPh programme, will explore what this valuable dataset can tell us about the physical condition of rivers nationally and demonstrate some of the applications of MoRPh for river restoration and for improving our scientific understanding of rivers.

Iona McMillan, Chiltern Chalk Streams Project “Ecological health of the River Chess”

Following on from the previous talks, Iona McMillan – Citizen Science Coordinator for the Chiltern Chalk Streams Project – will then explore the findings of citizen science surveys including Riverfly and MoRPh on the River Chess and how they are being used to understand and improve the health of this precious chalk stream.