Purpose
- to examine particular or suspected pressures in greater detail
- provide information for designing management actions / interventions
- identify sources of pollution
Characteristics
- monitoring programme tailored to specific circumstances
- likely to be more targeted – spatially, temporally or thematically
- more exacting data quality requirements – need high degree of confidence and/or to detect small changes
- likely to employ higher cost / more accurate techniques
- more comprehensive training required
- greater level of commitment required from volunteers
- Quality Control / Quality Assurance given greater emphasis
- linked to some kind of action (e.g. remediation / mitigation / restoration projects)
- likely to be for a limited duration, long enough to provide required certainty but not indefinite
- could form part of BACI design (Before – After – Control – Impact)
- may be influenced by Ecosystem Health Screening monitoring programmes or pre-existing data or assessments (e.g. Water Framework Directive)
- some degree of detailed data analysis and reporting required
Examples
- iWharfe Upper – identifying sources of faecal bacteria on the Upper River Wharfe. Citizen sampling with lab analysis (Tier 3)
- iWharfe Eco-Ashlands project – impact of unteated and treated effluent from Ilkley STW on the ecology of the R. Wharfe. Citizen sampling with lab analysis for water chemistry, diatom algae and aquatic macroinvertebrates.
- Wye Alliance Citizen Science – structured monitoring with a focus on identifying source of nutrient pollution to R. Wye