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Student citizen scientists – help evaluate the health of your local river ecosystem

This is a school-based ‘Rivers as Ecosystems‘ citizen science campaign coordinated by the EEU, An Taisce and sponsored by the EPA. Over 3 school weeks from March 19 to April 11 teachers and students will visit their local stream/river to assess the health using a water quality kit supplied to your school.

Is your school situated near a river or stream? Ever wondered how healthy that river is? Now is your chance to find out.

This campaign encourages students to first make a visual assessment of their local river using sight, smell, and sounds. They can then carry out some GLOBE protocols to measure and assess the river’s health.

Those who wish to take the project further could implement a campaign in their community to clean up their river and improve the water quality. You could then go back and carry out the protocols again to see if your actions have made a positive impact. This, however, is optional – only for those who have the time.

The results will be used by the EPA to increase understanding of water quality and river health across Ireland. Full teacher support including resources, equipment, and instructions will be provided.

Learn more:

Please note: In order to take part in this campaign, you must be a teacher and you are required to commit to taking your students to a river/stream at least once in order to carry out some tests.

You can contact the GLOBE Ireland team at globe@eeu.antaisce.org with any queries.

The link to register is: https://arcg.is/1S01zC0

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.

Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.