Ripple Effect: a waterways resilience initiative
Water bodies in the UK are failing to achieve ‘good ecological status’ due to sewage pollution, industrial discharges, and agricultural runoff. Ripple Effect is an action-research project led by academics at the University of Sussex in partnership with Friends of the River Medway.
Ripple Effect works to understand the health of the river and work with different stakeholders to improve it. It’s first phase has established a citizen science project where specialists train local people to use science techniques to monitor water health and biodiversity. The volunteers’ findings will be made public and shared with organisations responsible for river health.
The project also explores what motivates citizen science volunteers and how taking part in the Ripple Effect might change what they do and what they feel about the river. This is part of wider research on connection and care as a pathway for sustainability.
What We Do
Citizen science: this project will train local people to assess water pollution and biodiversity in the Upper River Medway.
Investigate motivation, beliefs, and behaviours of participants and key stakeholders to determine how connection to place and care for nature lead to a more sustainable future.
Public science: our results will be shared and easy to understand on our interactive open-source database hub and map to disseminate our findings and pool scattered data.
What is the problem?
UK RATES
European water quality rankings indicate that the UK’s rivers are among the worst.
POLLUTION
All rivers in England show signs of chemical pollution.
SEWAGE
Sewage discharge is a major driver of biodiversity loss in rivers in England.
DESTRUCTION
Nutrient-rich rivers are causing ocean eutrophication, destroying fishing and tourism industries.
HUman health
Poor water quality is harmful to human health and impacts negatively on biodiversity and ecological functioning.
We need you!
Make a difference by helping us monitor the health of the river and its biodiversity!
You don’t need to be a scientist or a river expert – anyone can be part of Ripple Effect. We’ll train you and our team will support you throughout the project.
We will be working in three stretches of the Upper River Medway.
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