Better informed decision making

CaSTCo is the Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative created to build the UK’s first national framework for monitoring. Led by United Utilities and The Rivers Trust, this £7.1 million 3-year project is funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund.  

Through innovative prototyping and collaboration, CaSTCo is testing and building a national framework to support communities, decision-makers, scientists, and industry to meaningfully use citizen science data. 

Projects powered by CaSTCo bring together expertise and buy-in from more than 30 organisations nationwide, including community and local partnerships, other water companies, environmental charities, regulators, technical experts, academics, and the private sector.  

The organisations will also work with the Environment Agency, United Utilities, Natural England and local authorities to understand how they can support and help promote the principles of CaSTCo. 

Learning from the pilots will feed into the national CaSTCo working groups through active attendance and participation. The demo will act as a testing ground for several nationally-developed methodologies, such as RiverWatch survey, River Blitzes as well as testing proposed national methodologies for phosphate and fish surveys. 

Key activities of the North West Demo

• Testing alternative methods for recruitment and retention of volunteer citizen scientists 
• Engaging and trialling national CaSTCo activities in respect of methods and standards 
• Data management, storage, assessment, GIS and visualisation methods  
• Develop the North West “Hub” for Citizen Science  
• Engagement with organisations in respect of joint monitoring activities  

Key themes

• Water quality monitoring 
• River habitat assessment and monitoring 
• Invertebrate survey and sampling 
• Fish survey and sampling  
• Volunteer recruitment and retention 
• Data platforms and visualisation  
• Regional and local co-operative “hub” development 
• RiverWatch pilot 
• River Blitzes