Bringing together diverse data sources – from citizen science to regulatory data – to transform how rivers in England and Wales are monitored and managed
River health in the UK has long been undermined by pollution, habitat degradation and fragmented monitoring. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and ineffective policy and regulation have similarly contributed to the poor state of water systems. A lack of integrated water quality and catchment health data has also impaired clear ownership and accountability for results.
This project sought to change that, guided by three aims. First: to transform river management by 2035 by building a national catchment data system for all rivers in England and Wales. Second, to accredit citizen science – giving formal value to data that has long been collected but rarely used officially. Finally, to strengthen collaborative governance by bringing together diverse partners. If implemented, outputs from this work would close evidence gaps and unite regulators, utilities, researchers, businesses, and communities.
The project’s specific goal was to create a unified framework for collaborative catchment monitoring and integrated data sharing. This would then serve multiple purposes: informing decision-making, strengthening governance and driving a more transparent approach to restoring river health.
Isle collaborated with United Utilities, The Rivers Trust and the CaSTCo (Catchment Systems Thinking Co-operative) to address the problem. The resulting Taskforce included over 60 representatives from government, academia, industry, NGOs, and citizen science.
In partnership with these strategic stakeholders, we led design sprints to reimagine and co-design the future of catchment monitoring. The Taskforce identified three key priorities: advancing citizen science integration, establishing a national catchment data system and strengthening collaborative governance. The result was a co-created Roadmap to provide a clear delivery plan. This ensures unified catchment monitoring meets the needs of our citizens, businesses, institutions and crucially the environment.
The Roadmap sets out a bold vision for systemic change in how water is managed and understood. Its adoption would spark major investment and innovation, closing important data gaps. It would also articulate the value of this approach, unlocking new and more diverse funding to tackle the highlighted challenges. By uniting stakeholders around a shared evidence base, it will help create conditions for resilient rivers for generations to come.
Benefits of Approach
- Collaborative approach: The project fostered inclusive participation, engaging a variety of expertise and perspectives.
- Change framework: Articulated a communal, consensus-driven vision and theory of change , identifying key barriers and how to overcome them.
- Citizen collaboration: Explored approaches to accrediting, integrating and recognising citizen science alongside other professional data-gathering methods and approaches.
- Roadmap implementation: Proposed sustainable processes, actionable interventions, more representative governance and more diverse funding strategies. This helps to ensure the long-term adoption of the Roadmap’s recommendations.
- Asesoramiento político: Advised key policy development by providing input to the Water Commission. Roadmap Implementation Plan recommendations delivered to Defra, the EA, water companies as well as other key decision makers.
Specialist Services Involved
- Specialist expertise: Our team brought in-depth water knowledge to identify nuances and underlying issues, to guide discussions towards achieving a united vision and set of Roadmap recommendations.
- Design-led innovation: Isle effectively engaged participants in five design sprint workshops to explore and develop the Roadmap’s underpinning strategy. Sprints used design thinking methodologies that turned differing outlooks and perspectives into actionable insights. These connected and gave agency to the breadth of stakeholders involved in the project.
- Roadmap co-creation: Our co-created roadmap included clear deliverables and milestones to implement collaborative catchment monitoring at a national scale, across England and Wales.
Resultados
- Taskforce created: A project Taskforce was created, consisting of 60+ participants across government, academia, industry, NGOs and community science.
- Design sprints: Over the course of the project, the Taskforce and partners came together during five design sprints. Participants used these sprints to collectively explore and create recommendations that would inform the future state of catchment monitoring.
- Recommendations developed: The sprints resulted in the development of 6 key recommendations, narrowed down to 3 for the roadmap. These are:
– To advance Citizen Science Integration, Quality & Recognition
– To establish a National Catchment Data System and Standards
– To strengthen Collaborative Governance and Stakeholder Engagement - Roadmap co-created: Isle and our partners co-created a roadmap and delivery plan to fix the gaps in how we approach catchment monitoring. This will support better policy and smarter regulation for rivers in England and Wales.
Key contact:
For enquiries and further information, please contact Oliver Raud, Associate Director at Isle Utilities.