Birmingham River Champions: A citizen science project monitoring vulnerable watercourses

Researchers from the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences have launched Birmingham River Champions, a pioneering citizen science project monitoring watercourses across the West Midlands. The initiative is assessing the health of Birmingham’s highly urbanised rivers, while upskilling volunteers and fostering a sense of stewardship towards their local waterways.

The initiative launched in autumn 2023 via an Environment Agency collaborative funding agreement, who now partner the project alongside the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust and Severn Trent's river ranger team. So far, 16 groups and nearly 100 individuals have started monitoring their nearby rivers. Volunteers have been particularly passionate about ‘Urban Riverfly’, where underwater bugs called ‘macroinvertebrates’ are sampled to characterise ecological health. In under one-year, over 50 samples have been collected, surpassing the total statutory macroinvertebrate samples collected in the last decade!

A fundamental part of the project is to communicate citizen science findings back to volunteers, and university academics are innovatively applying their expertise to achieve this. This includes calculating and analysing ecosystem health metrics, which are showcased in a web application where volunteers can visualise their results.

The project team are looking to build on the progress made by applying research on how citizen science data could underpin evidence-based management solutions, including the restoration of the River Rea. Social scientists at the university are also exploring how the Birmingham River Champions has educated communities and changed the connection they with their local watercourses.