‘Citizen science’ has been an important driver of work along the River Sid these last couple of years in particular – including the solid water monitoring project along the Sid conducted by teams from the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group and its now regular riverfly monitoring programme, as well as the more recently-established River Sid Catchment Group and its involvement of the wider public in engagement and surveying. And this data-gathering was further added to this summer by Primley WI members, becoming citizen scientists in their river watch.
Meanwhile, citizen science on our Westcountry rivers has been led and supported by the Westcountry Rivers Trust, also very much in the Sid Valley, and the national Rivers Trust was behind this year’s The Big River Watch, asking us to sit by the river for a few minutes and watch and record what we see – to “contribute to a national data set that will help us build a picture of river health”.
Next Wednesday sees much of this come to the Sidmouth Science Festival, with a series of Citizen Science Panel Discussions:
Citizen Science Panel Discussions
Wednesday 9th October: 7 – 8.30pm at the Hatton Room, Kennaway House, Sidmouth EX10 8NG
Become a Citizen Scientist: you don’t need to be an expert!
This event explores what citizen science means, discusses examples of citizen science projects and invites you to learn about how science can be a community effort. Come and meet three panel members:
Clare Wilkinson , Professor of Science Communication, University of the West of England, Bristol. More details >>
Josie-Alice Kirby, a Coastal Process Scientist with South West Coastal Monitoring and lead for the CoastSnap South West project. More details >>
Charles Sinclair, a Citizen Scientist working with the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group on various local science projects. More details >>
With a little more on the evening’s talk on Citizen Science on the River Sid at the Sidmouth Science Festival:
Citizen Science – River Sid – Invertebrates, fish, and water quality surveys.
Panellist: Charles Sinclair, Sid Valley Biodiversity Group.
The talk will cover the reasons for monitoring riverfly, fish species and water quality in the Sid, the means of recording the data, and the organisations that collate the data. It will then focus on the role of the volunteers, what it means to them to be involved, the messages learnt from the data and the wider use of the information.
[Photo courtesy of the SVBG]
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