Dr Lucila Newell (left), Principal Investigator of Ripple Effect, and Christina Coleman from Friends of the River Medway, a partner on the project

This project was led by Dr Lucila Newell, Lecturer in Human Geography (School of Global Studies), with Dr Ellen Rotheray, Senior Lecturer in Environment, Ecology and Evolution (School of Life Sciences), and Professor of Conservation Ecology Mika Peck (Life Sciences). Lucila told us about the project.

Tell us about your project.

Ripple Effect is a citizen science project that has developed methods of assessing water pollution and biodiversity in the Upper River Medway.

The project started because we were angry about sewage. Ellen and I swim together in the sea, and we talked about the pollution and wanted to tackle it. It riled us up. Ellen has done citizen science projects before, and I’m interested in nature connection and instead of focusing on negatives, I wanted to focus on how connection and love can be a force for more sustainable pathways.

I was part of a swimmers WhatsApp group, and from that I became part of two other groups and went to protests. That interest and outrage became good motivation to investigate nature connection, and to do something that has impact.

At the time, we received an email from Christina Coleman and Rachel Millward from Friends of the River Medway, who wanted to collaborate with Sussex University to monitor the river. We came up with a project that gets people involved, makes them feel empowered, and teaches them things they can do to measure the quality of water and learn about the river.

We spread the word and recruited volunteers, who then went through training in how to measure pollution. We identified important sites in collaboration with our partners, who know the area well and key stakeholders. We also trained volunteers in the Riverfly method to identify invertebrates (river flies) and monitor biodiversity.

What we want to do this first year with the project is to create a baseline so we know what’s happening, what levels of pollution there are in different places, and the state of the biodiversity.

Where is the project based?

We’re covering three ten kilometre stretches of the Upper Medway River, from Turners Hill to Groombridge, including some of the tributaries. We cover fifteen sites. There is a map of the sites on our website.

What is your methodology?

We are using different methods. We are monitoring water parameters every two weeks that will give us an indication of pollution, from sewage but also from agricultural run-off. Volunteers measure phosphates, ammonia, temperature and conductivity.

We are also, in these same sites, doing monthly Riverfly invertebrate surveys. We have used an innovative method too, eDNA, which can tell us, through detecting the DNA released from an organism into the environment, which animals and invertebrates are present in the site. These different methods will give us a good idea of the health of the river at these sites.

For the nature connection aspect, we’re conducting semi-structured interviews at the start and end of the project with volunteers, to explore their motivations, beliefs and behaviours.

What are you seeking to find out from the interviews with volunteers?

We want to learn whether people feel more connected to place, community, nature – if anything has changed for them in terms of values, activities, behaviours. Some of the volunteers were quite active already in environmental issues, some were outraged at the sewage and wanted to do something about it, some came from a spiritual angle – they feel water is life and needs to be protected.

I am interested to see if this project, through learning about and paying attention to the river and its ecosystem, has an impact on the people who do it, and if so, what that impact is.

What is the overall objective of the project?

The ultimate goal is to regenerate the rivers to a healthy state. But for this year, we are creating a baseline, raising awareness and training volunteers to be able to monitor the river health. In future, we would like to give the river a voice. There are many ways to do this, but an interesting movement is one towards rights of the river.

There is a motion for the rights of the river in Lewes. This has been considered for the area we’re working on but hasn’t been successful. In any case, what’s happening is illegal, so for us now, it’s about having evidence [of pollution] to show, to understand what is going on, to keep up the pressure and make those responsible accountable.   

The point is to generate change. We’re also working with anglers who have monitoring the water for 18 months. When they started, they noticed that Southern Water and the Environment Agency started to monitor the area more, too. So it’s about maintaining that pressure. The Environment Agency have hired someone who is working with citizen science projects and has given us info and advice at the start of the project. We hope that more funding goes to the EA for them to be able to do their work. 

This project resonates with public concern and anger about the state of our seas and rivers, doesn't it? 

Everyone is annoyed that the water is polluted. We didn’t create the project because it would be popular, though it is good it is! We did it because we were outraged and wanted to do something about it, and we hoped that others would too.

Ripple Effect grew alongside general awareness about sewage. Sewage is one of the issues that has been discussed in the recent political debates around the election, but it’s not as prominent as it should be. The Labour government is not super engaged with the environment, and they have plans to do a lot of development, which can conflict with the health of our rivers if not done properly. We want to raise awareness.

Find out more about the project here. 

This project supports the fulfilment of the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being
SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG13 – Climate Action
SDG 14 – Life below Water
SDG 15 – Life on Land
SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions