Water Quality Analysis Training

Organisation: Environment Agency

Location: National

Type: Technical Support & Training

Link: Visit Website

This training course was developed to teach catchment partnerships how to access, query and analyse data from OpenWIMS, the EA’s Water Quality Archive, and how to supplement this data with locally-derived citizen science or community monitoring data.

Sessions:

  1.  Querying the OpenWIMS data archive and plotting a time series for a single sample point

How to access OpenWIMS

Exercise taking you through how to access OpenWIMS and how to construct a query URL for a single sample point

Download

OpenWIMS Blank Template

Excel workbook to help download, format and plot water quality data from a single monitoring point

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OpenWIMS River Medlock Example

The OpenWIMS excel workbook with River Medlock example data

Download

OpenWIMS Measurement River Medlock

the downloaded CSV file from the URL query in the above workbook

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2. Building more complex spatial queries and mapping results

UKTAG Phosphate Standards Calculator

Cycle 2 phosphate standards vary in each waterbody, depending on altitude and alkalinity. this calculator helps you work out the standard for your river, so that you can plot this against phosphate measurements.

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WFD Standards and Classifications Directions (England and Wales) 2015

PDF detailing the various WFD standards, including water chemistry standards.

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Water Quality Sampling Points Finder

Interactive map to help find and select a subset of monitoring points for querying the OpenWIMS water quality archive

Download

Atkins Freeware Water Quality Viewer

Another visualisation tool for graphing multiple determinands at single sampling points

Download

OpenWIMS Batch Exercise

Exercise taking you through how to use the Water Quality Sampling Points Finder to select and download a subset of points for your catchment, and then use the OpenWIMS Batch Query Constructor to write custom queries

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Water Quality Sampling Points Finder

Interactive map to help find and select a subset of monitoring points for querying the OpenWIMS water quality archive

Visit site

OpenWIMS Batch Query Constructor

Excel workbook to streamline construction of more complex queries

Download

Mapping OpenWIMS data example map

ArcGIS Online map showing a subset of results downloaded from OpenWIMS

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3. Continuous vs regular vs spot sampling – what difference does it make?

Observations on Chemical Water Quality Monitoring

paper by Peter Lloyd exploring the different information which can be derived from continuous versus spot sampling downstream of sewage discharges

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Continuous v Spot Sampling STW Exercise

Worked example showing what information can be derived from different temporal resolutions of data

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Appendix to the Exercise

Additional notes

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4. Water quality spot testing for targeting catchment interventions

Water Quality spot testing for targeting catchment interventions

Presentation by Simon Browning, Westcountry Rivers Trust

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Water Quality spot testing for targeting catchment interventions

Exercise Sheet

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Citizen Science Survey Recording Template

Developed by Westcountry Rivers Trust

Download


5. Creating a monitoring plan as part of a catchment plan

Water Quality Monitoring Plan Exercise

Develop a collaborative water quality monitoring strategy for your catchment

Download

Water Quality Monitoring Plan Template

A worksheet to help guide you through the process of planning a collaborative water quality monitoring strategy to answer questions in your catchment. Includes some examples

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Practical River Restoration Appraisal Guidance for Monitoring Options

Monitoring Guidance

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Further Resources

The related resources below provide further support on water quality monitoring.

Water Quality Monitoring: Practical guidance for CaBA partnerships interested in designing and managing a water quality monitoring programme. Includes a summary of monitoring equipment, data analysis and visualisation ideas, sampling protocols and advice for FIO monitoring and guidance on planning your strategy, engaging volunteers and resourcing.

Citizen Science: Further guidance specific to citizen science initiatives including a collection of useful links, contacts, technical references and case studies which other CaBA partnerships have used and shared.

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