Previous Spotlights

The Environment Agency was an active partner of Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo), an Ofwat innovation project led by The Rivers Trust and United Utilities.

Our citizen science leads have provided expert guidance from the start, advising how community science can complement professional catchment monitoring. The partnership has shown how communities, regulators, and water companies can collect and use evidence together to improve river health.

See the case studies from the demonstration catchments.

CaSTCo's Impact Report highlights the scale of collaboration and the benefits of keeping this momentum going.

In September, Environment Agency Chair, Alan Lovell, took park in The Rivers Trust's Big River Watch and Earthwatch Europe's Great UK WaterBlitz – alongside Environment Agency Monitoring Manager Kerry Sims and thousands of volunteers across the country.

Citizen science bridges the gap between professional monitoring and community action. While our teams work tirelessly to monitor England's water environment, we can't be everywhere at once. That's where citizen scientists come in, providing local insights and real-time observations that help us build a complete picture of river health.

December 2025

Celebrating decades of dedication to the Rainfall Observers Network on International Volunteering Day

Every day at 0900 UTC, a countrywide network of 1000 volunteers read and record data from storage rain gauges — a task that has helped build a vital archive of precipitation trends spanning hundreds of years. These gauges, inspected on a rotating three-year cycle by the Met Office’s team of seven Regional Network Officers, form the backbone of the UK’s long-term rainfall records.

In a heartwarming celebration of public service, long-standing volunteers who have dedicated years to recording daily rainfall were honoured at a special gathering in the North East. “These volunteers are the unsung heroes of climate science. Their dedication enables us to maintain one of the most comprehensive rainfall datasets in the world.” said Sam Everitt, Senior Technical Advisor (Hydrometry) at the Environment Agency.

The initiative also highlights the close collaboration between the Environment Agency, the Met Office, and other partners including Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales, in maintaining the integrity of the UK’s hydrological records.

You can find out more about the Rainfall Observers Network here.

February 2026

Supporting Citizen Science is launching BluePrint, a national interactive tool that enables anyone visiting a river, lake, stream or beach to share real time observations about water use and conditions. Developed with Hello Lamp Post, BluePrint builds on the success of the WaterWatch pilot, which gathered over 3,500 conversations at five bathing water sites. The improved platform now offers nationwide coverage and provides users with live information on pollution risk, weather, river levels and bathing water status by drawing data from Swimfo, National River Gauge Archive and Met Office.

BluePrint will run from February to July 2026, helping us better understand how and when people use watercourses throughout and beyond the bathing water season. The data collected will supplement our existing monitoring and support future planning and investigations.

Anyone can get involved here https://api.hlpst.app/qr/agent/2277/?db=uk.

Supporting Citizen Science spotlight

Find out the latest highlight from Supporting Citizen Science. This section will update regularly.

April 2026

The Rivers Trust’s Big River Watch is back!

This is your week-long chance to take action for our vital rivers and report on the health of your local river using the free #BigRiverWatch app.

This time last year, nearly 4,000 people took part, together, they helped to record over 1,700 signs of pollution, 1,000 signs of litter and nearly 150 kingfishers.

Helping our precious rivers couldn’t be easier! 💙

1. Download the free Big River Watch app
2. Spend 15 minutes observing your local river
3. Answer the easy in-app survey and upload!

No training, no expertise, no experience needed.

Big River Watch isn’t just for big rivers. Spotting issues and sources of pollution is often easier in our smaller streams, tributaries, and headwaters.

Head to The Rivers Trusts live map to find unsurveyed spots near you and head out between the 24^th and 30^th of April and put your local river on the map.

What will you see?