CaSTCo (Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative)
from 03/01/2022 until 30/11/2026
The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative – CaSTCo – has been created to build the UK’s first national framework for river and catchment monitoring.
Through innovative prototyping and collaboration, CaSTCo is testing and building a national framework that better supports communities, decision-makers, scientists, and industry to be able to use citizen science data meaningfully alongside professional monitoring.
Through a rigorous peer review process of protocols and approaches, CaSTCo is developing a robust, standardised approach to the capture and integration of citizen science monitoring information to support decision-making.
CaSTCo is bringing together multiple existing citizen science initiatives, and partners are working at national and catchment scale to develop consistent monitoring approaches, optimising data quality, ease of use, safety and cost-effectiveness, enabling local communities to contribute to healthier rivers and more resilient catchments.
Aim
The CaSTCo Roadmap sets out our long-term aims for the framework, rewriting how river monitoring works, shifting from:
Fragmentation to integration: One standard, open, shared data system, underpinned by unified action and governance, allowing different stakeholders to access and contribute to the same reliable information, reducing fragmentation and improving coordination.
Data collection to decision-making: Moving beyond data accumulation and “monitoring for the sake of monitoring”. This is about promoting a “weight of evidence” approach, so that data collected from a wide range of sources can become trusted information that drives targeted actions.
Short-term remedies to long-term resilience: Diversified funding and governance that enable an integrated monitoring approach, including citizen science, to be planned and sustainably delivered, not only for months, but for decades to come.
Public distrust to public engagement: Accredited citizen science, transparent data and local storytelling that rebuild trust and empower communities and stakeholders.
How to participate
Volunteers in any of the CaSTCo demonstrator catchments in the UK can contact the host organisations to register their interest in participating in citizen science activities.
Outside of these catchments, in the UK and Ireland, volunteers can contact their local Rivers Trust to find out about citizen science opportunities, or join a national scheme, such as Big River Watch, Freshwater Watch, Water Rangers, Riverfly Partnership or the Angling Trust.
Needed equipment
Equipment varies depending on the monitoring scheme - volunteers participating in any of the schemes will receive appropriate equipment and training from the host organisations - contact details are available in the Participation section.
About funding
Funding bodies: Ofwat
Funding program: Water Breakthrough Challenge
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