Our Citizen Science programmes

Water Quality is a hot topic at the moment with a lot of public concern about sewage pollution and the risks to human health. Our Healthy Rivers project is working with Taw & Torridge River Champions to harness the power of volunteers to improve water quality and river health. We are also working with the North Devon Surf Reserve and other partners to improve water quality on our beaches. Citizen science is a vital component to this work, providing us with data we otherwise could not obtain. Data is uploaded to the Smart Biosphere platform that has been developed in partnership with Bideford based company IGI.

Email contacts

• Darren Searle leads the Healthy Rivers project and wider Citizen Scientist programme at North Devon Biosphere: [email protected]
• The main contact email for Taw & Torridge River Champions is [email protected]. Volunteers should use this email to register new testing sites and for any issues or questions they have.

Uploading test results

• Water testing results should be added to the Smart Biosphere using our Citizen Science form.
• The data from Citizen Science and our continuous water monitoring network is displayed on the Smart Biosphere.
• Report river obstacles to the River Trust.

Procedural guides and information for volunteers

• ​Our Catchment Catalyst dashboard brings together data from the Environment Agency, South West Water, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Natural England, and other sources to help us understand the state of each catchment, and what needs to happen to improve them.
• ​Volunteer Policy
• Health & Safety Policy
• Safety Briefing
• NDB & TTRC Data Sharing Agreement

Our Catchment catalyst: Community Action for Healthy Rivers project is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and runs from July 2026 to June 2027. Thank you to all the players who made this possible.