Together for Cleaner Water: How the WaterLinx App Can Help!
The WaterLinx app is a valuable tool for collecting observations on water quality and invasive species in rivers and their banks. However, to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data, individual free use of the app should be limited to recording observations only. These observations should include indicator species for water quality and any factors that disrupt ecosystem integrity or affect the permeability of different species migrating through water bodies.
Organized groups, such as school classes or events organized by NGOs or river partnerships, can use the app to request measurement toolkits for quantitative water quality assessments. However, only appropriately trained individuals who have participated in train-the-trainer workshops at the university or workshops conducted by certified trainers should supplement observations with quantitative surveys.
To ensure clear documentation, the app differentiates between free observations and measurements, and a field is provided for entering a number to identify the test kit used at each location.
Let's work together to ensure cleaner water for all! Download the app today!
Purpose of the WaterLinx App
Citizen science can play a vital role in restoring healthy water bodies that support biodiversity and help us cope with extreme weather events. By complementing official data, citizen science provides valuable insights that enhance our understanding of water systems.
Join the movement to harness the power of citizen science! Together, we can take action to protect our precious water resources and build a better future for all. By participating in these initiatives, we can help restore healthy water bodies and ensure a sustainable world for generations to come. Find out more about the project here.
Three Modes Of Participation
You can join data collection on water quality with the APP in three ways:
Simply enter any free qualitative observations you may wish to make at any water body of your choice: you can enter structured information on:
- Your sense of place
- Land use around the water body
- Signs of pollution or a visual survey of other disturbance factors that can for example hinder species migration along a watercourse
- Observations on indicator species that give clues on the health of the ecosystem in and around the water body as well as
- Simple physical parameters such as estimations of the water level or speed of flow.
If you wish to organize regular data collection at a water body of your choice over a longer period with a group of at least seven people (for example, with colleagues from work, a school class, three or four families, a municipal environmental committee, or as part of guided tours organized by Nature Parks or river partnerships), you can write us an email to register for one of our short ‘train-the-trainer’ workshops. In these workshops, we introduce quantitative sampling techniques to determine some physical and chemical parameters relating to water quality and provide test kits for chemical substances, such as nutrients, whose elevated levels can severely disturb biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, or for turbidity/sediment content determinations using a Secchi tube.
With our partner, we will also be organizing national data collection campaigns that will involve both qualitative observations and simple quantitative measurements.
A simple, didactically prepared toolkit for teachers and students, along with guided walks in nature parks and exhibitions, will be developed in 2024. This will include instructions for conducting chemical analyses, standard operating procedures, and details on where and which appropriate strips and reagents can be ordered online.
