Research - Citizen Science
We have four established citizen science surveys:
Urban River Survey (URS) is a city-focused development of the Environment Agency’s River Habitat Survey. It documents the complex human interventions that are found in urban and suburban rivers and the physical and vegetation responses to them. It was developed in the late 1990s with Research Council funding and was modified for citizen science application from 2009.
MoRPh was developed to provide a more detailed river survey that captured the physical characteristics of rivers. The initial aim was to quantify the physical habitat mosaic at biological monitoring sites so that responses of organisms to river habitat change could be monitored. It is now used more widely to monitor physical habitat change through time and along rivers in response to changing natural processes, human pressures, and human interventions. MoRPh was developed as a citizen science survey in 2016.
Mud Spotter records fine sediment inputs to rivers during or immediately after rainfall. Fine sediment influences the nature of a river’s habitat mosaic and the ecological functioning of those habitats. Mud Spotter locates and records the type of sediment source and the quantity of sediment and water being delivered from the source, enabling the fine sediment contribution of a source to be monitored over time. The survey was launched in 2019.
Riverwood, released in 2024, is our newest survey. It includes a walkover component and a more detailed component. The walkover component records the locations of leaning trees, fallen trees, and accumulations of wood overhanging or within river channels including those constructed by beavers or humans (e.g. NFM leaky barriers). It also summarises their broad hydraulic effects. Wood is an important natural component of rivers that has been heavily managed, especially over the last century. The more detailed component records the size and character of any of these wood features located within the bankfull channel and their impacts on the local physical habitat mosaic.
Two further surveys are undergoing testing:
MoRPh Estuaries transfers the concepts that underpin MoRPh to monitor the character of estuary edges including their physical form, vegetation structure and the presence of human pressures and interventions.
River Engineering Modification (REM) takes the method used in the Urban River Survey (URS) to classify the engineering type of a river reach and transforms it into a walkover survey that rapidly assesses the broad engineering modifications of a river across the river network.
Collaborator/funders (in alphabetical order) CaSTCo, Environment Agency, Kings College London, Natural Environment Research Council, Queen Mary RMI (Riverfly), University of London, University of Birmingham.
Selected Publications #
Urban River Survey (URS) #
Davenport, A.J., Gurnell, A.M., Armitage, P.D. 2001. Classifying urban rivers. Water Science and Technology, 43, 9, 147-156, ISSN: 0273-1223. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2001.0527
Davenport, A.J., Gurnell, A.M., Armitage, P.D., 2004. Habitat Survey And Classification Of Urban Rivers. River Research and Applications, 20, 687-704. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.785
Boitsidis, A.J., Gurnell, A.M., Scott, M., Petts, G.E., Armitage, P.A. 2006. Decision support system for identifying the habitat quality and rehabilitation potential of urban rivers. Water and Environment Journal, 20, 130-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-6593.2005.00005.x
MoRPh #
Shuker, L., Gurnell, A.M., Wharton, G., Gurnell, D.J., England, J., Finn Leeming, B.F., Beach, E. 2017. MoRPh: A citizen science tool for monitoring and appraising physical habitat changes in rivers. Water and Environment Journal, 31, 418-424. https://doi.org/10.1111/wej.12259
Gurnell, A.M., England, J., Shuker, L., Wharton, G., 2019. The contribution of volunteers to river monitoring: international and national perspectives and the example of the MoRPh survey. River Research and Applications, 35, 1359-1373. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3483
Gurnell, A.M., Hill, C.T. 2022. River channel changes through time and across space: Using three commonly-available information sources to support river understanding and management in a national park. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 47, 522–539. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5267
Riverwood #
Gurnell, A.M., Hill, C.T., Tooth, S., 2025. Surveys conducted a third of a century apart reveal changes to in-stream large wood, riparian vegetation and stream planform in response to management within a UK National Park. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50: e70025. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5267