Thank you so much to everyone who came along to our citizen science evening last week! It was great to see so many of you, and share mulled wines and mince pies.

We were joined by some great guest speakers from our partner organisations and projects happening in the Chess valley, as well as having updates on the latest citizen science results.

Rosie Nelson, Thames Water, discussed the recent phosphorus stripping process that was installed at Chesham Sewage Treatment works in December 2024.

I then presented the findings from our citizen science investigations into the impacts of the phosphorus stripping on water quality and ecology in the River Chess. The results from the first year since the phosphorus stripping process are seeming positive, with a distinct drop in phosphate levels. However, there was an apparent lag time in recovery of the aquatic macroinvertebrate community, reflected in our SmartRivers results.

Luke Tumelty, Imperial College London, then updated us on the new low cost water quality buoys installed by the Smart Water programme, and the news from the Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure programme.

Cara Fogarty, Imperial College London, presented a poster on her recently published research article mapping citizen science and stakeholder networks within the SWC partnership.

Steph Horn, SWC Project Coordinator, then rounded the evening off with a presentation of highlights from 2025 including the publication of our Citizen Science Report and the addition of new survey methods including redd surveys and biofilm surveys.

To find out more, take a look at the presentation slides attached to this page. We will also be sharing more updates on recent Citizen Science work in the upcoming SWC Newsletter so keep an eye on your mailboxes!

Thank you everyone!
Iona McMillan, Citizen Science Coordinator, SWC