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Digitalising the way river health is assessed will be key to water companies meeting their environmental goals.
Anglian Water head of environmental strategy Carly Leonard called on all water companies to work together with local authorities to improve river monitoring, while speaking at Utility Week Live.
Leonard’s call to action comes on the back of Anglian’s work to modernise its monitoring regime.
She explained that Anglian Water has developed a digital twin of a river in Norfolk which she claims could help other water companies improve their understanding of river health in other parts of the country.
The Stiffkey River catchment dashboard is an overview of river health, covering biology, water quality, water level, and other factors such as weather and soil moisture deficit.
The dashboard provides an overall picture of water quality with the help of water quality data from WATR sensors (an integrated system for real-time water or soil quality monitoring), set against five Water Framework Directive measures: temperature, pH level, dissolved oxygen, phosphates/phosphorus, and ammonia.
The dashboard also gives an overview of water quantity, including river flow, level, direction, weather conditions and discharge data, including both storm overflow and treated effluent.
The system also includes a web-based app to help engage the public about the health of the Stiffkey.
“The project has come up with these products, and we’re now looking at options for embedding those into the business,” Leonard said.
“Doing a project of this scale for every catchment just isn’t feasible, but we want to take what we’ve learnt and embed that in our operational teams.”
Leonard added that Anglian “can only go so far on our own” calling for a “collective effort” from water companies and local authorities to implement similar tools nationwide.
The project is also part of the River Deep, Mountain AI scheme, which recently won funding as part of Ofwat’s latest innovation funding round.
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