Freshwater Stream Monitoring

Know your stream.

A mobile-first companion for citizen scientists conducting freshwater litter surveys — guided methodology, real-time QA, and longitudinal site tracking.

2,513
Surveys Completed
452
Survey Areas
29,303+
Volunteer Hours
203
Items — Survey #3807
Platform Features

Everything you need in the field

From pre-survey safety checks to post-submission QA analysis — built for the conditions citizen scientists actually face.

Stream Survey Wizard

Guided 6-step mobile wizard: safety gate, transect setup, GPS capture, litter tally with weights, resin pellet grade, and animated review.

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Visual Methodology Guide

Illustrated step-by-step protocol reference with litter category visual index, visual grade examples, and photo framing diagrams.

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Safety Checklist

Interactive pre-survey safety gate — risk assessment, wading safety, equipment check. Must be completed before data entry unlocks.

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Real-time QA Flags

Live outlier detection during tally entry. Warns when item counts suggest extending the transect or when a single category dominates.

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Longitudinal Trends

Site-level historical charts showing seasonal patterns, item count trends, and quarterly survey cadence tracking.

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Photo Evidence

Capture and attach the 3 required downstream photos (upstream view, left bank, right bank) directly from your device camera.

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Offline-First Drafts

Auto-saves your progress to device storage at every step. Resume exactly where you left off — even without a signal.

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Materials Dashboard

Interactive bar and pie charts showing litter breakdown by category — switchable between item count and weight views.

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Survey Map

Google Maps integration showing survey location with GPS pin, catchpit info, and site context for every submission.

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UN EMEP / IOC Adapted Protocol

Stream litter monitoring — 3 core steps

A localised adaptation of the UN Environment Programme and US EPA Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program guidelines.

01

Set Up Survey Area

Measure a 30m transect, mark both ends, record site width including active floodplain on both banks.

02

Complete Litter Survey

Walk the entire area at least twice. Collect all visible litter from stream and banks. Extend to 100m if < 10 items found.

03

Complete Litter Audit

Sort by category, record item count and weight (g) per category, record weight confidence, and visual grade for resin pellets.

Ready to survey your stream?

Start with the visual methodology guide, then launch the survey wizard when you're at your site.