Waterwatch Australia national technical manual

Module 2 - getting started: the team, monitoring plan and site
Waterwatch Australia Steering Committee
Environment Australia, December 2002
ISBN 0 6425 4856 0

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The Monitoring Plan (continued)

Eleven Questions (continued)

  1. What methods will you use?
  2. Where will you monitor?
  3. When and how often will you monitor?
  4. Who will be involved and how?
  5. How will the data be managed and reported?
  6. How will you ensure your data are credible?

Q6 What methods will you use?

The methods you use depend on your objective(s) and resources. There are often several methods and costs for testing a single parameter. For example, for high precision turbidity readings from zero to 1000 NTU, a turbidity meter costing several thousand dollars is required, but a turbidity tube (<$40) is suitable for less precise readings of between 10 and 400 NTU.

Use the same methods at all sites to allow comparison of data. List the methods you will use, choosing from:

When choosing each method, ask:

For each parameter you have chosen to measure, briefly describe the following six attributes:

For details on the methods of sampling and measuring a range of biological, physical and chemical parameters, see Module 3 and Module 4.

At this planning stage, it is also important to be aware of the need to keep track of samples. Some samples may be transported to a laboratory for further analysis, if resources are available. The labels your group uses on the samples should be clear and unambiguous and allow each individual sample to be tracked accurately from collection to completion.

Every sample collected in the field should be labelled to record the:

Q7 Where will you monitor?

It is important to choose suitable geographic boundaries for your monitoring work. The wrong boundaries will focus your efforts away from important causes or effects. Catchment boundaries are useful for investigating human impacts on rivers, although human activities may affect groundwater supplies over a wider area.

The choice of sites will depend on whether you are sampling lakes, rivers or estuaries, the information you want and the parameters you will be measuring. For example, if you want to establish baseline information on the waterbody's overall health, sampling stations should be located at sites that represent the variety of conditions in the catchment. On the other hand, if you want to measure the effect of discharge from a drain, sites should be chosen upstream and downstream to isolate the effect of the drain (see 'Selecting the site').

Your sites should be representative of the condition of the waterbody. Use a map to show your sites.

Q8 When and how often will you monitor?

Frequency of monitoring could be regular — weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual — or it could be irregular — during heavy rain ('event sampling'). It depends on what you want to know and on your resources.

Imagine you want to determine a river's 'baseline' or fundamental condition because you are looking for long-term trends. In this case, sampling or surveys should be done at regular intervals during base flow conditions at representative sites to characterise the waterway. If monitoring teams are deployed over the whole catchment at about the same time, you will produce a 'snapshot' of conditions. Biological sampling should be conducted at the same time each year, because of seasonal variations in aquatic invertebrate populations and vegetation. Macro-invertebrate sampling is often done twice yearly, in autumn and spring, but should be done no more than four times per year because extra sampling will deplete animal populations.

Perhaps your group is monitoring to determine the effect of contaminants in the water. In which case, you will time your monitoring to coincide with the suspected effect. For example, if you want to know about the effect of sewage on aquatic ecosystem health, you might choose to sample dissolved oxygen at sunrise when concentrations are at their lowest.

Water quality is often affected by rainfall. Monitoring during rain will catch contaminants as they are flushed from the land surface into the water. For example, if you think the stormwater system is overloaded, sample for turbidity during heavy rainfall. This sampling will need extra care and safety precautions, because surfaces will be slippery and river flow may also be increasing rapidly.

To measure the load (mass transport) of sediment, chemicals and nutrients carried by streams, you should sample during high flow events. Measurements taken during low flows may indicate only a small percentage of the total load transported by the stream.

Questions to help you plan

When deciding when and how often to monitor, your group should ask:

The schedule

The main challenges on sampling days are: to organise participants so they are effectively and safely occupied; to keep track of each monitoring or survey result; and to ensure parameters are measured within the time limits for accuracy.

Work out a schedule for your monitoring or survey work composed of field observations, sampling, and field and lab analysis. Include the anticipated time for each, and back-up people for emergencies. Allow extra time on the first sampling day to sort out the inevitable last-minute glitches.

Be aware of how long each sample can be held before it has to be processed for a given parameter. For example, the maximum holding time before testing refrigerated water samples for dissolved phosphate is 24 hours, so collecting the water sample, cooling and transporting it to a suitable lab, for example, at school, and testing it must all be done within 24 hours to get accurate results. Take into consideration how long it takes to process each sample. For example, it will take up to 50 minutes to digest a sample's total phosphorus in hot acid and to measure it.

Some parameters, such as dissolved oxygen, ideally should be analysed immediately on site. Macro-invertebrates also can be sorted to taxonomic level on site.

Q9 Who will be involved and how?

Programs can vary in size from ten to hundreds of Waterwatchers and from a single group to many scattered over the catchment. Consider questions such as:

Consider all the tasks that should be done and encourage someone to fill each position. An easy way to display this is by using an organisation chart. You don't need to list actual names, but rather the positions and a brief description of what each position does, for example:

Training in the consistent use of standard procedures is the best way to ensure each participant is collecting credible data. Your local Waterwatch coordinator can provide you with appropriate training.

When you are ready to test the water it will be very frustrating to find that equipment is not performing — for example, because moisture has ruined reagents or the meter batteries are flat, or the meter has not been calibrated. Your equipment should be regularly checked and calibrated with fresh standard solutions. See the physical and chemical parameters module (Module 4) for details about these and other data confidence procedures for individual parameters. Calibration and inspection should be a part of group training, and can be tasks assigned to one position in your organisation.

Q10 How will the data be managed and reported?

Data collected in the field by Waterwatchers should be written on, or transferred accurately to, record sheets before being sent to the coordinator, and before being screened and reporting to the community and stakeholders (see Module 5, Data... Information... Action!).

All observations, notes and photographs made at registered sites need to be labelled with the relevant site code, date and time. For example, you may label a photograph:

Don's dairy farm, right bank facing upstream, 50 metres above site AAC120, 20 August 2002, 10am.

If possible, use a camera that automatically imprints the time and date on your photographs. Always use a notebook to keep a record of your photographs as you take them and transfer these notes to the backs of the photographs when they are developed.

For audio-tapes, record the date, person making the tape, who was interviewed and why.

At the end of each day the results, record sheets and photographs must be placed in a recognised secure storage place, such as a lockable metal filing cabinet. They are known as 'raw data' and are the primary links between your group's detective efforts for that day and the information your efforts have produced. Later, you can add results sheets from chemical analyses to your collection of raw data.

Standard record sheets help ensure the data are consistent and comparable, and make it easy for groups to exchange information. The record sheets have spaces for all relevant information, and each type of observation can be recorded consistently. The sheets also simplify entry of the information into a computer database, so long as group members understand how to use them and are careful to avoid errors in transcribing data from instruments to record sheets. (One way to avoid errors is to state each reading aloud, record it, and then repeat it aloud to verify what was reported.)

Your Waterwatch group must form a clear plan for dealing with the data (see Figure 2.1, for example). Encourage a member to take on the role of data manager. That role could include:

Figure 2.1: Data to information
Figure 2.1: Data to information
Waterwatch Australia Database

Waterwatch data is being collected from waterways and coastal areas throughout Australia. The Waterwatch data is collected to help the community assess the health of their own catchments.

To help volunteers manage data and make it more accessible to data users, the Waterwatch Australia Database has been developed.

The Waterwatch Australia Database was developed to enable data to be stored and reported in an easily comparable and consistent manner. The focus when the database was developed was for data sharing and data ownership at the regional level. This remains the focus of the database. Waterwatch also recognises that community data is becoming increasingly in demand, and not just at a regional level, but at a State and national level. As a response to this demand some States, in consultation with the regional Waterwatch monitoring programs, are working with government scientists and data managers to compile regional Waterwatch databases at a State level to be incorporated into State data warehouses.

The Waterwatch Australia Database allows your regional coordinator to:

Guidelines that describe what to do if an incident of contamination is discovered in your waterway should be discussed and agreed to by the group before monitoring takes place. Data on the contamination should be reported to your Waterwatch coordinator who will immediately notify the local council and land manager or water authority. Your group may have an arrangement to notify downstream water users in the event of contamination.

Finally, the group should have a plan for interpreting the data — that is, organising them so the findings (observations) can be seen — and for developing and reporting conclusions (explanations for any patterns in the data) and recommendations for action and further monitoring.

The importance of data confidence cannot be over-emphasised. Some monitoring groups in your Waterwatch program may use good data confidence techniques while others may not. Keep the data from both groups separate when recording results. You will be able to use the well-controlled data with more confidence to interpret trends, etc., and the other data to support your findings. Your Waterwatch coordinator can play a role in providing feedback to the group on the quality of your monitoring results.

When the time comes to present your information and results, the people you identified in question 2 of the monitoring plan outline will be your primary audience. But others will be interested as well, and you may need to use different presentation techniques for different users.

Q11 How will you ensure your data are credible?

Data confidence procedures ensure and assess the quality of the information you collect and check that it meets your data quality goals, as described in question 5.

Data confidence for sampling and analysis includes:

Data confidence for data management includes procedures that ensure the data are properly recorded on result sheets and accurately transferred to the computer; and follow up of unusual results.

Quality assurance or quality control measures (data confidence) allow you to identify contamination of samples, inadequate practices and procedures, and failure of equipment. They also indicate where measures are correct, and whether standard procedures are being followed. The data produced using good data confidence techniques are of high value to users.

Developing specific answers to questions 1-11 (the monitoring plan) is the first step in increasing confidence in your data. Your written monitoring plan, together with your group's objectives and strategies, is the most valuable document your group can have. It will keep the project running along the path that has been chosen for it, even months or years after it has begun, and will ensure continuity of the project even though the people involved may change completely. Use the Short Monitoring Plan to record your main decisions.

Once your group has made and settled on your monitoring plan, you will need to select the site or sites to be monitored. Remember, your monitoring plan should be done in consultation with your local or regional Waterwatch coordinator.

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