Community science: water quality monitoring

Anstruther Improvements Association (AIA) coordinates a group of local volunteers who undertake monthly water quality monitoring on the Dreel Burn and its tributaries.

This data has created a baseline measurement for water quality, allowing the results of ongoing and future interventions to be monitored.

The dedicated volunteers sample and test the water at up to eight monitoring locations along the length of the burn, and organise the data. The group tests and records levels of ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, Ph, conductivity and water temperature.