RiuApp

The app to assess the hydrological & ecological quality of Mediterranean rivers

RiuApp is the result of the union of two environmental and educational initiatives that allow citizens to carry out studies on the ecological and hydrological status of Mediterranean rivers.

RiuApp can access two data collection forms: RiuNet and Projecte Rius:

RiuNet is an interactive educational tool that will guide any citizen for assessing the hydrological and ecological status of a river. Moreover, it will provide scientific data to the Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management (FEHM) Research Group of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Barcelona.

RiuNet guides citizens through the following steps:

1. Register on RiuNet with an email address and set a password.

2. Provide information about the river: geographical location, name, catchment, and nearest town. To validate the results is necessary to provide the river location and take a photo.

3. Select the current aquatic phase of the river, the river's hydrological regime and river type. Not all rivers are the same!

4. Complete the assessment of the river hydrological status.

5. The assessment of the river's ecological quality is a combination of two steps:

5.1. Hydromorphological test (riparian forest and river's channel)

5.2. Biological test (river's invertebrates)

6. Provide information in the "other data" module.

7. And, finally, send the results.

Projecte Rius is an environmental volunteer initiative of the Associació Hàbitats through which groups of volunteers from all over Catalonia carry out studies twice a year in previously selected reaches of rivers.

Projecte Rius carries out the following studies:

1. To determine the river's hydromorphological quality or stream based on the analysis of the habitat, riparian forest, flow, and alterations present in the environment.

2. To assess the water's physicochemical quality using different physicochemical parameters, such as temperature, pH, nitrate concentration or dissolved oxygen.

3. The biological quality of the river or stream is determined by the presence of certain families of aquatic macroinvertebrates.

The Projecte Rius volunteer groups are coordinated by the technical team of the Habitats Association. So, if you are interested in forming a group, check out their website: http://www.projecterius.cat

What will the citizens achieve using RiuApp?

• Learn how rivers work and about the organisms that live in them.

• Assess the quality of a river and measuring its hydrological and ecological status.

• Provide data to both researchers and stakeholders, helping to improve management and conservation of the river.

• Above all, have fun doing it!

RiuNet is an application developed by FEHM Research Group of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Barcelona and Associació Habitats. This application forms part of the UB mobility project.