Birmingham Urban Ecohydrological Observatory

The Upper Tame catchment represents one of the most urbanized river basins in the United Kingdom, comprising major cities like Birmingham and Wolverhampton hosting over 2-million people. Urban development during and since the industrial revolution has sprawled across the catchment and up to the river headwaters in many instances. River systems across the Upper Tame are subjected to complex pollution 'cocktails', including heavy metals from industrial heritage, emerging contaminants from sewage inputs and road runoff, and pesticides from agriculture and urban green spaces. These chemical pressures, alongside other stressors like habitat simplification (i.e., straight, concrete-lined watercourses) and invasive species, are degrading the ecological health of rivers regionally. But various initiatives including river restoration strategies and volunteer-led invasive species removal are aiming to help rectify some pressures. 

The Upper Tame formed the basis of Birmingham Urban Ecohydrological Observatory owing to its internationally unique urban pressures. The initiative was spearheaded by freshwater scientists from the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES), Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA), and Birmingham Water Centre (BWC). Two primary research agendas underpinned the designation: Birmingham River Champions and SMARTWATER.

Birmingham River Champions is a citizen science project led by the University of Birmingham, with support from the Environment Agency, Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust and Severn Trent’s River Ranger team. The initiative is connecting with volunteer groups across the West Midlands and providing training and equipment so that local communities can monitor various aspects of river health. Evidence generated by the army of river champions is of fundamental importance due to statutory monitoring cutbacks in recent years, and this citizen science data helps 'plug the gaps' to ensure river pressures are no longer going unchecked and undetected. The initiative aims to work with environmental authorities and trusts to help ensure that Birmingham River Champions data has real-world benefits.

The initiative is not only important for river environmental health, but also provides various societal benefits. Birmingham River Champions educates local communities on the condition of their local watercourses, which the project hopes will continue to help foster a sense of stewardship. Not only this, but the scheme affords upskilling opportunities for volunteers. Recently, project leads collaborated with social science experts at the university to work with Birmingham River Champion volunteers to ascertain what aspects of the River Cole - within the Upper Tame catchment – are (and are not) being valued by local communities. The idea of this project was to inform river restoration solutions that benefit both people and nature – please click the download link below for further information.

SMARTWATER is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC - UK) and National Science Foundation collaboration (NSF - US) collaborative funded project aiming to identify the controls of hot spots and hot moments of water pollution through smart sensor networks and real-time data.

It will do so through pioneering innovations in experimental analytics, data science and mathematical modelling to yield new mechanistic understandings of the dynamic drivers of multi-contaminant pollution. SMARTWATER aims to support the delivery of the UK 25-Year Environment Plan and the US Clean Water Act. By designing and implementing future management strategies in the face of climate and environmental change it is essential to evaluate the relative impact of non-linear pollution hotspots and hot moments on river basin scale water quality dynamics.

 Staff involved in this research