River monitoring is a key activity for river management, but is often done poorly or not at all. Many publications offering advice on river monitoring address sophisticated statistical and experimental design concerns with monitoring activities. This presentation addresses some more practical concerns.
Monitoring is important, it needs to be done and it needs to be properly funded. Research projects are also important but they are not monitoring. One indicator of whether an activity is monitoring is the presence of a detailed monitoring methods document.
The design and management of a river monitoring program needs input from someone who has competence in river ecology, and who is disinterested. Monitoring programs, like all substantial technical projects, should be subject to independent technical review.
It is important to analyse monitoring data, not just to collect it. Data must be statistically analysed, which requires data amenable to statistical analysis to be collected. That requires replicates and/or repeated samples so that differences and trends can be separated from the noise. Some possible approaches to collecting useful data within budgetary constraints include effective use of logging meters and analysing data collected over multiple sampling events.