Monitoring water quality

Industrialisation, population growth, climate change and land use change are increasing the burden of pollutants on urban freshwaters. These pollutants can affect freshwater ecosystems and present a danger to human health. UKCEH’s monitoring and modelling work underpins interventions to reduce the impact of pollutants on water quality. Our science in this area focuses on nutrients, algae, microplastics, pathogens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), emerging contaminants and organic pollutants.

CASE STUDY:

Sampling microplastics in water supplies in the UK

Cities are known to majorly contribute to plastic pollution. UKCEH carried out a study of microplastics for UKWIR, the UK and Irish water industry’s research body, so that it could better understand where and in what quantities microplastic particles exist within wastewater treatment and water supply systems. Scientists carried out sampling at a total of 16 different water company premises – water treatment works and wastewater treatment works – across the country to assess how much microplastic material was removed by treatment plants.

Click here to find out more about our microplastics analysis laboratory service

CASE STUDY:

Indicators of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in sewage treatment works

UKCEH works to improve understanding of the diversity, dynamics and activities of microorganisms in urban freshwaters. We led a project for UKWIR to investigate the behaviour of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria (AMB) and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes (ARGs) in wastewater treatment works. National surveillance in treatment works across England and Wales was performed to better understand the potential role that different sewage inputs and treatment configurations play in the dissemination of AMR to the environment.

TOOL:

QUESTOR

QUESTOR (Quality Evaluation and Simulation Tool for River Systems), and its urban-focused sister model QUESTOR-YS, are process-based in-stream water quality models. QUESTOR has been used extensively worldwide to investigate issues such as the impacts of climate change, sewage discharges, and land management. The model was developed to help catchment managers assess the impact of actions such as: changing discharges consents, abstracting more water from a river, establishing river-bank tree coverage or building a flood relief channel. The model produces estimates of key water quality parameters such as nutrients, dissolved oxygen and chrolophyll-a, using widely available datasets.

The QUESTOR-YS version allows impacts of urban tree planting to be compared between cities worldwide, and has been applied in Birmingham, Oslo and Aarhus.