The Greater Sydney Landcare Network (GSLN) has taken responsibility for development and delivery of the Streamwatch programme from the Australian Museum as of July 1, 2019.
Background: Streamwatch is a citizen science water monitoring program that enables community groups to monitor the quality and health of local waterways. Established in 1990 this water monitoring program initiated by Sydney Water and the Sydney Catchment Authority originally had a focus on curriculum implementation in secondary schools, but quickly extended beyond schools into a citizen science program. To date over 1,100 Streamwatch groups have monitored water quality at over 1,060 sites, and have contributed almost 31,000 data sets to the online database. These groups have been spread across greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra and Southern Highlands regions.
Data collected by these groups helps inform the wider public, landowners, land managers, local councils, universities, research organisations, catchment and water management authorities on the health status of local waterways.
Where to from here?.. To move forward GSLN in consultation with 40 Streamwatch volunteers ran two workshops in June and July. The workshops sought feedback on ‘where to from here’, record participants concerns, ambitions for the programme and potential ways to improve it and fund it. With recommendations on the future of Streamwatch and summary of challenges the report makes for a valuable insight into the Streamwatch community.
Click here to view GSLN Streamwatch report with recommendations. https://greatersydneylandcare.org/stakeholder-workshop-feedback-report/
