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Project/Activity

Title: Hampshire Avon DTC Hydrology and Water Quality Monitoring
Related Party - Individual (Point of Contact): Professor Adie Collins* (Rothamsted Research) Email address: HantsAvonDTC_consortium@rothamsted.ac.uk
Related Party - Organisation (Funder): Defra
Related Party - Organisation (Deliverer): ADAS UK
Abstract:
Existing data on chemical quality elements for determining WFD status and water quality pressures within catchments rely on EA monitoring supplemented by more detailed CSF monitoring data in target catchments across a network of sites. Although these data provide some information on the spatial variations , the monitoring network is coarse by necessity, and both the spatial and temporal coverage are generally too coarse to be able to detect water status improvements in response to targeted mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture. Within the Hampshire Avon and Tamar catchments therefore, a number of target sub-catchments were selected as DTC focus sites for higher resolution monitoring at which the effects of on-farm interventions on water quality and freshwater ecology could be monitored and assessed. Each of the three DTC consortia adopted a broadly similar approach for the selection and design of DTC target sub-catchments, although the number of sites and specific placement and specification of monitoring stations was determined independently by each consortium in response to local needs and pressures. The focus was on small headwater streams of approximately 10 km2, an area over which on-farm mitigation measures could be trialled and assessed intensively, with monitoring equipment installed immediately downstream of manipulated areas to capture the effects. The experimental approach used for assessing mitigation was the 'Before-After Control-Impact' (BACI) approach which uses pre-mitigation instream data to provide a baseline against which to compare post-mitigation instream conditions, and which also compares a 'manipulated' (mitigated) sub-catchment with a 'non-manipulated' (control) sub-catchment. Two BACI designs were used: BACI1, where a separate control stream provides a spatial reference to account for the confounding effects of factors such as changes in land use, rainfall and flow, and; BACI2 where a monitoring point upstream of the mitigation area is used to isolate a control area, which is compared with a site immediately downstream of the manipulation. This folder contains all quality assured hydrology and water quality data generated by field monitoring and laboratory analysis as part of DTC Phase I by the Hants Avon DTC consortium. DTC sample collection, analysis and quality assurance protocols were implemented. Details on the protocols can be found in the relevant supplementary document.
Subject Keywords: HydrologyWater qualityWater Framework Directive
Geographic Keywords: Tamar catchmentHampshire Avon catchment
Time Window -  Start: 2011-03-15 End: 2014-03-30
Publication Date: 2016-05-09

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