The monitoring element of the Otter Land Use and Water Resources project has finished after 2.5 years of field-based data collection. The project objective was for to collect environmental data for building a model which calculates the impacts of different land uses and tree planting scenarios on the distribution of water resources across a catchment. Three sub-catchments in the upper part of the Otter were monitored for comparison: a fully wooded sub-catchment, a riparian buffer strip with pasture, and a sub-catchment of exclusively agricultural pasture. The project has gathered an evidence base to support woodland planting measures over the wider catchment by gathering data on:
- level, temperature, and conductivity of river water and groundwater
- soil moisture at differing depths of the soil profile up to one meter
- rainfall volumes
- weather patterns
The evidence base will be used to inform other projects on how to manage land use changes and protect water resources.
Top left – One of the monitoring stations within the woodland catchment Equipment was monitoring rainfall and soil moisture
Bottom left – Initial set-up of a monitoring station within the grassland catchment, this was later replaced by permanent fencing
Right – An InSitu Aquatroll 200 deployed in the woodland Catchment collecting level and conductivity data
Author Ada Myers