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The Rivers Trust: Big River Watch Data Now Available

The Rivers Trust has made data from the 2025 Big River Watch available on their interactive Dashboard. Thousands of public river surveys from across Ireland and the UK are now available to explore through an interactive data dashboard, offering valuable insights into local river health.

The Big River Watch, a citizen science initiative led by The Rivers Trust, has concluded its latest survey, and the data is now live and accessible to the public. You can now explore thousands of observations submitted by volunteers across Ireland and the UK, offering a valuable snapshot of river health from a grassroots perspective.

What is the Big River Watch?

Held twice a year, the Big River Watch invites members of the public to observe their local river and record what they see using a dedicated mobile app. Participants note signs of pollution, wildlife presence, and general river conditions. The initiative empowers communities to contribute to river monitoring and helps build a clearer picture of the pressures facing freshwater ecosystems.

Data Dashboard Now Live

The newly released Big River Watch Data Explorer allows users to view and filter survey results from the May 2024 and September 2023 events. The dashboard includes interactive maps and summary statistics, with filters by location and Rivers Trust area.
Irish rivers are well represented in the dataset, with numerous submissions from across the country.

Screenshot of the Big River Watch data page showing survey results, including participant numbers, wildlife sightings, pollution reports, a pie chart of river health impressions, and a map of Ireland with survey locations. — The Big River Watch Data Dashboard

Learn more

Join the next Big River Watch to connect with others, contribute valuable data, and play your part in protecting and improving the health of our rivers.
EPA State of the Environment Report 2024: Water

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.

Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.