River Nidd water quality pilot project involving artificial intelligence reports encouraging results

The initiative, which will continue until July, came just months after the Nidd at the Lido in Knaresborough was designated Bathing Water Status by the Government following a deterioration in the river’s water clarity, which has been linked to peat bog erosion, metal mining and sewage spillages.

The status means during the peak bathing season, between May and September, the agency must test for pollutants and bacteria such as E-coli, which last summer was found to be ten times higher than “sufficient” levels.

While the Environment Agency is expected to reveal a plan of action to clean up the river in the coming weeks, David Clayton, chair of Nidd Action Group, has called for bodies to work more with local people to help tackle the problem, saying residents “are part of the problem, and part of the solution”.

The ten Hello Lamp Post interactive signs have been sited on riverside locations takes users, via a QR code scanned with their mobile phones, straight to a messaging portal enabling them to quickly and easily raise the alert if they see signs of pollution. The cutting-edge technology has also been programmed to answer a wide range of questions that the public may have about rivers, offering people on the spot information to practical river questions.

The signs are at Nidd Gorge Viaduct, Valley Gardens, Oak Beck Park, the Woodland Trust car-park at Nidd Gorge, Conygham Hall, Harlow Carr, Crimple Beck at Burnbridge, Hookestone Beck, Oak Beck at Spruisty Bridge, and Knaresborough Lido.

Sarah Lonsdale, project manager for river enhancement with YDRT said the signs were proving popular as they helped people play a role in reporting issues, such as if the water is looking discoloured. A third of respondents to questions on the signs said they were looking for more opportunities to get involved in tackling the pollution.

She said: “If there are signs of pollution they can use the sign to report that, and there’s a direct link which goes directly to the Environment Agency.

"It is gathering a high-level understanding of that site for us to then consider whether we need to focus more on that area because a lot of people have reported possible pollution. It’s obviously not as solid as other citizen science methods, but it suits people who just want to spend five minutes on their phones and input in some way.”

One of the signs, in Oak Beck Park, has seen numerous reports of discoloured water.

Sarah said: “We were already aware that Oak Beck Park has a concoction of issues, such as misconnections in the surface drainage network with wrongly connected waste pipes.

"It means if someone washes their clothes or goes to the toilet and it’s on the same line it will end up directly in the river rather than going through a treatment works. With the data from the signs we’ve been able to add that extra layer of evidence.”

The app also highlights what people to can do at home to help with domestic waste water management to alleviate the pressure on the system, such as flushing the right things down the drain. Sarah said results from the pilot had suggested “people aren’t well informed enough and that could guide our work in terms of what we want to promote”.

She added: “We’ve had 328 unique users, about two people a day using the signs. We hope people will come back and it’s not just a one-off engagement. We’ve had 469 conversations and 1,829 messages, people asking the questions, which is quite good considering we put the signs out in October.

“The more we can reach out to people the better because it’s also serving as a good platform to relay key messages about water quality, nature, healthy rivers and just getting people engaged.

"People start to actually look at the river and take it in. If, for instance, we ask a question about whether any invasive species can be seen, some people might question what is an invasive species and they can get that information from the AI bot.”

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