Lab Dŵr™
Measuring the health of our rivers
Lab Dŵr™ is our river monitoring programme, combining water quality sampling with ecological monitoring to build a detailed picture of river health.
Connecting communities with river health
Our Lab Dŵr hubs bring together monitoring, data and local knowledge to build a clearer picture of river health across North Wales. Through Lab Dŵr and our Our River Ambassadors, communities are also playing an active role in understanding and protecting their rivers.
Lab Dwr:Mynydd i’r Menai
Following water from source to sea
The Source-to-Sea Observatory is a pilot programme exploring how a whole Bioregion catchment can be monitored as one connected system. Tracking water quality as it moves from freshwater rivers through the estuary and into the marine environment.
Source to sea observatory
A pilot for catchment-scale monitoring
Building on the freshwater monitoring approach developed through Lab Dŵr™, the Observatory extends our sampling and evidence-gathering beyond individual rivers and sites.
Working in partnership with the Menai Strait Partnership Forum, we have created a monitoring network spanning freshwater, brackish and marine environments.
This allows us to explore what happens to water quality as it moves through the system and how pressures and pollutants are transported, diluted, transformed or accumulated along the way.
How we monitor from source to sea
Our Source-to-Sea Observatory brings together complementary monitoring methods across the freshwater–marine gradient, allowing us to track environmental pressures as they move through the catchment.
Freshwater
Chemical testing & kick sampling
Water chemistry and aquatic invertebrate surveys provide a picture of river water quality and ecological health.
Estuary
Chemcatchers®
Passive samplers detect chemical contaminants over time, capturing pollution that can be missed by one-off water samples.
Marine
DGT passive samplers
Deployed in the Menai Strait to measure the marine environment.
Across the system
Sediment & Blue Carbon surveys
We investigate riverine sediments and carbon stores to understand how material and environmental pressures move and accumulate through the system.
Ecological surveillance
Snorkel surveys for aquatic INNS
Underwater surveys help us detect and track invasive non-native species across freshwater and marine environments.
