Salinization is a global threat to freshwater habitats that has been intensified by climate chang... more Salinization is a global threat to freshwater habitats that has been intensified by climate change. Monitoring, assessment and management of salinity is therefore essential. The first step is to set criteria that are sufficiently stringent to protect ecosystem health. However, many countries have not yet defined criteria, and there are substantial differences between criteria. This has been noted in the EU, where salinity is a required “supporting element” for ecological status in inland waters but also for implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.3.2. for “good ambient water quality” where different approaches and widely different threshold values were reported for salinity criteria. Much of this information has not been published and is difficult to access, hindering further efforts to address the problem. We first discuss the implications of salinization for freshwater ecological health. We go on to discuss the principles and guidelines on how salinity ...
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address po... more The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). More specifically, SDG 6 clarifies how water quality, quantity and access are crucial to human well-being, and yet human activities are compromising water resources through over-exploitation, pollution, as well as contributing to the spread of disease. Globally aquatic ecosystems are highly threatened and concerted efforts by governments and civil society to ‘turn the situation around’ are simply not working. Human-created problems require human-centred solutions and these require different ways of thinking and acting to those behaviour patterns that are contributing to the challenges. In this paper, we first consider causal approaches to attitude change and behaviour modification that are simply not working as intended. We then explore enabling responses such as citizen science and co-engaged action lea...
Citizen science has the potential to support the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Devel... more Citizen science has the potential to support the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its integration into national monitoring schemes. In this study, we explore the opportunities and biases of citizen science (CS) data when used either as a primary or secondary source for SDG 6.3.2 reporting. We use data from waterbodies that have both CS and regulatory monitoring in England and Zambia to explore their biases and complementarity. A comparative analysis of regulatory and CS data provided key information on appropriate sampling frequency, site selection and measurement parameters, necessary for more robust SDG reporting. The results show elevated agreement for pass/fail ratios and indicator scores for English waterbodies (80%) and demonstrate CS data can improve granularity and spatial coverage for SDG indicator scoring, even when extensive statutory monitoring programmes are present. In Zambia, management authorities are actively using citizen ...
Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international commun... more Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationsh...
... streams. However in the Oona catchment, while there were no documented municipal waste stream... more ... streams. However in the Oona catchment, while there were no documented municipal waste streams, it was the considered view that there was some contribution from domestic septic tanks (Jordan et al., 2005). Data collection. The ...
Salinization is a global threat to freshwater habitats that has been intensified by climate chang... more Salinization is a global threat to freshwater habitats that has been intensified by climate change. Monitoring, assessment and management of salinity is therefore essential. The first step is to set criteria that are sufficiently stringent to protect ecosystem health. However, many countries have not yet defined criteria, and there are substantial differences between criteria. This has been noted in the EU, where salinity is a required “supporting element” for ecological status in inland waters but also for implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.3.2. for “good ambient water quality” where different approaches and widely different threshold values were reported for salinity criteria. Much of this information has not been published and is difficult to access, hindering further efforts to address the problem. We first discuss the implications of salinization for freshwater ecological health. We go on to discuss the principles and guidelines on how salinity ...
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address po... more The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). More specifically, SDG 6 clarifies how water quality, quantity and access are crucial to human well-being, and yet human activities are compromising water resources through over-exploitation, pollution, as well as contributing to the spread of disease. Globally aquatic ecosystems are highly threatened and concerted efforts by governments and civil society to ‘turn the situation around’ are simply not working. Human-created problems require human-centred solutions and these require different ways of thinking and acting to those behaviour patterns that are contributing to the challenges. In this paper, we first consider causal approaches to attitude change and behaviour modification that are simply not working as intended. We then explore enabling responses such as citizen science and co-engaged action lea...
Citizen science has the potential to support the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Devel... more Citizen science has the potential to support the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its integration into national monitoring schemes. In this study, we explore the opportunities and biases of citizen science (CS) data when used either as a primary or secondary source for SDG 6.3.2 reporting. We use data from waterbodies that have both CS and regulatory monitoring in England and Zambia to explore their biases and complementarity. A comparative analysis of regulatory and CS data provided key information on appropriate sampling frequency, site selection and measurement parameters, necessary for more robust SDG reporting. The results show elevated agreement for pass/fail ratios and indicator scores for English waterbodies (80%) and demonstrate CS data can improve granularity and spatial coverage for SDG indicator scoring, even when extensive statutory monitoring programmes are present. In Zambia, management authorities are actively using citizen ...
Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international commun... more Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationsh...
... streams. However in the Oona catchment, while there were no documented municipal waste stream... more ... streams. However in the Oona catchment, while there were no documented municipal waste streams, it was the considered view that there was some contribution from domestic septic tanks (Jordan et al., 2005). Data collection. The ...
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Papers by Stuart Warner