Riu.net 4+

RiuNet, an app for assessing the hydrological status and ecological quality of a river

RiuNet is an interactive education tool that will guide any citizen for assessing the hydrological and ecological status of a river. Moreover, it will provide scientific data to members of the Freshwater Ecology and Management (FEM) Research Group of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Barcelona.

What will the citizens achieve using the RiuNet app?
* Learn how rivers work and about the organisms that live in them.
* Assess the quality of a river, and measuring its hydrological and ecological status.
* Provide data to both researchers and stakeholders, helping to improve management and conservation of the river.
* Above all, have fun doing it!

RiuNet guides citizens through the following steps?
1. First, provide information of the river: geographical location, name, hydrographic district, and town. This is necessary to validate the results, provide the river location and make a photo.
2. Select the current aquatic phase of the river, the river’s hydrological regime and river type. Not all the rivers are he same!
3. The assessment of the river hydrological status.
4. The assessment of the river’s ecological quality is a combination of two steps:
4.1. Hydromorphological test (riparian forest and river’s channel)
4.2. Biological test (river’s invertebrates)
5. Provide information in the “other data” module.
6. And finally, send the results.

RiuNet is an application developed by FEM Research Group of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Barcelona and Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research IDAEA-CSIC, Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Júcar Water Agency (CHJ). This application forms part of the UB mobility project.

This version has been developed and funded by the +LIFE TRIVERS LIFE13 ENV/ES/000341 project.