Environmental monitoring programmes are at the heart of how we understand the health of river ecosystems. This PhD research project will apply a political ecology perspective to explore the legitimacy of river monitoring programmes among different communities. The studentship is funded by the Leverhulme Trust through the Connected Waters Leverhulme Doctoral Programme, which is supporting new PhD research on human-environment interactions in freshwater ecosystems. The studentship covers fees and stipend for a home (UK) student for up to four years.

Monitoring provides us with vital insights about how we use rivers and our impacts on them. They are also crucial tools in river governance, providing policy-makers and regulators with evidence to design improvement strategies, benchmark progress, and take enforcement action against infractions. 

As rivers in many parts of the world face increasing stresses due to climate change and other human impacts, interest in river health has grown, pushing monitoring programmes increasingly into the spotlight. At the same time, advancements in sensor technology and deployment mean that much larger ranges and volumes of river health data are becoming available. But questions over which parameters are monitored, how they are measured (and by whom), and the interpretation and transparency of the evidence generated, can significantly shape the legitimacy of monitoring schemes. 

Drawing on a political ecology approach, the aim of this project is to explore the processes through which river monitoring programmes can become legitimised (and de-legitimised) among different communities, how the evidence is mobilised to construct different meanings of river health, and the implications this can have for river governance. The research will be associated with an existing ESRC research project, and will use case studies in the UK, Norway and Canada, with potential for travel to study sites for field work. 

This fully funded studentship is part of the Connected Waters Leverhulme Doctoral Programme, which is funding up to 18 PhD studentships to conduct multidisciplinary research on freshwater ecosystems, across two universities, Cranfield and Roehampton. The programme aims to develop a deeper, holistic understanding of the interactions between humans and the environment to support sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges affecting our river, lake, wetland, and groundwater ecosystems.

To find more information on the programme, please see the official CONNECT website. Watch this video featuring Cranfield University's Dr Robert Grabowski to find out more.

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