The Great Stour Project - River Pollution

Data Analyses

Congratulations!  You have completed a journey of enquiry along the River Great Stour through Canterbury, examining various forms of potential river pollution.  It should be clear to you now that

• there are different categories of water pollution
• pollution sources can be point sources or diffuse sources
• each source has its own characteristic suite of chemical pollutants
• the best indicator of river health is BOD
• a number of preventive measures have been implemented
• under Environment Agency guidance and scrutiny, waste water disposal is very carefully controlled
• apart from accidental pollution incidents, water quality in the Great Stour is classified as ‘good’ to ‘very good’

Now you are in a position to make sense of water analysis data and to test various hypotheses regarding river pollution.  We are fortunate in having access to detailed and accurate data from the Environment Agency.  These cover five river sites  above and below Canterbury, taken over the last two years.  Data will be presented in two groups:

(1) Downstream changes.  Measurements are shown for these five sites: Horton Bridge (GR 115553), Vauxhall Bridge (GR 163598), Canterbury Sewage Treatment Works (GR 165598), Blackmill Bridge (GR 174599), Bretts Bailey Bridge (GR 187602).  Location of these sites is shown on the map.  All data refer to analyses taken on 4^th June, 1999.  Water analysis of final effluent from the STW is shown in red in the 3^rd column; this allows us to see the contribution of the STW to the average river flow, and to examine its chemical composition against an expected background of ‘normal’ river behaviour.

(2) Seasonal changes.  Measurements taken at Vauxhall Bridge and Blackmill Bridge are shown for a 12-month period from January 1998 to December 1998.  Here we are able to investigate how river quality responds to monthly changes in weather, discharge and land use.

It is your task now to analyse and evaluate these data.  You can do this by

• suggesting hypotheses to test
• graphing the data
• applying ideas from your earlier research
• applying statistical tests (such as correlation)

Click on the links below to see the data analyses:

Water analyses for River Great Stour
Worked example of data analyses
Water analyses for River Great Stour

Or sse the links below to download the word ducument for each of the analyses for printing:

Water analyses for River Great Stour
Worked example of data analyses
Water analyses for River Great Stour