The Rivers Trust and Additive Catchments launch water quality data partnership

The Rivers Trust and data specialist Additive Catchments have announced a national partnership designed to make trustworthy water quality information available to support river health restoration work.

The Rivers Trust brings catchment expertise and a national network of local action to the table. Additive Catchments brings digital monitoring and diagnostic infrastructure across water systems, with the ability to link high-frequency sensor data with early warnings, public dashboards and compliance-grade reports.

The Trust will use the nationally held real-time data from Additive Catchments’ platform, including upstream and downstream monitoring of combined sewer overflows, to engage with communities through its 60+ member trusts, enabling more locally targeted decisions to be made on river restoration and water governance.

“This is a pivotal moment for UK rivers,” said Mark Lloyd, chief executive of The Rivers Trust. “We need better diagnostics to understand the root causes of problems, and we need shared tools to act together. This partnership is about turning insight into action, from the catchment up.”

Rob Passmore, chief executive of Additive Catchments, commented: “The Cunliffe Review calls for a new era of transparency and public confidence in how we manage water. This partnership responds directly to that call – not by building another reporting layer, but by creating infrastructure that joins the dots.”

The partnership will help operationalise the River Health Index – a new measure for public trust, combining environmental data with community sentiment, designed to track legitimacy and progress in water governance.