Scotland's Environment Blog

The Riverfly Partnership is UK wide initiative bringing together anglers, conservationists, entomologists, scientists, water course managers and relevant authorities to protect and conserve the river environment. The project trains local enthusiasts to carry out sampling and counting of freshwater invertebrate animals to detect changes in the quality of river water.

Saturday 21 April 2018 is World Fish Migration day, a global event to create awareness of the importance of keeping rivers free from man-made barriers to fish migration. In Scotland, we know of hundreds of man-made barriers that are preventing fish from accessing essential spawning habitat in our rivers. But it’s likely that there are many more out there that we don’t know about. To help us identify where these barrier are, we have developed a barrier recording ‘app' that can be downloaded to a smartphone and used to help us to help the fish. Here you can also find more information about this project and how to get involved.

Scottish weather is often dreich, but never dull. We subconsciously include a daily weather observation in our pleasantries, which is not surprising considering its bearing in all aspects of life and the general mood of the nation. Taking this obsession a step further, there is a long tradition of rainfall measuring by the public. As well as being an interesting hobby, the data is very useful and SEPA is keen to encourage members of the public, schools and businesses to begin rainfall observing to help capture Scotland complex rainfall patterns.

Yesterday was world water day and this year’s theme was “The answer is in nature” – exploring nature-based solutions to water challenges we face such as flooding and water pollution. Scotland has a rich and varied water environment, but other aspects of our environment have an important role to play in addressing some key challenges we face. You can find information and data about the water environment on Scotland’s environment web.

WDS blog: A strategy for improving waste data in Scotland, published last October, aims to identify and deliver the waste data needs of Scotland and help support Scotland's transition to a circular economy. At the heart of the strategy lies partnership working and engaging with those that provide, analyse, communicate and use wate data. And this was evident when over twenty waste practitioners, including representatives from local authorities and private business across Scotland, recently gathered to discuss the strategy, how it can be implemented and the future of waste data in Scotland.

Saturday 3 March was international Open Data Day – an annual celebration of open data all over the world, and an opportunity to highlight the benefits of open data to government, business and communities. Here we'll show you how Scotland’s environment web is working with partners to mobilise environmental data and extending its reach and influence by turning it into accessible information and knowledge.