Volunteer & Catchment Coordinator

Part Time (0.8fte) 30 hours per week
Fixed-term contract until 31 August 2024

Home Based with travel around the Arun &
Western Streams Catchment

The Arun & Rother Rivers Trust (ARRT) is an environmental charity working with partners and
stakeholders across the Arun & Western Streams catchment to enhance and protect the water
landscape. We host the Arun & Western Streams Catchment Partnership - a multi partner group
of regulators, NGOs and others, focused on water and supported by the Catchment Based Approach
(CaBA).

The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) is a collaborative national partnership
between the Rivers Trust, United Utilities and other partners from the water, environmental NGO
and academic sectors. The project seeks to revolutionise the way citizen science gathers water
environment data and how this data can be used to drive collective action and make decisions
about river catchment health.

This project is one of eight ‘Demonstrator’ projects across England piloting different
approaches towards monitoring river heath, including water chemistry and biodiversity. The

**projects will also focus on**: monitoring equipment, methods used, data collection, analysis,
visualisation, sharing; and the use of the citizen science data for catchment decision making
and planning.

With a focus on the upper River Arun and River Rother, the Arun & Rother Rivers Trust
Volunteer Catchment Coordinator will help recruit, train, and establish a dedicated local group
of citizen science volunteers to independently carry out river
health monitoring as developed through the CaSTCo project. The Volunteer Catchment Coordinator
will manage the citizen science data in collaboration with the CaSTCo team and local partners
including the Arun & Western Streams catchment partnership (AWSCP) members to promote the
use of this citizen science data in catchment planning and decision-making.

In addition, the role will include one day per week to support and develop the Arun &
Western Streams Catchment Partnership, aligning and increasing partnership and stakeholder
working. The Volunteer Catchment Coordinator will work closely with the ARRT Soils & Water Officer to integrate the soil health citizen science approaches where
appropriate.

**Key duties & responsibilities**:
Recruit, train, support and coordinate a community of volunteers to undertake water quality
and ecological surveying in the Arun & Rother catchment and support existing Riverfly work
in the catchment.

Helping to organise and run engagement and training events.

Field test, compare and review the efficacy and accuracy of different water chemistry
equipment and methods.

Collate, store and analyse water quality data and produce visualisations to communicate
data evidence to others.

Provide baseline and monitoring data evidence to the Arun & Western Streams Partnership
in order to target restoration strategies and inform catchment-scale planning.
Identify short
- and long-term equipment requirement and seek funding opportunities to
sustain project delivery beyond the life of the CaSTCo Project.

Collaborate with academic research and empower Citizen Science groups to participate in
project development and review.

Identify and engage with other monitoring being undertaken in the catchment.

Work closely with the CaSTCo Demonstrator; Soils & Water Officer on Soil Health Citizen
Science work.

Work closely with the CastCo Project Team & Manager and report on project progress
against implementation plans for the catchment.

Produce reports and updates on the project; internally, on the website and through social
media.
Assess the impact that citizen science data has on triggering interventions on the ground,
i.e. water sensitive farming, integrated wetlands, improved sewage/water management.
Maintain a GDPR compliant volunteer management system.

Ensure compliance with the Trust’s Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Support the communication and promotion of volunteer training and community events.

Support the running and development of the Arun & Western Streams Partnership.
Including attending quarterly meetings.

Support the wider ARRT team with communications outputs.

Any other duties as reasonably required by ARRT.

The successful applicant will be required to travel frequently across the Arun & Rother
catchment for visits and meetings.

How for the full job specification, and
cover letter should detail how you fit the role & person specification and be no longer
than two pages.

call.

Applications should be made by midnight 28 February 2023.

Interviews will take place week commencing 13 March 2023.