Water & Wastewater Asia September/October 2022

IN THE FIELD
are affected by water level. For
how the vegetation is changing. His
example, we have trial plots with
team also correlates groundwater levels
raised water levels, in which we are
with vegetation growth, in order to better
investigating the performance of
understand optimal growing conditions.
different plant species. These include
Sphagnum or ‘bog moss’ which stores
The Great Fen area includes a number
water, prevents the decay of dead
of commercial farms, which operate
plant material and eventually forms
both drainage and irrigation processes,
peat, and we are also trialling the
so the groundwater monitoring
wetland cropping potential of Glyceria
programme also helps to understand
fluitans, a robust perennial aquatic
the effects of these activities. In
sweet grass.”
addition, new farms are regularly
acquired and incorporated into the
WATER LEVEL MONITORING
Great Fen, so the monitoring work
Working with a team of over 60
helps to manage the restoration of this
volunteers, Stanier delivered a
land from agriculture to fenland.
monitoring programme for the project
area, which is currently around 3,700
SUMMARY
hectares. Forty wells have been
Stanier said: “Fenland restoration
installed in strategic locations, each
depends heavily on a deep understanding
to a depth of around 5m. Thirty-seven
of the geology and the water table, and
of these have OTT Orpheus Mini
the effects of water status on the local
water level loggers, which record
ecology. The water level monitoring
groundwater level every hour, every
that we undertake provides the
day of the year. Stanier collects the
data that underpins the science that
data from these loggers once or twice
informs the important management
per year, or more frequently where the
decisions that are made. The quality
data is of greater significance.
and reliability of the OTT water level
loggers is therefore vital, and we look
Three of the wells have been
fitted with OTT ecoLog water level
forward to expanding our network of
monitors as the project continues to
1
loggers. These devices have the
ability to transmit both stored and
live data to a secure website which
Henry can access with any internetenabled
device at any time, and from
anywhere.
“This is a tremendous advantage,”
Stanier explained. “With such a large
area to cover, field visits can be timeconsuming
and therefore costly, so
we install the OTT ecoLogs in the
grow.”
2
1 The OTT
Orpheus Mini
water level
loggers record
groundwater
level for every
hour, every day
of the year
2 The Great Fen
spans between
Peterborough
and Huntingdon
(Image: Henry
Stanier, Wildlife
Trust BCN)
wells of greatest interest, so that we
can, for example, view the effects on
groundwater levels when we transfer
surface water into an area.”
Stanier’s team operates a number of
trial plots by the dipwells; investigating
22 WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022