River drone helping to monitor health of waterways

12 hours ago

Charlotte Bentonin Shrewsbury

Gareth Mead from Severn Trent said the river drone carried out water sampling "in a fraction of the time" compared to older monitoring methods

BBC/Charlotte Benton A bald man standing in front of the River Severn. A large stone bridge with four archways his behind him in the distance as well as a church spire. The man is wearing a navy blue polo shirt and a navy fleece. He is smiling and leaning on a green railing. There is a bright yellow paddle board on the river behind him to the left. — Gareth Mead from Severn Trent said the river drone carried out water sampling "in a fraction of the time" compared to older monitoring methods

A new type of drone is being used to monitor Shropshire's rivers, accessing hard-to-reach locations and gathering a clearer picture of the health of waterways.

The technology, called Surfbee, has been developed in Australia, and Severn Trent Water is believed to be among the first water firms in the UK to use it.

The battery-powered drone is an inflatable, yellow paddleboard, fitted with onboard cameras, sampling equipment and temperature monitors.

Gareth Mead, river rangers manager at Severn Trent, said the technology allowed the company to measure water quality, including phosphate and nitrate levels in "a fraction of the time required by traditional monitoring methods".

The battery-powered Surfbee carries out autonomous "missions" accessing hard-to-reach locations

BBC/Charlotte Benton A bright yellow paddle board on a river. The water is dark and murky. The board has technical equipment on top which is used to monitor river health. — The battery-powered Surfbee carries out autonomous "missions" accessing hard-to-reach locations

The river drone can be programmed to pinpoint specific locations and carry out autonomous "missions", including to places that might be too dangerous for humans to access.

"We can take it to the far side of the river, we can take it under bridges which we wouldn't normally be able to get to, and if this river was flooded and we wanted to do some inspections, we could, whereas we wouldn't normally [be able]," Mead said.

"[The drone] looks small, but that's really helpful because it's easy to move around and can work in really shallow water," he added.

The device had provided "far more information than we would have ever have had before", Mead said.

The river drone is used in the Severn and other Shropshire waterways a couple of times a week

BBC/Charlotte Benton A bright yellow paddle board on a river near to the bank. A tree root is protruding from the bank, in line with the board. A stone bridge is behind with large archways cut out. — The river drone is used in the Severn and other Shropshire waterways a couple of times a week

The drone, which has a range of up to two kilometres, can also monitor flow rates, the shape of rivers and how the shape is changing.

Mead said Surfbee's camera also meant Severn Trent could identify areas that would benefit from investment as the company was spending £2bn to improve river health and cut spills from storm overflows.

He added that the technology was used a couple of times a week on Shropshire's rivers, including the Severn, and he could only see the company using it more in the future.

He said the technology was also a "conversation starter" which helped the company to engage with the public and find out information from locals that it may not have known.