Our collaboration with the SMIRES COST project has provided new data on the high spatial variability in the state of temporary streams in Europe.
The CrowdWater app was selected for collecting observations of flow states of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams within the SMIRES COST project (Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers & Ephemeral Streams). This EU-wide citizen science network initiative was launched in April 2019 to fill gaps in knowledge of the dynamics of intermittent streams. The goal was to collect datasets (i) to identify intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams at the European scale and (ii) to investigate the dynamics of flow intermittence by repeating field observations along selected intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams at least once each month, and if possible at multiple locations along the streams. In the eight months of this initiative, more than 3500 observations in ~500 river reaches across 15 countries were reported. This study provides evidence of high spatial variability, in the state of the temporary streams even for locations that are close to each other. The initial results of this initiative were presented at the SMIRES meeting in Tirana in February 2020. More results will be presented during the HS2.1.8 session « Zero flow: hydrology and biogeochemistry of intermittent and ephemeral streams » of the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in May 2020.
