Environmental
Supporting Conditions for Scottish Wetlands – Phase 1
WFD35
September 2009
INTRODUCTION
Project Brief
This project is Phase 1 of what is intended to be a 4-year project. The
first phase aims to ascertain the hydro-ecological functioning of a
wide range of wetland types in 3 Scottish catchments using measurements
of ground and surface water quantity and quality.
Scope of Work
Three Scottish catchments were chosen by the steering group prior to
the starting of the project on basis of
- spread across Scotland’s climate and topography
- existence of a wide range of wetlands within a small proximity
- at least 2 should contain species rich flower meadows
- availability of groundwater observation boreholes (quality /
quantity).
SEPA/ SNH staff selected the vegetation locations within the catchments
in September 2008, and marked sample locations locally and provided GPS
and photo records of location.
The scope of works varied from the original tender specification as
EnviroCentre also provided an alternative specification in addition to
the original requested, on the basis that it could be provided within
the guide budget. This was subsequently amended further to allow
additional equipment to be included.
The revised scope of works was predominantly the supply and
installation of
equipment. The main changes to the original scope were:
- the number of sites to be monitored reduced from 5
to 3
- the number of groundwater level loggers reduced
from 50 to 28; and
- the automatic weather stations were replaced with
rain gauges.
The summary of the revised scope comprised of the following:
- a. install one automated tipping bucket rain gauge per
catchment.
- b. record per vegetation location (20 locations per catchment)
- soil/drift geology (hand auguring to hard
rock/
3m deep) (once only) profile observations;
- solid geology (once only, from geology
map/ base
of drift augur hole);
- soil chemistry and physics (nutrients +
alkalinity in rooting zone, below rooting zone, in pore-water);
- ground water table (relative to soil
surface and
to fixed datum point) in shallow piezometers (min of 40mm ID; with
external filter material) to be supplied and installed by the
contractor;
- provide a manual dipmeter to record
monthly
manual readings between contractors visits and after project close;
- water table in river (automated,
continuous
using OTT mini vented datalogger); and
- water quality in river
- Install a total of 28 piezometers to record
continuous (1hrly intervals using OTT Orpheus mini vented pressure
loggers), and also include manual dip
readings at
the other locations per catchment at installation and QA site visits.
- Water table observations should be:
- quality assured and compensated
for
change in air pressure etc. in spreadsheet form;
- expressed relative to surface level and OD;
- expressed as time series in plots per
catchment
and per vegetation group across the catchments where applicable; and
- expressed as plots on cross sections of
the
landscape (with other observation points).
- The working of all automated sampling
equipment
(rain gauges and water level recorders) will be subject to a quality
assurance check prior to hand over of equipment.
- Sediment mats to be provided and installed
at two
catchments.
- A total of 30 soil samples and 30 water
samples
to be collected from across the three catchments and analysed. The
following will be provided for each sample location:
- location of sample point and piezometer /
(DGPS
with submetre accuracy);
- elevation of soil level, top of piezometer
(less
than 5cm accuracy) and height of top of piezometer above the soil level
(0.5cm accuracy); and
- nearest distance to water course (0.5m
accuracy).
- All chemical and physical analysis of soil, water
and
vegetation samples should be analysed to appropriate BS standards as
advised by SEPA.
- Soil samples should be analysed for:
- soil type: general field observation;
- bulk density: ISO 11272 or equivalent;
- water content: ISO 11465 or equivalent;
- organic C content: via C/N elemental
analyser
(ISO 13878 or equivalent);
- grain size analysis: Either laser
granulometry or
wet sieve method (ISO/TS 17892);
- extractable P: ISO 11263 or equivalent; and
- total N: see iv.
- Water samples (soil water and surface water)
should be
analysed (British Standard 6068) for:
- Ca/Mg/Na concentration;
- N and P species (total N, nitrate/
ammonium),
Ortho-P and total P; and
- Fe species.
- The contractor will provide for each catchment:
- top view map showing water sampling
locations in
a GIS format that is suitable for SEPA (ArcGIS); preferable as 3d
visualisation; and
- cross section maps showing geology/drift,
soil
sampling locations and soil profiling observations
At the end of the project the ownership of the following equipment will
be handed over to SEPA:
- in-situ, working automated sampling
equipment and
piezometers, inclusive of equipment and software to read-out the stored
information from the automated sampling equipment; and
- one manual dipmeter per catchment.
Copies of this report are available from the Foundation, in electronic
format on CDRom at £20.00 + VAT or hard copy at £50.00, less 20% to FWR
members.
N.B. The report is available for download from the SNIFFER Website