C & R T launches its largest ever citizen science project to record the benefits of being beside water

[Ray T]

PRESS RELEASE

 

14 September 2020  

 

Canal & River Trust launches its largest ever citizen science project to record the benefits of being beside water

 

The Canal & River Trust has teamed up with partners, including King’s College London, and is appealing for people aged 16 or over to take part in its largest ever study of the wellbeing benefits of spending time beside water. 

 

The academic study will enable the Trust to better understand the health benefits of waterways and will help make the case to partners and funders of the importance of looking after and investing in Britain’s former industrial canals and rivers.

 

Those taking part download an app onto their smart phone.  Then, three times a day over the following two weeks, they are prompted to answer ‘in the moment’ questions about how they feel and the environment around them.  On each occasion it takes about one minute to complete the survey. 

 

Those taking part are able to access an individualised report summarising their experiences.  This could shed light on how being in different types of places, such as being close to birds, trees and water, affects their mood, as well as contributing to the wider study of the impact of different environments on mental health and wellbeing.

 

Jenny Shepherd, research and impact manager at the Canal & River Trust, comments: “Those of us that know and use the waterways feel instinctively that spending time beside water is good for our wellbeing.  With our academic partners, and with the help of the public, we’re able to collect our own bespoke data to record how people are affected by their environment and how this changes when they are on or beside water.

 

“This scale and scope of this research is a first for the Trust.  And, with the help of those taking part, we can emphatically demonstrate to decision makers and funders the importance of canals and the vital role they play, particularly in our towns and cities where green and blue space is at a premium.  We’d like as many people to take part as possible – having taken part myself, I know it literally takes a minute or so just three times a day.  It’s a fascinating area of study, both to find out about your own individual mood influencers, and for the wider social implications of the environment on wellbeing.”

 

The Canal & River Trust survey, which runs from 21 September to 15 November, is run on the Urban Mind app and partners King’s College London, J&L Gibbons and Nomad Projects.  The app is free to download on App Store & Google Play.  To take part please download and select the ‘custom’ study option and enter the password ‘water’ when prompted.  The survey is confidential and participants are not asked to provide their name, phone, email or any other information which could identify them.

 

Ends

 

For further media requests please contact:

Jonathan Ludford, national communications manager

m 07747 897783 e jonathan.ludford@canalrivertrust.org.uk 

[john6767]

I fail to see how this will have a valid population selection, if it is relying on a press release to get candidates.  Also it require a smart phone, so again not exactly a proper cross section.  It is likely to attract people who already have an interest in the waterways and will therefore score appropriately, they may as well publish the results now ?

[David Schweizer]

56 minutes ago, john6767 said:

I fail to see how this will have a valid population selection, if it is relying on a press release to get candidates.  Also it require a smart phone, so again not exactly a proper cross section.  It is likely to attract people who already have an interest in the waterways and will therefore score appropriately, they may as well publish the results now ?

I agree. To undertake a research programme which provides an academically valid result, you need to select participants from a predetermined demographically identified sample. As part of my professional training, we were taught how to construct a research programme, and select such a sample. However, this press release fails to give any indication of how, or whether, such a sample will be identified, but if it is to be selected on the basis of self referral, it has as much validity as a journalist interviewing people in a shopping centre during the daytime, and broadcating the outcome as "national opinion"

 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by David Schweizer

[Tractor]

How can it be possible for the greatest Industrial legacy of this country can be laid at the feed of an incompetent marketing outfit as this.

For any marketing device it is a must to make the identity clear to all; change the ‘signage’, at a great cost, irrespective of the demands upon budget for maintenance and repair. Clearly funded by removal of the experience which maintains the system.

Demonstrable during a ‘Pandemic’, where social distancing is paramount, encouraging ‘better by water’, and all come to the towpath so that we can get close together and share our disease.

From the CRT narrative it is clear, this ‘Better by Water’ is the mantra; the Raison Detra for the Canal and River Trust, the path to great funding from the government. I cannot get past the thought of Nero whilst Rome burns. Clearly this is the path to greater riches, in support of towpath raceways.

This is our Industrial Heritage the purpose was to transport heavy loads across the country, it was a ‘gritty’ demanding business, a life which could not have been harder for the boatmen and their families. The tradition, supported now by faithful boat people, plying the navigation in a more relaxed manner yes, but making the navigation work and supporting the way with their knowledge.

The Canal and River Trust mantra seems to fall a bit short in this light, a grave misunderstanding of the way this must be managed.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

The null hypothesis is that there is no benefit to being by water.

[zenataomm]

Ye Giddy Gods and Buckets of Flaming Blood.

Surely a spreadsheet adding up numbers of registered boats, Fisher people, Boat hirers, Towpath trudgers, Bike clubs et al would present enough hard evidence that free minded citizens choose to be there?

If C&RT really want to waste resources learning about the bleedin' obvious then perhaps they'd benefit even more from investigating the frustration levels their paying customers experience when failing infrastructure or water shortages strike again and again?

[TheBiscuits]

6 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

perhaps they'd benefit even more from investigating the frustration levels their paying customers experience when failing infrastructure or water shortages strike again and again?

 

So, you're saying #LifesBetterByWater ? 

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

22 hours ago, john6767 said:

I fail to see how this will have a valid population selection, if it is relying on a press release to get candidates.

Who says it is?

 

I've met people from Kings who work on this sort of thing (though not the people involved in this particular project) and I have every confidence that they understand the basics of a statistically valid sample...

[The Welsh Cruiser]

Life is indeed better by water. Canals are OK but the sea is much better. Everyone knows this already.

[john6767]

7 minutes ago, Richard Fairhurst said:

Who says it is?

 

I've met people from Kings who work on this sort of thing (though not the people involved in this particular project) and I have every confidence that they understand the basics of a statistically valid sample...

Then why are they putting out a press release asking people to sign up to to it.  I would assert that the people seeing the press release and coming forward are not an appropriate cross section of the population.  I would not make the same assumption as you, there are a lot of very stupid people out there, or in this case smart people who want the results to prove a specific point, ie to support CRT’s government grant extension, which is surely what this is all about.

[OldGoat]

2 hours ago, john6767 said:

Then why are they putting out a press release asking people to sign up to to it.  I would assert that the people seeing the press release and coming forward are not an appropriate cross section of the population.  I would not make the same assumption as you, there are a lot of very stupid people out there, or in this case smart people who want the results to prove a specific point, ie to support CRT’s government grant extension, which is surely what this is all about.

Shirley not, heavens above, manipulating the 'database' to make it look good?

 

Poor CRT - they can't do right in any direction.

...

[Keeping Up]

1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

CRT - they can't do right

Well that much is true! 

[Sir Nibble]

If it's possible to quantify "wellbeing" as improved by living close to water then the evidence should have been glaringly obvious for decades from coastal communities.

[Arthur Marshall]

Has anyone ever done a marketing survey (which is what this is) that they are going to use in advertising without agreeing in advance with the surveyors what the results will be? And probably writing the triumphant press release?

Luckily, now we have social media, we have lots of people who believe everything they read on it.