The Moselle Brook is in North London and flows through the Haringey borough as a tributary of the River Lea. Historically in the 19th century, the Moselle Brook faced challenges of pollution and since has been culverted along significant stretches of the river to protect public health. More recently, the Haringey Rivers Forum (HRF) formed, as a subsidiary organization of the Haringey Residents Association and Haringey Friends of Parks Forum, due to a realization that the challenges of the past do not reflect the present. They seek to make Haringey more sustainable with a goal of de-culverting of sections of the Moselle Brook and need to determine the current water quality and adequate policies and standards for urban watercourses that can ultimately be used for communication with the local government and developers. A team of University College London (UCL) MSc Environmental Systems Engineering (ESE) students will work to deliver these needs by providing data on water quality across six sites on the Moselle and suggesting evidence-based recommendations for appropriate policy measures.
This research was supported by the University College London Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering and MSc Environmental Systems Engineering program. We thank our partner, the Haringey River Forum, and respective volunteers for their diligent collection of water samples bi-weekly across several locations on the Moselle Brook. Additionally, we thank John Miles, President of the Haringey Rivers Forum for his coordination of all volunteers and sampling sites and for his time collecting samples and leading site visits for the team. Finally, we are very grateful for the continued support and guidance of Dr. Lena Ciric in her supervision of this project.