Mini Secchi water observation app

What Mini Secchi measures

The app guides a participant through observations with a physical Mini Secchi disk. The method records water clarity and colour, including colour comparison using the Forel–Ule scale, together with the context required by the project protocol.

Mini Secchi is not a general pollution detector and does not make a phone alone a professional water-quality instrument. What the data can support depends on the protocol, equipment, quality controls and research question.

Part of a complete field workflow

• Guided observations
  Step-by-step field instructions help participants follow the agreed method.
• Mobile and web access
  iOS, Android and a browser version support different field and institutional settings.
• Observation context
  Location and project metadata can travel with the measured colour and clarity values.
• Research access
  Data handling, extracts and integrations are defined for the deployment rather than assumed from a generic claim.

Public research evidence

The 2025 paper “An innovation of two established methods for monitoring water colour and clarity” describes the mini- and midi-Secchi participatory-science approach. The project emerged from Horizon 2020 MONOCLE.

Use Mini Secchi

• Mini Secchi for iOS
• Mini Secchi for Android
• Mini Secchi web app
• Observation map
• Physical disk information from Brewtek

Actively maintained

Mini Secchi is actively maintained by Pocket Science. The work was sponsored by the University of Exeter and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Support and research deployments

For support, include the platform, app version, device, disk type and the step at which the issue occurs. Institutions planning a deployment can discuss participant guidance, data access, self-hosted services, integrations and multi-year support with Pocket Science.