This is a quick step-by-step guide to entering a Westcountry CSI survey on Cartographer. It is intended as a supplement to the Westcountry CSI Volunteer Material developed by Westcountry Rivers Trust.

Start by going to the Cartographer home page at https://cartographer.io and clicking Log In:

Enter your email address and password and log in to get to your home page. See

Click Westcountry CSI under Surveys in the left-hand sidebar:

You will end up on the Survey List page that lists the recent Westcountry CSI surveys completed by yourself and other volunteers:

You can add a new survey in one of two ways, depending on whether you’re starting at a new site or revisiting an existing one:

Click Add a survey in the top right of the survey list page to open a blank survey form:

If you are recording data for a site you’ve visited before, you can get off to a quick start by copying and editing one of your previous survey forms.

Type into the search field on the survey list to find a previous survey. You can search by catchment or river name (e.g. “Dart”), site name (e.g. “Waitrose Car Park”), or surveyor name (e.g. ”Alice Smith”):

When you find the survey you’re looking for, click the search result to see the relevant survey form:

Click the Duplicate button at the top of the page to create a fresh copy of the survey form, ready for you to fill in:

Cartographer will automatically blank out some fields on the duplicated form (e.g. recent rainfall, temperature) while leaving others (e.g. site name, location on the map) filled in. This partially completed form should give you a head start when recording your data.

In the top section of the form, record the name and location of your survey site, the date/time of your visit, and the rainfall on the day.

Many fields on the Westcountry CSI form are required but start out blank. They are outlined in red with a red error message beneath them telling you what to do to fix them (e.g. “You must specify a value”). Once you address the error messages they disappear:

You can read more about red errors in the our general

You can enter the survey location by clicking on the map or by typing in a 10-digit National Grid Reference or GPS location. You can read more about selecting locations in our page of

Take up to four photographs to accompany your survey data. One photograph should be taken from the same place on each visit and capture some part of the waterbody and surroundings.

Upload a photograph by clicking the “Upload” button. A dialog box will appear asking you to select a file from your computer. Select your photograph and click “OK” or “Open” (depending on which browser and operating system you are using):

Be sure to wait for the green “tick” icon, indicating that your photograph is fully uploaded, before continuing:

(Example photograph Copyright 2023 by Westcountry CSI volunteer Chrissy9898.)

Most of this section is multiple choice. Some questions only allow one answer, while others allow you to select multiple. See the labels for each question for details:

If you select “Other” at any point, Cartographer will ask you to enter a description in the text field below. Otherwise please leave these text fields blank:

Note that the prompt to enter a description appears in blue not red. Blue messages are called hints. They prompt you to take an action but they don’t prevent you submitting the form if you choose not to. As such, they can be ignored (although we encourage you not to ignore them).

You can read more about blue hints and red errors in the our general

This is another multiple-choice section, similar to General Ecosystem Observations above.

This section requires you to record four water quality readings by collecting and analysing a water sample using a test kit:

If you have been asked to complete a “Dry Run”, you may not have your test kit with you. Simply click the box for “Dry Run” and skip the remainder of this section of the form. For more information, check the section on Dry Runs in the Westcountry CSI Volunteer Manual:

The units are displayed on the right hand side of each field. For example, Total Dissolved Solids is measured in parts per million (ppm) whereas Phosphate (PO4) is measured in parts per billion (ppb):

Secchi tubes only give readable measurements in the range 12-240 NTU. If your measurement is outside of this range, enter “<12” or “>240” as appropriate.

Please leave this section blank unless a Westcountry CSI coordinator has specifically asked you to complete it:

Use this optional field to record anything else that is relevant to the survey but that doesn’t fit into the other fields. Examples include additional observations, special or extenuating circumstances, and the presence of additional surveyors:

When you have finished entering your data, click Save in the top right of the page. You will see a popup containing two options:

Choose Complete if the survey form is complete and you’d like to submit it for review by the Westcountry CSI team. Choose Draft if you aren’t finished yet but you need to step away from your computer for a moment. See