Digital photographs are a simple, quick and cheap way of monitoring river habitat. A photographic record of an angling association’s water provides a detailed baseline of what the river was like when the pictures were taken. Retaking the pictures in the future allows changes in river habitat to be assessed. Photographs should be taken from permanent features, where possible, so that they can be retaken from the exact same position in the future even if other features have changed.

Active bankside erosion, like this collapsing bankside on the Tweed at Walkerburn, can be monitored using photographs provided you are fairly sure that you will be able to retake the photograph from the exact same position in the future. This particular photograph was taken from the main road bridge at Walkerburn.