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Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationship between human development and the capacity challenges to meet SDG 6.3.2 monitoring requirements. This negative relationship increases along the course of the monitoring process, from defining the enabling environment, choosing parameters for the collection of field data, to the analytics and analysis of five commonly used parameters (DO, EC, pH, TP and TN). Our assessment can be used to help practitioners improve technical capacity development activities and to identify and target investment in capacity development for monitoring. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10661-020-8224-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Correct spinal immobilization is key to reducing the potential for further injury to the spinal cord. Effective management of actual injuries, or the potential for injury, has led to a protracted debate on which piece of equipment is fully fit for purpose. For the past 20 years, the UK ambulance service has been regularly using the rescue board (colloquially known as the ‘spinal board’) to immobilize patients. This paper seeks to review the current equipment and debate their appropriate applications.