Many chemical reactions are pH dependent and for electrochemical reactions taking place at an electrode surface, changes in the near surface pH can be decisive for their outcome. Near surface pH changes have successfully been utilised for formation of oxide films and to control the shape and morphology of the deposit. The mechanistic insight into such processes is hampered by the difficulty to measure the local pH in situ. In the present paper the rotating ring disc electrode (RRDE) configuration is used to measure the near surface pH for two model reactions, hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction. Iridium oxide is electrodeposited on the titanium ring and used as the pH sensing material. At low current densities and therefore low hydroxide ion concentrations, the pH response is rather slow, limiting the applicability of potentiodynamic sweep experiments under such conditions. At higher current densities a linear relationship between the logarithm of the current and pH is found. Tracking of small pH changes can be made by step experiments where the response is measured as a function of time and steady state conditions can be assured. Key issues for successful use of the RRDE configuration with iridium oxide as the pH sensing material are pre-conditioning of the ring electrode to obtain well defined redox properties of the film and choice of ring substrate onto which the iridium oxide is deposited. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.