This presentation was given by Professor Alastair Driver, Catchment restoration specialist and ecologist, at the EPA's October 2017 Catchment Science and Management Course. You can find more information about catchment management at www.catchments.ie

1. Presentation for EPA Catchments Course
Drivers for Better Catchment
Management
Prof Alastair Driver
Catchment restoration specialist and ecologist
Twitter: @AliDriverUK

2. 1. Legislation
River Ravensbourne, London
River Quaggy, London
96% of all watercourses in the Thames catchment
have been modified by man in some way
River
Thame,
Oxon

3. 2. Innovation
R. Roding, Essex
Dr
Nigel
Holmes

4. R. Dun SSSI, Berks

5. R. Thames @ Sonning, Berks Bear Brook @ Aylesbury, Bucks
Jubilee River,
Berks/Bucks

6. 3. Policy
R. Thames @ Shifford Lock Cut, Oxon

7. R. Ravensbourne @ Cornmill Gardens, South London

8. 4. Demonstration
Pinkhill and Shrike Meadows, Oxon

9. R. Cole, Oxon/Wilts
R. Skerne, Darlington

10. 5. Opportunism
Otmoor,
Oxon
London
Wetland
Centre,
Barnes

11. 6. Charismatic megafauna
Thames
catchment
otter habitat
projects

12. Rob Strachan and friend Marine island colony, Argyll
R. Axe reintroductions, Devon Terrestrial colony, Glasgow

13. Shameless use of celebrities !

14. Graham Scholey, Biodiversity Technical Specialist, Environment Agency

15. Dave Webb, Biodiversity Team Leader, Environment Agency

16. 7. Influencing politicians
Richard Benyon and Barry Gardiner
Michael Meacher
Rory Stewart

17. 8. Evidence
- Upland restoration
Bare and restored peat on Kinder Scout
Evidence from Moors for the Future: Restoration by re-vegetation and gully blocking on
Kinder Scout has reduced peak flows from the restored areas by up to 37% and
increased storm flow lag times by up to 267%

18. - Upland restoration
Evidence from Exeter Univ monitoring on Exmoor Mires: ditch blocking has raised the
water table in the peat by 2.2 cm - equivalent to an extra 110 m3 of water stored per ha
Exmoor Mires ditch-blocking

19. - Pond creation
Belford Burn, Northumberland
Evidence from Belford Burn: a “leaky” pond holding 800 m3 of water takes roughly 8-12 hrs
to drain completely and delays the peak flow 1 km downstream by app. 15 mins

20. - Tree planting
Woodland planting on the Belford Burn Woodland shelterbelt at Pont Bren
Evidence from Pont Bren: infiltration rates are up to 60x higher under young native
woodland shelterbelts compared to adjacent heavily grazed pasture

21. - Woody debris
Woody debris installed in Belford Burn Leaving woody debris in situ at Holnicote
Evidence from a range of projects: A 21% increase in channel length combined with a 142% increase in
the frequency of large woody debris across a range of river restoration projects, resulted in a 21%
reduction in flood peak magnitude on average
High flow woody debris dam in upper Slad Valley, Glos

22. - Woody debris
Evidence from Stroud Rural SuDS project: Similar rainfall events in Nov 2012 (before NFM) and Mar 2016
(after NFM) had strongly contrasting impacts. Before NFM the flood peak was app. 1.8M at the Slad Rd
flow gauge and after NFM it was 0.4M

23. - European Beaver reintroduction
Evidence from Exeter University Beaver monitoring at Boldventure: During storms events, on average
each litre of surface water leaving the 3 ha Boldventure Beaver site has 4x less sediment, 6x less nitrate
and 8x less phosphorus than the water entering the site from agricultural land upstream.
Beaver release
enclosure,
Boldventure,
Devon
Beaver release R. Otter, Devon Beaver activity, R. Danube, Austria

24. - Rural river restoration
Evidence from the Tweed: The Salmon fishery in the Tweed catchment contributes over
£18M to the local economy and supports over 500 jobs
Whit Beck restoration in Cumbria
Moses Weir
removal,
R. Irwell

25. Evidence from National Ecosystem Assessment: The value of natural pollination to
UK agriculture is estimated at app. £1Bn per annum.
- Floodplain restoration

26. - Urban river restoration
Restoration of the
R. Medlock at
Clayton Vale LNR,
Manchester
Evidence from R. Ravensbourne: Visitors to Ladywell Fields urban greenspace in South
London increased by >250% after restoration of the River Ravensbourne through the park

27. - Urban wetland creation
Evidence from the R. Quaggy: creation of wetlands through Sutcliffe Park in South London
created 85,000 cubic metres of flood storage and significantly reduced the flood risk to 600
properties
River Quaggy at Sutcliffe Park, South London,
before and after flood alleviation work

28. - SuDS
Green roof, London
Surface water collection pond, Dunfermline
Evidence from Environment Agency Introduction to SUDS: On average, urbanisation
without SUDS trebles the rate of run-off during storm events
Cheltenham Rain Gardens

29. - Coastal realignment
Steart, Severn Estuary
Evidence from EA Ecosystem Services Case Studies report: 400 ha Alkborough Flats managed
realignment scheme cost app. £10M and provided £12M of storm protection to land and property.
Other ecosystems services benefits = app. £1M p.a.
Alkborough Flats, Humber Estuary
Medmerry, Sussex

30. - Putting it all together
Grip-blocking and tree planting
High level timber dams
Evidence from Pickering Beck, East Yorks: NFM measures reduced peak flows by 15-20% in
Dec 15, prevented flooding that would otherwise have occurred to a small number of
properties in Pickering
Flood storage area
Timber barriers across floodplain

31. - Putting it all together
Re-wetting upstream bog Leaving woody debris in situ
Evidence from Holnicote estate – Somerset: £160K NFM work reduced flood peak by 10%
and prevented £30M of assets (90 properties) from flooding during a 1 in 25+ year flood
event on Xmas Eve 2013.
Downstream
woody debris
combined with
floodplain
attenuation

32. 9. Inspiration

33. Driver’s Drivers for the Future
• Quantitative targets for biodiversity and ecosystem services in loing term
government plans (eg 25 Year Environment Plan in UK)
• Dedicated government funding for natural flood management
• Agri-environment funding focussed strongly on managing land for
multiple societal benefits – not just for food and/or biodiversity
• Stronger alliances forged by environmental NGOs (building on the Wildlife
Link model) in order to influence government more effectively
• Better presentation and dissemination of evidence in user-friendly
formats by academic institutions – building on the example set by Exeter
University
• Strong powers for government agencies to control diffuse pollution from
agriculture and enforce sustainable soil management

34. Soils – “the elephant in the room”
Evidence from Defra Soil Strategy for England 2009: The total cost to society of trying to remove it
from rivers and lakes is app. £45M (cost to farmers, water treatment and dredging costs).

35. Evidence from Defra Soil Strategy for England 2009: 2.2 million tonnes of silt is lost
from the land each year in the UK.

36. 10. The love of a good family !
Temburong River, Borneo
Brahmaputra River, Assam
Kieran, Liam and Daniel

37. Thankyou for your attention
Bruce Pearson’s Vision for Ouse Fen
“Today’s problems cannot be solved if we continue to think the way we did
when we created them” – Albert Einstein