Detailed evidence base assembled to help understand issues and opportunities within the River Irwell Catchment

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has recently published the outputs of a study which helps Irwell Catchment Partnership members and others to understand the water quality issues within the River Irwell catchment and the opportunities to make water quality improvements.

The Evidence & Measures study brings together existing data packages, made widely available to the local catchment partnerships, alongside further data held by the Environment Agency, United Utilities and the GM Ecology Unit. Consultants were asked to review hundreds of data sets and discussed their draft findings at a stakeholder workshop in February 2017.

The findings are summarised in a series of maps for each of the streams and rivers that make up the Irwell catchment. The study will support the development of the River Irwell Catchment Management Plan, a central objective of Natural Course, by catchment hosts Groundwork MSSTT.

Irwell catchment partners will be able to use the outputs from the study, alongside the findings of a parallel Natural Flood Risk Management modelling exercise and mapping of the opportunities to use Green Infrastructure for to improve water management, to identify projects that can provide multiple benefits for the water environment.

Read the full case study here.