Background: The amount of data available for catchment planning and decision making has decreased, therefore third-party data is now more essential than ever.  A pilot conducted in catchments using a collaborative local evidence approach to monitoring found that some catchment partnerships lacked the technical capacity to plan and deliver the…

Background: The Greater Manchester Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) pilot was produced by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Natural England in 2021 to identify and prioritise a network of habitats and the measures necessary to improve them.  The LNRS provides a framework to build business cases that help to…

Background: Tools and data are used by Catchment Partnerships to inform river basin planning and aid decision making.  However, uptake is often limited by the capacity of the Catchment Host, and (due to funding) the capacity of the partnership to identify and evaluate new and emerging tools, monitor developments to…

Background: Catchment partnerships are a network of local organisations and communities working together to improve the water environment for people and wildlife (through delivery of Water Framework Directive (WFD) outcomes).  Each partnership focuses on a specific catchment. The North West River Basin District (NWRBD) is a diverse area made up…

Background: Several organisations have responsibilities in the operation of catchments, however resources are not always focused on understanding what is going on in the whole catchment area.  Activity is often delivered in isolation and without a joined-up approach, meaning interventions are not targeted in the right areas for the greatest…

Background: Catchment management generally result in activity associated with water quality.  Water quantity (flood and flood risk) is managed by several organisations, and from a long-term strategic perspective via the water industry Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMP). There has been some progress in developing long-term strategic plans and bringing…

Background: The Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) teams develop their 6-year programme to improve flood protection for communities identified as being at risk from flooding.  These schemes can provide opportunities to deliver environmental outcomes such as The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations 2017 (WER) measures and…

Background: Connecting habitat and aiding nature recovery tools (such as nature recovery networks (NRN), local nature recovery strategies (LNRS), biodiversity net gain (BNG)) are central to environmental policies.  These tools often have a broad focus looking at opportunities for nature recovery across habitats and cover a large spatial scale.  Opportunities…

Background: Fresh Water Pearl Mussels (FWPM) require close to pristine conditions in terms of water quality, flow and habitat – equivalent to ‘high ecological status’ under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). There are several rivers nationwide that hold small numbers of FWPM, however almost all populations have declined dramatically in…

Background: Wetland and woodland habitats across the North West River Basin District (NWRBD) are fragmented due to both historic and current land use pressures.  Habitat degradation, agricultural intensification, industrialisation and urbanisation all affect water bodies by reducing their resilience to diffuse water pollution, eutrophication and climate change.  This in turn…