Our Active Projects
Phase 4 projects
Natural Course is now in its fourth and final phase of work, and will be delivering 18 exciting and ambitious projects.
We are set to deliver yet more innovative work and further embed the lessons learned across all organisations, all with a view to creating more sustainable ways of working that puts us in a better place to achieve bigger, better and longer-term improvements for the water environment.
Innovative financing: using a natural capital approach to generate investment
Background: A finance mechanism is needed to meet the ambitions of the North West River Basin District Management Plan – money remains a big barrier to delivering change at the scale and pace required. There is now an urgent need to find new finance models to drive investment into natural…
Wider engagement across Greater Manchester on how to embed a natural capital approach
Background: We need to ensure that our natural capital can support increased urbanisation and enhances quality of life. This means the value of nature and the benefits it provides (ecosystem services) should be fully accounted for in decision making and policy priorities. Delivering a natural capital approach has been a…
Enabling citizen science
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…
Greater Manchester River Ecology Project
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…
Use of tools and data
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…
Urban Diffuse Pollution
Background: Urban diffuse pollution is recognised as the ‘reason for not achieving good status’ in 10% of waterbodies in the North West River Basin District (NWRBD). Opportunities to address it are often restricted by the infrastructure of the urban built environment and the fragmented responsibility for tackling sources of pollution…
Understanding the sources contributing to micro plastic contamination of rivers in Greater Manchester
Background: Micro plastics are known to cause issues to marine life and their accumulation in the oceans is an issue of growing international concern. Research in Greater Manchester, published in 2018, highlighted that micro-plastic contamination of rivers is a significant contributor to the build-up in our oceans as well as…
Improving urban planning’s contribution to River Basin Management Plan delivery
Background: The planning and development process offers an opportunity to deliver EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives and to contribute towards the improvement of urban waterbodies across the North West River Basin District (NWRBD). However, in many cases these opportunities are not taken during the development process. Developments take place,…
Macro plastics in the North West River Basin District
Background: Plastic pollution is found around the world. The presence of plastic in rivers and coastal waters has a negative impact on habitats, wildlife and humans. With the production and consumption of plastic set to continue, urgent action is now required. Large scale, multi-faceted and multi-sector approaches are essential to…
Mobilising water industry investment
Background: Environmental issues that affect the North West River Basin District are complex and interlinked, however these issues are traditionally addressed on an individual basis. Planning processes often have a narrow focus, that look to address a small part of the problem (rather than thinking about the problem as a…