Our Projects
Phase 3 Projects
In this phase, we have over 30 projects and over £6 million being invested into improving our rivers. Our projects are particularly ambitious, highly scalable, and build from previous successes and lessons learned.
Our approach to planning has maximised the collaborative nature of teams, and will deliver the best projects to meet our objectives, improve the water environment and provide multiple benefits for the wider environment across the North West River Basin District.
We have successfully enabled five organisations (each with their own organisational remits and drivers) to work together in a truly collaborative way.
We have built relationships, built trust and respect, and acknowledged our differences. This has resulted in us finding innovative solutions around individual constraints and limitations, including human resources, policies, finance and procurement.
Rush Control Trials for farming, biodiversity and run-off reduction
Background The West Pennine Moors (WPM) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) includes a significant proportion (roughly 20%) of in-bye and allotment farmland. Local farmers and ecologists report that much of the in-bye farmland has deteriorated significantly in quality since 1980s, where areas have become dominated by Juncus effusus (soft…
Review current water governance model: Regional water governance study
Background Governance arrangements across river basin districts are complex, opaque and inconsistent. There is often a lack of clarity on who is responsible for different aspects of water management, which can result in separate and independent approaches to tackling problems. With the current approach, it is difficult to develop and…
Managing pollution from rural areas: Using coastal bathing water quality and multiple benefit approaches (green infrastructure and public awareness) to address upstream rural pollution – Hillylaid wetland
Background The Hillylaid site has been selected for delivery as a demonstration of a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS). It is hoped that it will demonstrate the multiple benefits of SuDS, such as the reduction of flood risk and the improvement of habitat in urban areas. It will ideally be…
Mobilising funds for multiple benefits and ecosystem services: Riparian tree planting
Background The creation of woodland, specifically riparian woodland, and associated activities is a mitigation option that has the potential to deliver multiple benefits to the environment. Woodland creation changes the local environment – the trees shade the river channel, improve the soil hydrology (increasing the water infiltration rates) and surface…
Review current water governance model: Developing a sustainable and holistic water governance model for Greater Manchester
Background Water governance in the North West River Basin District generally, and within Greater Manchester, has a complicated structure with a number of groups and partnerships taking an interest in different parts of the water cycle. Specific water management challenges such as the floods of winter 2015-16 and the prolonged…
Catchment operation
Background Several organisation have responsibilities in the operation of catchments, however resources are not always focused on understanding what is going on in the whole catchment area. Operational interventions are often delivered in isolation without a joined up approach, with attention commonly focused on point sources of pollution (rather than…
Catchment Benchmarking
Background There are considerable differences between the river catchments in the North West River Basin District. These differences include catchment geology, agricultural practices, urbanisation, population size, local government policies and much more. The differences affect catchment partnerships in different ways, and may affect their ability to deliver Water Framework Directive…
Innovative funding for Wyre natural flood management interventions
Background The Wyre catchment suffers from significant flooding which has devastating impacts on local communities. A report completed during Phases 1 and 2 identified potential natural flood management interventions in the Wyre, and these are in the process of being developed to quantify and prioritise. However funding for new flood…
Integrated Wetland Network
Background Historic habitat loss and degradation means that only a small fraction of natural wetland and woodland habitats now remain in northwest England, and networks of these key habitats are significantly fragmented, which can disrupt species dispersal and reduce the ecological function of remaining habitat patches. Providing bigger, better and…
Challenging links and integrating multiple benefits – CLIMB
Background Environment Agency projects, whether large scale flood protection schemes or smaller environmental projects, capital or revenue, are delivered by teams with a specific remit relevant to the project. Although other teams may be involved at various other stages, the project is usually designed by a single team to meet…