Property:Project summary
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
This is a property of type Text.
B
Potential for realignment/restoration/enhancement works to the river and floodplain. Potential for establishment of the marginal/bankside habitat by reducing shading from excessive tree cover and regrading the banks and removing the fencing along the river. This would improve the ecological value of river and river corridor, visibility of the river and access to the river. There is also the potential for wetland creation with the park, and habitat for bats in the culvert to the north of the park. Reconnect river to it’s floodplain; improve water quality by introducing riparian vegetation and establishing currently nonexistent bankside and emergent habitats; provide access to nature and improve amenity value of the park. +
H
Potential for river floodplain restoration or bank reprofiling Currently playing field/sports pitches and open grass. +
B
Potential for river floodplain restoration/wetland creation. Watercourse which enters the Grand Union Canal, passing through Boston Manor Park. +
S
Potential for toe board removal from Edgware hospital site to the Welsh Harp. Potential for bank reprofiling on Silk Stream. Environmental enhancements to follow replacement of toe-boarding through Silkstream Park. +
W
Potential for toe-board removal; habitat management to encourage marginal vegetation and in-stream habitats; regrading/realignment of the channel to improve in channel processes and aquatic margins. Improve ecological value of the Beverley Brook through the site; provide improved public access, recreational and educational opportunities. +
H
Potential restoration of the Navigation (yet to be agreed with BW) and potential restoration (full or partial) of the Lee New Cut. Development of the land in-between these water bodies, mitigation/enhancement for ecological reasons associated with the development, resulting in improved amenity and aesthetics. +
Potential to create wetland area also functioning as flood alleviation in an area next to the navigation which overtops the bank. +
E
Potential to slow the flow into the Hogsmill STW. This would improve recreational amenity, fisheries and biodiversity. It would also improve sustainable flood risk management. A section of the Hogsmill that is a straight channel through an area of amenity grassland. +
P
Primary objectives - Manage flood risk; improve upstream habitat; manage water level; reduce backwater effect<br>Secondary objectives - Improve fish passage; reprofile reach; narrow watercourse; raise natural bed level; naturalise bank side; marginal ecology improvement; in-stream diversity increase and naturalise flow regime Biodiversity enhancement and weir removal project. +
Primary objectives - Reprofile reach, improve instream diversity, naturalise the flow regime, introduce a pool-riffle sequence and reduce the backwater effect. Secondary objectives include to narrow the river channel, manage flood risk, improve water quality, introduce gravels and woody debris, improve fish stocks and passage for fish and eel. Complete removal of a weir on Plough Lane, and enhancement works. +
W
Primary objectives: Remove the weir to reduce the backwater effect and naturalise the flow regime, to improve passage and to enhance the river (pool-riffle sequence, gravels and new spawning habitats introduced). Secondary objectives included to manage sediment transport and provide flood risk benefits. Complete removal of a structure in the middle reach of the River Wandle +
G
Prior to 2000 1.7km of flood defences were replaced and refurbished on the eastern side of the Greenwich Peninsula. A further 700m is proposed on the western frontage.
* Greenwich Peninsula is a 190 acre development site and is therefore London’s largest regeneration scheme.
* The mixed use development consists of 10,000 new homes, 3.5 million square feet of office space – a brand new business district for London, with over 150 shops and restaurants.
* The site is being developed in phases/plots in line with the overall masterplan produced by Terry Farrell and Partners.
* Many of the features incorporated at this site are being used as good practice with other developers across London.
* A large amount of green roofs and other SUDS were agreed as part of the outline planning permission. These are part of the landscape, ecology and surface water management plans. +
R
Prior to the restoration works, the River Rhee was a typical example of a degraded lowland agricultural river. The river, a base fed brook, had become lost in its channel and was suffering severe siltation problems. Also, the populations of wild brown trout had been in a state of decline.
The restoration project aimed to increase velocities to allow scour and maintain a central, silt-free channel, diversifying the habitat whilst ensuring there was no increase in flood risk. This was achieved through re-grading of the bank to create a shelf as an aquatic plant habitat and a spawning area for a number of fish species. The shelf also narrowed the channel, increasing flow and clearing silt. Stretches of the river were also re-meandered to further diversify flow and, on existing bends, wetlands were created on the inside bend to provide a new habitat. Finally, a backwater was created to provide fish with a refuge during high flows, and habitat for fish fry and invertebrates. +
Project "Restoration of habitats in Pärnu river" is carried out in 2015-2023 by the Environment Agency of Estonia. This project is objected to restore habitats in Pärnu river and river basin. One of project main activity is to remove Sindi Dam, which blocks the fish migration 14 km from the sea. Excisting fishpass does not work, so almost 7000 sq km of river is blocked for the fish coming from the sea. +
L
Project Objectives
* To reduce fine sediment inputs caused by bank erosion.
* Trap mobile fine sediments already in the river.
* To improve conveyance during higher flows and reduce flood risk.
* To improve in-stream habitats and the bed structure to benefit fish and invertebrates, including white-clawed crayfish.
The Enhancement Scheme
The enhancement scheme was completed in two phases. A short section downstream of Great Ponton Mill was completed in February 2013 and the second, the continuation downstream to Whalebone Lane, Little Ponton, was completed in mid-August 2014. Prior to the enhancement work the in-river habitat was in generally good condition, however opportunities were identified to provide additional cover and food supply for a range of aquatic organisms together with measures to modify the flow to improve the structure of the riverbed and reduce the deposition of fine sediment.
The works consisted of brushwood mattress installation, Hinged Trees, Log Flow Deflectors and Vanes, improved stock fencing and ford refurbishment. +
R
Restoration and conservation of riparian forests - habitats of European conservation importance on the territory of Dimitrovgrad municipality +
Project Objectives are the following:
1. Recovery and long-term conservation of habitats and species of European conservation importance in protected area "Reka Maritsa";
2. The restoration of habitat types 92A0, 91F0 and 92 D0; protected in protected area "Reka Maritsa;
3. Reducing the negative impact and spread of invasive and introduction species.
4. Improvement of habitats and populations of fish species protected in the protected area.
5. Improvement of the populations of hollow-nesting species of European and national conservation importance.
6. Raising public awareness and general environmental awareness related to the environment and species for protection. +
L
Project description:
The ECORICE project has been conceived to preserve the natural species and areas of the Vercelli rice field plain, in particular the habitats threatened by monoculture practice. The rice agro ecosystem in the Vercelli plain develops for most of its surface on private areas not subject to specific conservation or environmental management, so the survival of its natural components, as well as of the animal and plant species depending on them, is often influenced by the decisions of individual owners. With this objective the ECORICE project gave significant space to participatory processes, activating a social network, and it realized dissemination products addressed to the different local managers, users and policy makers alongside the direct conservation actions of the rice agro environment. The area involved by the ECORICE project’s activities is located in the Western part of the Po Valley and includes 6 Natura 2000 sites: “Fiume Po - tratto vercellese e alessandrino” (SPA IT 1 180028), “Bosco della Partecipanza di Trino” (SCI/SPA IT 1 12002), “Paludi di San Genuario e San Silvestro (SCI IT 1 12007 e SPA IT 1 120029), “Isolotto del Ritano” (SPA IT 1 120013) and “Risaie Vercellesi” (SPA IT 1 120021). Each of these sites, established by the European Commission, represents a characteristic section of the rice agroecosystem and its landscape, such as the riverine environment of plain, the oak-hornbeam forests, the relicts of alluvial forest and the wetlands. The SPA “Risaie Vercellesi” is the only one among the referred sites not belonging to the system of the regional protected areas, and is mainly of private property; moreover 95% of its surface is cultivated with rice. This area is of great importance at national and European level for the elevated presence of aquatic birdlife attracted by the rice fields flooded in spring and summer. The project was aimed at conserving and improving the forest areas and ecological corridors of the riparian environment; identifying and realizing new natural areas serving as connection points in the ecological network (stepping stones); evaluating forest management techniques capable to improve the habitats of heronries of Ardeidae and other species (Botaurus stellaris, Circus aeruginosus, Ixobrycus minutus, Egretta garzetta and Nycticorax) in the low plain of Vercelli, and adopting an integrated action plan for environmental and agricultural management based on participatory methods.
Project phases:
Along the Vercelli section of the Po river the survival of habitats and species dependent on this primary ecological corridor is closely linked with the maintenance of its functionality, for which reason the project has identified some areas (habitat 91F0 D.H.*1) suitable for the restoration of such connections on a surface of 12,4 ha with the purchase of lands and reconstitution of the original riparian vegetation. In the SCI “Palude di San Genuario” 1 ha of cultivated rice paddy has been purchased with the aim of reconstructing edges of full grown woods, low woods and an heliophile belt of woods (habitat 9160, D.H.). The “Partecipanza di Trino” forest is the green lung of the lower Vercelli plain, with 500 hectares of oak-hornbeam and alluvial forests preserved during centuries of strict forest management. The forest was subject to restoration of some ecotonal areas (91E0* e 9160) by conversion of some rice fields in wood plantations, forest thickening and requalification of degraded wooded surfaces. The plant biodiversity of the area “Isolotto del Ritano” has been valorized through delimitation of the xeric grasslands and riparian willows (3240 D.H.) by intervening on the areas of major spread of some invasive alien species (Heaven-tree, Black locust) and rebuilding local arboreal and shrubby strips of local essences (91 EO, priority and 9160 D.H). Different areas were identified within the “Partecipanza di Trino” forest and the SPA “Paludi di San Genuario e San Silvestro” as well as within the SPA “RisaieVercellesi”, where requalification actions have been carried out and some stepping stones have been created in the rice agroecosystem of Vercelli, because the natural elements that diversify these areas, such as artificial springs hedges, tree rows and small wooded patches, had already almost gone. It was the first time that decisions relating to the restoration of these environments and their realization have been taken and carried out jointly with the farm owners.
Within the “San Genuario” marsh and the “Partecipanza di Trino” forest some forest management techniques have been applied to maintain optimal the Ardeidae nesting sites , while in the Montarolo heronry a complex experimental technique has been put in place consisting in a gradual coppicing of the black locust woods in order to favour the renovation of young plants in the woodland, as they are preferred by the most sensitive species of Ardeidae, such as night heron, little egret, squacco heron.
S
Project team
* Martin Richardson, PhD student RHUL & NHM.
* Therese Tobin, Old Chiswick Protection Society, OCPS.
* Thames21.
* Dr. Chris Vane, British Geological Survey.
* Dr. Jamie Standing, Imperial College, University of London.
* Heena Sheth, MSc. student Imperial College University of London.
Site Designations
Old Chiswick Conservation Area, London Borough of Hounslow, 1969;
Metropolitan Green Belt;
Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, Greater London Authority (GLA),1990;
Local Nature Reserve, London Borough of Hounslow, 1993;
London Basin Natural Area, 1997;
Strategic Nature Conservation Site, London Borough of Hounslow,1999;
Selection of Reports
1990 Chiswick Eyot, The London Ecology Unit;
1996 The Chinese mitten crab in the Thames Catchment, Environment Agency, Thomas and Yeomans;
1998 Effects of burrowing Chinese mitten Crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) on the Thames Tideway Dutton & Conroy, Environment Agency;
1999 Erosion assessment using flags, BSc. Dissertation, University of Westminster;
1999 MSc. Thesis: Burrow distribution of the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) at Syon park flood meadow (SSSI), Zucco, UCL;
2000 Chiswick Eyot, River Thames, London Borough of Hounslow. A foreshore earthwork survey, Museum of London Archaeology;
2000 Chiswick Eyot Management plan 2001-2005, London Borough of Hounslow;
2002 Survey of Chiswick Eyot,Thames explorer trust;
2011 Chiswick Eyot Habitat Management Plan,Thames21;
2013 Chiswick Eyot Local Nature Reserve report, Ecology Department, Carillion integrated Services
Description
Island habitat in the Thames is rare and several, as with the lost rivers of the Thames catchment, have been degraded over time, all are now threatened by rising sea-levels. Indeed at one point there may have been more, small eyots which have now disappeared. Chiswick Eyot is a historically important island close by Chiswick Mall. What was, before the introduction of plastics, an economically important willow holt of several hundred trees has been maintained since the middle ages. Husbandry has lapsed at times with the island showing periods of low growth particularly when the area became industrialised with heavy barge traffic, gravel pits at Barnes and the Thonycroft shipyard at Chiswick for example. Later, a survey by Dr Oliver Natelson conducted in 2002 found 554 living and 319 dead trees. However, the OCPS has managed and funded annual pollarding of the willows since the 1950's. A complete biological survey funded by Defra, Thames Water and the OCPS, was carried out by Brian Wurzell and others for the Thames Explorer Trust in 2001-2002 as a follow-up to a previous survey by the London Ecology Unit in 1990.
Erosion first became a concern in the mid-1940's when it was realised that the surface area had declined by nearly 40%. Both ends of the island had receded and overall length decreased by nearly '100 yds.' Restoration work has continued since that time and several ecological studies have been conducted by the Environment Agency, Hounslow Council, and the Thames Explorer Trust. We are working with an ‘ecosystem’ of partners to address the problem of maintaining the island employing best practice techniques. Restoration work is being conducted by Thames21 and a variety of survey techniques are being used to understand processes affecting the island. An initial 3D scan of almost the entire eyot was conducted in 2016 in association with the University of Leicester and Leica Geosystems. The scan was repeated in 2017. Analysis of the data will provide greater understanding of the processes at work and enable visualisation of any changes occurring as well as determination of the rate of erosion. In addition, several hundred digital photographs were taken of areas of particular interest over a 3-year period to provide a visual record, these will also be used to develop point clouds as supplementary data.
Bi-monthly conventional topographic surveys of part of one bank were undertaken by MoLA in 1999 and 2000 allowing for decadal scale assessment of the erosion. High resolution aerial photographs and digitized historical Ordnance Survey maps are available dating back to at least the 1930s and these will be used to assess changes in surface area and any migration of the banks generally. We have engaged with the local community and formed partnerships with other commercial, charitable, academic and volunteer organisations including Thames21, the River Restoration Centre, Leica Geosystems, DHI, MoLA, and Royal Holloway University of London.
N
Promoted by the RSPB and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency with the aim of creating important habitats for wildlife at Meddat, while also reducing maintenance requirements for the existing and failing defences.
This was the first planned realignment in Scotland and involved making two 20m-wide breaches in existing sea defences to allow the top of the tide to flood a 25ha field. This field was the last area of Nigg Bay to be land claimed (in the 1950s) and a secondary sea wall was already in place; this needed repairing and raising to a 1 in 50 year standard in advance of tidal inundation. The soils adjacent to the wall were suitable for use to build up the wall where required (on average by 10-20cm, over a length of 860m). The site was prepared by culverting drains which linked to adjacent fields, topping and grazing to reduce the amount of terrestrial vegetation, and the removal of trees. No internal earthworks were needed to create a creek system as a relict creek was still present. Approximately 2/3 of field is inundated at spring high water.
The site is owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and forms part of its wider Nigg Bay reserve. This reserve incorporates extensive areas of mudflat, saltmarsh and wet grassland (RSPB website, 2011).
<br>
<br>
https://www.therrc.co.uk/sites/default/files/projects/48_niggbay.pdf +
C
Proposals should aim to enhance the area for nature conservation whilst increasing flood storage capacity. Such measures could include the reinstatement of a natural right bank and the incorporation of backwaters and other wetland habitats. The potential for contaminated arising are unknown, however there is scope for the re-use of materials in bund creation. The site identified is a side-spill flood alleviation area situated on the right bank 2400m². The channel is largely linear and has been modified in the past with a reinforced artificial bank and sluice situated centrally on the right bank. The earth-bunded flood storage area comprises well maintained grassland, which is cut 4-6 times a year during the growing season. The area is inundated 3-4 times a year and requires dredging every 5-10years +