Property:Project summary
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L
The Loutre BeLu project aimed to protect declining otter (Lutra lutra) populations in a cross-border area between Belgium and the Grand Duché de Luxembourg. Habitat restoration targeted an area of approximately 300,000 and included the basins of the Rivers Our, Sûre and Ourthe. Encouraging re-colonisation by providing more habitats for matting was intended to allow genetic exchanges between the currently separated otter populations.
The project intended to work with the full range of local stakeholders and landowners in particular. It included regular monitoring of indicators for otter presence, as well as the creation of a data base and a geographical information system. The project planned a wide-ranging communication effort with specific actions toward different target groups to provide long-term protection and appropriate conservation management.
The works affected more than 600 km of watercourse, and 21 Natura 2000 sites in Belgium and eleven in Luxembourg. This involved protection of the river banks and construction of fences along 61 km to prevent access by livestock to riverbanks, 23 footbridges for cattle. Also 262 drinking troughs were established and 23 km of riparian forest were planted. Further works included the removal of 150 ha of spruce plantations from floodplains, with 44 ha of this felling area cleaned up with the restoration of indigenous plants such as broad-leaved alluvial forest and a patchwork of meadows and marshes. The project created 178 ponds and 33 otter havens. Invasive species were directly tackled on 189 ha, with different methods tested and assessed. To restore water quality in the rivers for the otter and fish, the project: reconnected seven backwaters and spawning grounds to the main river channel; removed or modified 21 obstacles to the migration of fish up and down the river; and installed nine passageways for otters under road bridges. +
S
The Lower Lee Valley waterways are profoundly polluted. The problem of urban diffuse pollution is chronic and highly visible. It blights the potential of East London’s rivers, reducing them as an amenity for people, damaging them for wildlife and turning them into open sewers. These problems have existed for many years now, but increasing population density and climate change are seeing them intensify. What has been missing from efforts to tackle the problems is properly involving people. Awareness of the pollution is very low, evidenced by the proportionately small number of calls to the Environment Agency’s Pollution Hotline. East London’s communities are fundamental to any long lasting improvement in the Lower Lee Valley’s water quality. While strategic efforts will aim to address the problems truly sustainable solutions have to happen at the household and street level too.
The issue of diffuse pollution must be addressed as a priority in improvement works to rivers, oth-erwise rivers in East London will still run with wastewater and road run-off.
Thames21 has secured funding from Defra for the Salmon’s Brook Healthy River Challenge – a project to reduce diffuse urban pollution in the Salmon’s Brook, a main tributary of the River Lea in Enfield. The project will see the creation of six community centred bio-retention and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) along the Salmons Brook. These SuDS will intercept diffuse urban pollution, provide attenuation for flooding, and create new areas of biodiverse habitat and new amenities for local people. +
L
The Lower Otter Restoration Project (LORP) in Budleigh Salterton, East Devon, is a flagship intertidal habitat restoration, climate adaptation, and infrastructure improvement project delivered by the Environment Agency in partnership with the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust and Clinton Devon Estates.
LORP has been majority funded by the UK government, with £8.5 million of co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V A France (Channel) England programme (2021 to 2023). It is the English arm of a cross-border initiative called ‘Promoting Adaptation to Changing Coasts’ (PACCo) and is delivering pre-emptive climate change adaptation in the Otter Valley by working with nature to provide benefits for people and the environment.
As part of the initiative, work is also going ahead on a similar project (Basse Saâne 2050) in the Saâne Valley in Normandy, France. Left unchanged, both valleys’ landscapes would not be sustainable in the face of climate change after centuries of human modification.
The aim of LORP is to demonstrate that it is possible to collaborate with stakeholders in estuarine regions and work with nature, rather than against it, to improve the resilience of coastal communities and their environments.
It is achieving this by increasing flood resilience through greatly improved infrastructure, reversing biodiversity loss (record-breaking levels of wading birds have already been seen regularly in the area since wetland development began), undoing the negative impacts of man-made modifications and restoring significant habitat loss, increasing carbon capture, and building awareness of climate adaptation and nature-based solutions through a range of educational resources and visits. LORP’s unique approach and methodology has also been shared through the publication of the PACCo Guide – a comprehensive framework for nature-based adaptation and management.
The project began in spring 2021 and was completed in early autumn 2023. The works include a 70-meter breach in embankments to reconnect the Otter Estuary to its historic floodplain; restoring 55ha of wetland habitat; the construction of a 30-meter span flood-resilient, raised road and road bridge, as well as a new footbridge over the location of the future breach to ensure continuity of the South West Coast Path; the relocation of Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club away from the floodplain; raising and improving public footpaths, and creating wildlife viewing areas.
To find out more about the Lower Otter Restoration Project, visit: www.lowerotterrestorationproject.co.uk
For more information on the PACCo initiative, visit: www.pacco-interreg.com
The essential work elements of the Scheme at a glance:
* Habitat creation
* 28ha of mudflats and 27ha of transitional marsh and saltmarsh
* Facilitating works
* Relocate Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club
* Create a 70m wide breach through the estuary flood embankment near Lime Kiln car park.
* Construct a new 70m span footbridge over the breach to ensure continuity of public access along the embankment;
* Create a new main creek channel 2km in length and associated outer creek channels
* Divert the existing hard-engineered SWW combined sewage outlet behind the shingle bar underground under the estuary mouth;
* Raise South Farm Road to protect the highway from regular flooding. This includes a new 30m span highway bridge over the new creek channel;
* Remove a small section of the existing landfill site to allow construction of the new South Farm Road highway bridge. The remaining areas of the landfill site will receive additional fill to provide furthering protection of the existing material within with the outer edges receiving improved erosion protection;
* Demolish and remove the existing Budleigh Brook concrete aqueduct and create a realigned more natural meandering channel connected to the floodplain through Little Marsh;
* Create a 200m wide breach in Little Bank and a 170m breach in Big Bank to improve water flow across the floodplain;
* Install seven new viewing areas at various locations across the scheme to enrich visitor experience of the enhanced wildlife reserve resulting from the Scheme;
* Create a new car park area at the south-western end of the new South Farm Road, removing informal parking in the existing SSSI which is damaging to the site;
* Raise the existing footpath section between South Farm Road and Big Bank, on the western side of the floodplain, and improve the surfacing.
* Divert the existing overhead power lines, which run west to east across the landfill site, underground;
E
The Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park is the entrance of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. It is the nesting site for more than a hundred bird species, and also a resting/wintering place for many of the passing migratory birds. More than 50 of these birds are listed in the EU Birds Directive and in the Bern Convention.
The project objective was to improve the conservation status of 13 priority and more than 50 non-priority bird species listed in the Birds Directive and present in the Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park.
The results of the project are linked by the designation of Vlascuta Lake as Special Protected Area NATURA 2000 within The Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park.
Through the ecological restoration works at Vlascuta Lake, the water level is maintained so the habitats are protected as in drought period so in the floods ones.
The rehabilitation of the two channels, which connect Pochina Lake and Prut River, respectively the water supply channel (362 m) and evacuation channel (235 m) and removal of mud from of about 2000 sqm surface of lake, the worst part of the lake. +
The Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park is the entrance of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. It lies on the flyway route of hundreds of migratory birds. The ecological importance of the park has been recognised at national as well as international levels.The project objective is to improve the conservation status of 13 priority and more than 50 non-priority bird species listed in the Birds Directive and present in the Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park. A main aim is to resolve the environmental problems caused by human activities such as agriculture, pasturage, fishery and tourism in and around the Park. To deal with the degradation of hydrological structures, the project also aims to re-establish the ecological balance of the lakes, including improvement of the water level and its maintenance.
The results of the project are linked by the designation of Mata – Radeanu Complex as Special Protected Area NATURA 2000 within The Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park.
Through the ecological restoration works at Mata – Radeanu Complex, the water level is maintained so the habitats are protected as in drought period so in the floods ones. <br>
Funding - From LIFE Nature Programme; Co-financing Ministry of Environment and County Council Galati,Regional Agency for Environmental Protection Galati (RAEP Galati) +
The Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park is the entrance of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. It lies on the flyway route of hundreds of migratory birds.More than 50 of these birds are listed in the EU Birds Directive and in the Bern Convention.The ecological importance of the park has been recognised at national as well as international levels.
The project objective was to improve the conservation status of 13 priority and more than 50 non-priority bird species listed in the Birds Directive and present in the Lower Prut Floodplain Natural Park.
The first phase of the multi-site project focuses on the establishment of park administrative structures and the preparation of an integrated management plan, to be approved by the local authorities. This plan would guide the conservation activities to be implemented and would consider the protection needs of target habitats and species of the project. A number of actions have been foreseen to address and involve the local community (e.g. dissemination, consultation of every village in the area, and active participation and education with local educational material to be produced). The project was addressed stakeholders in wide variety of ways, including picture books, nature trails, six annual environment days with expeditions into the area, children's exhibitions, and bird watching towers.
The ecological restoration works of Pochina Lake assures, by gravitational transfer a sufficient water volum to contribute to the conservation of this special area, designated Special Protected Area (SPA).
The two channels for Vlăşcuţa Lake (in total length of about 542 m) were reshaped and consolidated, so that they assure the supply and the evacuation from/to lake/river Prut, subject to necessary water level of the lake. <br>
Funding - From LIFE Nature Programme; Co-financing Ministry of Environment and County Council Galati,Regional Agency for Environmental Protection Galati (RAEP Galati) +
B
The Lussebäcken brook is tributary of River Råån and it´s situated in Southern part of Sweden in the city of Helsingborg. The drainage area of the brook is mostly agricultural, cultivated land. Before restoration the brook had few serious problems which caused flooding problems and rinse of sediment and nutrients from the fields. The brook was very deep and slope of the bank steep which caused serious erosion problems. To prevent the flooding and erosion two-stage drainage channel was constructed. The object was to stabilize the stream by decreasind the slope of the banks, creating riparian zones and increasing meandering in the stream. Also stones and gravel were added in the bed of the stream to create more natural habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. The restoration took place in 2002 and it was managed by the municipality of Helsingborg. +
L
The Lustrum Beck catchment (Map 1) is located in Stockton-on-Tees and is a tributary of the Tees. It has been identified through an ISIS-TUFLOW model that over 150 properties are at risk of flooding in the catchment within 2 main areas: Oxbridge and Browns Bridge. For these sites, the Lustrum Beck Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) has been split into 2 phases. Phase 1 is well underway and consists of constructing more traditional flood defences in the urban area of the catchment. Phase 2 is currently in the development stage and will involve storing water at a range of scales in the upstream catchment area using natural processes to attenuate water. This case study focuses on Phase 2 in the Lustrum Beck catchment and how natural processes are being incorporated into the scheme to reduce downstream risk.
The model used identified that a total storage area of around 100,000m³ of storage within the local catchment area could reduce the discharge from the 1 in 100 year return period by 11.5%. This would reduce the peak flow of the 1 in 100 year event to less than 1 in 75 year event.
The Lustrum Beck project is the first flood risk management scheme to develop a business case which includes the use of Natural Flood Management (NFM) to successfully attract Flood Defence Grant in Aid (FDGiA) funding to reduce flood risk. +
R
The Léguer is a first-category watercourse, classified as a “river with migratory fish” is one of the region’s most renowned salmon rivers.
Between 1920 and 1922, a dam was built across the Léguer in order to supply the Vallée paper mill - one of the biggest factories in the area - with electricity. The dam, approximately 15 metres tall, created a reservoir with a length of approximately 1.5 kilometres. Despite the presence of a fish pass, it was difficult for salmon to cross and this formed an impassable obstacle for eels.
In 1965, the paper mill went out of business. The dam then supplied electricity to EDF (French electricity supply ompany). Due to its poor condition, the former licence-holder decided not to renew its application. The dam went into the public domain in 1994.
In addition to the interruption of river continuity, there was significant silting up of the reservoir whose eutrophication was clearly visible. The risk of the dam failing became a growing concern and, due to the lack of maintenance, the Kernansquillec dam started cracking and became a direct threat to homes situated downstream. Following significant flooding in the winter of 1995, the government announced plans to dismantle the dam on the grounds of public safety.
In 1996 the dismantling began with the gradual draining of the reservoir; this drainage process would take five months. 90,000 m³ of sediments were extracted from the orginal river bed. Three 50-centimetre weirs were constructed in order to retain any sediments that might have escaped the suction dredging and reduce the risks of regressive erosion. The dam was then demolished. +
A
Assessing the habitats outcomes of Floodplain Forest restoration: the case study of the floodplain forest at the Ouse Valley Park +
The Manor Farm Floodplain Forest and its associated PhD research project is a best practice example of bringing together industry (Hanson), a charitable body (The Parks Trust), non-departmental public body (Environment Agency) and academia (Cranfield University). The Parks Trust (land owner) joined forces with Hanson (quarry operator) with the vision of creating this new floodplain forest landscape along of a 1 km reach of the River Great Ouse. It was the first project of its kind in United Kingdom where planning permission was obtained specifically for the creation of a floodplain forest habitat.
The Parks Trust owns over 2000 hectares of parkland around Milton Keynes and continually seeks to improve their parks by providing new facilities, increasing biodiversity and enhancing habitats. The Trust joined with Cranfield University to establish a PhD research project to develop a hypothesis-driven adaptive monitoring framework for assessing the environmental outcomes of the Floodplain Forest, as a case study with application to ecological management. Outputs of this research have enhanced understanding of the aspects to consider when assessing floodplain forest re-creation/restoration and have been used to develop guidelines for land managers based on a long-term monitoring approach. These management guidelines will be applicable to other similar restoration projects.
Community Involvement - bird-watching areas and information boards provided to encourage local interest in the area. +
R
The Mardereau stream is a small tributary of the Indre river. The catchment is dominated by crops and the intensification of agricultural pressures since 1941 has resulted in the creation of an extensive drainage network of and the disappearance of wetland habitats. Soil sealing in the watershed is increasing due to the proximity of the town of Tours. As a result the flood risk management issue is very relevant. At Sorigny the Mardereau was straightened, dredged and, in the upstream part, cemented.
Under the leadership of the Syndicat Intercommunal d’Aménagement de la Vallée de l’Indre (SAVI), a pilot restoration project has been realized. Works carried out included remeandering and plantation of riparian vegetation, together with some local biongeneering measures. +
The Mareta River drains a catchement area of 212 Km and flows into the Isarco River, near Sterzing (Vipiteno).
In the last 150 years, the river was object of various intervention; the two major consist of a flow regulation in 1876 and a large aggregates extraction, to provide material for the construction of the Brennero motorway, in the early 70’s. These activities caused a significant incision and narrowing of the riverbed (from the large original braided river bed – up to 300 m width – to a channel 30-40 m wide).
The areas of natural retention, such as flood plains and riparian areas, have almost completely disappeared, making floods more intense in the Vipiteno basin.
Using public lands has been possible to enlarge the riverbed up to twice the width set in the 70’s, along a stretch of 2 km, The material of the excavations has been deposited in the river bed, taking care to reproduce forms as natural as possible. To restore the longitudinal continuity, 16 dams has been demolished, with benefits to the ecosystem and fish populations for the morphological evolution of the stream itself, which is to be returned as a dynamic system . To ensure flood safety the new bed was consolidated by bank protections, covered with loose material and harmonized with the surrounding landscape. +
The Maria stream, a tributary of Dragne, is 10 Km long and presents very low anthropic alteration. Only a weir, 2 m high and 8 m wide, degrades the environment, constituting an obstacle to ecological continuity and sediment transport. It was built in 1932 to supply drinking water, but no longer used after 1951.
A restoration project was undertaken.
During the works, the river is diverted into a pipe. A straw filter is placed downstream of the structure to trap fine sediments. The work begins with the extraction of sediment upstream of the structure, placed on the sides. The weir is then destroyed and the banks stabilized with blocks, found on site. +
M
The Marswetering is a slow flowing river in a region that is characterized by agriculture, woodland and rural estates. Its natural hydrological regime has been altered by withdrawals for agricultural purposes and by water level regulating structures. As a consequence, development of vegetation, macroinvertebrates and fish have been held back. The water authority has made an attempt to create more variation in morphology and flow structure of the Marswetering by introducing dead wood in the stream. The wood was introduced at five locations below the water line to create narrower stretches in the stream.
Additionally, the banks were divided into a green and a blue zone. In the blue zone, vegetation was regularly removed to ensure flow continuity. In the green zone, vegetation is removed less regulaly and in a way that contributes to a varied flow structure.
Fish passages have also been created in the Marswetering.
Further efforts are planned to broaden the waterway and recreate meanders. +
I
The Melides Lagoon is coastal land-locked lagoon protected under the Nature 2000 Network. Its sustainability depends on reducing human pressures on the ecosystems and coping with unfavourable effects of climate and water dynamics.
The collaborative process developed between February 2018 and June 2019 involved participants from 15 to 20 organisations from the public administration and the private sector. The process was based on five general meetings (general assemblies of stakeholders), complemented by sectoral and individual organization meetings.
Territorial labs were oriented to the wetland critical issues organised into the following categories: sanitation, agriculture, tourism, fishing, lagoon and river environment, and governance issues. The most dominant private activities in the pilot area are rice farming and tourism accommodation. Thus, sectoral meetings were organised to discuss issues specific to each sector. In addition, 16 individual meetings with public entities were held, at various stages of the collaborative process.
These complementary sectoral and individual meetings were determinant to prepare inputs for the general assemblies and to assess the position of key stakeholders, helping to reinforce the role of the facilitator and to reduce tensions during the overall stakeholders’ interaction. General assemblies were focused on sharing information on critical issues of the pilot area, discussing options and getting consensus about solutions. Confrontation and conflicts amongst stakeholders were moderate.
A local Conference participated by 33 stakeholders concluded the process. The project main findings were presented and the importance of the governance process was acknowledged. The Melides Lagoon Environmental Agreement was signed at the end of the Conference.
The project substantive results are:
• Action Plan – based on a shared vision and operational goals to improve and preserve the quality of the Melides Lagoon, the plan allocates responsibilities for the implementation of 18 measures covering environmental protection, economic development and governance.
• Melides Lagoon Wetland Contract - inspired in the “negotiated environmental agreements” referred in Part B of Annex VI of the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC), it is referred in Portuguese as the “Melides Lagoon Environmental Agreement”. It was subscribed by 17 stakeholders (public and private) on June 17, 2109, during the Local Conference.
• Local governance structure – included in the Wetland Contract as the management structure to implement the Action Plan, it follows the model adopted during the collaborative process.
Some intangible but equally relevant results can be mentioned:
• Increased awareness of local stakeholders about the fragility of the wetland system and the pressures on the ecosystems;
• Empowerment of the local stakeholders to watch and preserve the quality of the wetland;
• Improved dialogue between the different stakeholder groups;
• Increased awareness of the decision makers about the importance and effectiveness of the governance process.
R
The Merloz stream flows in urban and peri-urban areas over a length of three kilometers, seven kilometers from the source. Historically, the Merloz underwent several dredging and straightening operations, determining a significant loss of habitats diversity.
Due to land use constraints, remeandering of the watercourse could not be targeted, therefore the rehabilitation actions included the reconstruction of a sinuous low flow channel with a morphologically varied cross section. This was carried out installing artificial berms placed alternately in the right and left sides. The banks were revegetated and protected with bioengineering techniques when necessary. +
M
The Merlue is a 7,9 km long tributary of the Valouse, with a small watershed (less than 15 km2) half covered by managed forests, half by non (or little) fertilized grassland. The fish population is mainly composed of two species : brown trout and bullhead (Cottus gobio). The invasive signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) is also present. In its middle stretch, the Merlue used to cross a marsh, however more than one century ago, the riverbed was moved to the edge of the marsh in order to drain the land and plant softwood (which has never been productive). The new configuration affected the summer connection with the groundwater table. This explains both the frequency of drying up and the overheating of a portion of the river, two phenomena that are not observed downstream from the marsh, where the Merlue is in its original bed.
In the lower stretch, the riverbed was enlarged by approximately five meters, resulting in shallow waters and reduced available habitat for aquatic wildlife.
The Merlue is part of the Natura 2000 site “Petite montagne du Jura”. Restoration actions were carried out within the LIFE project “Ruisseaux de têtes de bassins et faune patrimoniale associée” (LIFE 04NAT/FR/000082), focusing on restoring the population of native white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes.
Before the works , 19,4 hectares were acquired in the marsh, thanks to the intervention of the “property development and rural settlement society” ( SAFER) . Four hectares of invasive willows and undesirable tree species were removed. The old riverbed was found by infrared photography , since the analysis of land registers did not allow to locate it. The stream was moved where the former bed was and the rectified channel was filled. The new riverbed was only slightly excavated and was intentionally undersized (30 x 30 cm), so that it would naturally recreate its shape. Some ramps were was positioned under the bed where specific anthropogenic constraints (bridge, crossing for agricultural machinery , etc. ) did not allow a free dynamics.
In the downstream portion, softwoods were removed . The riverbed of the Merlue was narrowed and raised by 50 cm adding sediments excavated in the nearby village (for the foundation of a house), and arranged in order to recreate a sinuous low-flow channel and a sequence of riffles and pools.
The stretch ends with a drowned rock ramp, positioned at the same height as the current bottom of the riverbed .
T
The Middle Ouse Restoration of Physical Habitats (MORPH) project is an ambitious and visionary project which aims to transform the River Ouse in Sussex led by the partnership of the Environment Agency and the Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust (OART) and supported by Royal HaskoningDHV (providing design, engineering and environmental consultancy services) and C A Blackwell (contractor for the implementation works).
The river was historically enlarged and straightened to allow navigation and drain the floodplain, and a large number of weirs and sluices were installed to support milling. As a result, the rivers do not provide the full range of habitats expected and fish populations are not as good as they could be. Two hundred years on, the River Ouse and Adur catchment was selected as one of 10 Environment Agency-led pilot catchments in which to test different approaches for partnership working under the new Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) to collaborative Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation.
The £1 million MORPH project, which was funded through the Catchment Restoration Fund, was established to deliver significant improvements to the ecology of the catchment by renaturalising the watercourse and reversing the impact that historical modifications have had on the catchment.
The project had two main aims:
* To implement the objectives of the WFD by improving fish passage and the hydromorphology of the river.
* To implement natural flood management actions identified within the River Ouse Catchment Flood Management Plan, by increasing floodplain water storage to alleviate flooding downstream.
In order to deliver these aims, the project has so far:
* Removed a redundant weir at Buxted Park, seeded gravel in the channel and allowed natural processes to operate on the river bed and banks in a controlled way.
* Bypassed a second structure at Spring Meadow, creating a nature-like channel with a diverse range of habitats that is well connected to its floodplain.
* Installed a rock ramp (the first of its kind in the UK) to allow fish to pass upstream of a culvert beneath a historic road bridge.
The river restoration works have renaturalised the river and delivered significant benefits for the ecology of the river and floodplain. Improving fish passage has helped priority fish species listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan as needing conservation action, and more natural in-channel and floodplain habitats have contributed towards delivering WFD requirements. The Buxted Park and Sheffield Park schemes have also helped to reconnect the river to its floodplain and encourage more frequent flooding, contributing to a reduction in flood risk to sensitive areas downstream.
In addition to these tangible on-the-ground achievements, the project has demonstrated that catchment partnerships can be extremely successful in delivering considerable results in a short period of time. This has galvanised local support, resulting in volunteers planting a wet woodland and other landowners actively exploring river restoration opportunities.
R
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment launched in 2007 the National Strategy for River Restoration to, in keeping with the Water Framework Directive, achieve a good ecological status of rivers. One of the main lines of action is the demolition of transversal obstacles that are in a state of abandonment and have a great impact on the longitudinal connectivity of rivers.
In the Duero River basin, more than 80 obstacles have been demolished in recent years. During the months of February and March of 2013,
the works to demolish the Retuerta Dam, on the Aravalle river, located in the municipality of Umbrías (province of Ávila) took place. The dam was approximately 14 metres in height and 55 metres in length, making it the highest dam demolished to date. The removal of this dam was contemplated as a compensation measure in an Environmental Impact Statement, with the purpose of recovering the longitudinal connectivity of the Aravalle River in this stretch, which constitutes a rich fluvial ecosystem, torrential in nature, and with abundant ichthyofauna. In fact, the Aravalle River is one of the most relevant watercourses for sustaining fish populations within the Tormes River system.
There has also been work related to monitoring the mobilization of sediments and the recovery of the fluvial ecosystem, as well as public information and participation seminars. +
P
The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust has been running the Pumlumon Living Landscape Project (Photo 1 and Map 1) since 2005, during which time it has developed and demonstrated the benefits of an ecosystem approach to landscape, people, the economy and wildlife. Rewetting upland peat bogs, through the blocking of drainage ditches, improves their condition and water retention capability, creates new areas for wildlife, and helps reduce climate affecting emissions. The Pumlumon project recognises that the future for upland farming is threatened; however, there is also awareness that the uplands of Wales offer vital economic opportunities both in terms of carbon and floodwater.
* The Pumlumon Living Landscape Project has identified a number of ditch blocking methods to support floodwater management works across of range of sites.
* The capital works cost to carry out effective flood water management techniques on degraded bog is minimal. However, it represents a potentially valuable economic opportunity for upland landowners.
* The data collected to date have been analysed by CEH Wallingford. The hydrological restoration carried out on Glaslyn has raised the water table by 5cm. +