Project Overview
River system, wetlands and ponds - The Eddleston Water project is a catchmentwide demonstration study designed to investigate the effectiveness of using Natural Flood Management (NFM) tools and measures to reduce flood risk and enhance wetland habitats. Key NFM measures include the creation of engineered high-flow log restrictors, extensive riparian and headwater tree planting, remeandering of once-straightened river channels, and the creation of wetlands and temporary flood storage ponds to achieve its aims. The research is underpinned by a very detailed and extensive hydrological network, alongside groundwater and ecological studies undertaken by the main science providers, University of Dundee and the British Geological Services (BGS), and SEPA itself. The Eddleston has also become a nationally important research platform and the location for many other ecohydrological studies by a wide variety of national and international academic institutes.
Ecosystem Services
Provisioning
- Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.
- Fresh water: Ecosystems play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the flow and purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available locally.
Regulating
- Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.
- Local climate and air quality: Trees provide shade whilst forests influence rainfall and water availability both locally and regionally. Trees or other plants also play an important role in regulating air quality by removing pollutants from the atmosphere.
Habitat / Supporting
- Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.
Cultural
- Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
- Tourism: Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important role for many kinds of tourism which in turn provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries. In 2008 global earnings from tourism summed up to US$ 944 billion. Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of biological diversity.
Major Issues
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No issues provided.
EH Engineering Solutions
The main forms of ecological engineering introduced
The main forms of ecological engineering introduced within the catchment have included: * 207 hectares of woodland planting, with over 330,000 native trees * 116 large high-flow log structures, positioned on upper tributary streams * 36 flow attenuation ponds located in the headwaters and tributaries, and 2 large ones on the lower floodplain; and * Three lengths totalling c 3.5km of previously straightened river channel re-meandered, with adjacent flood banks removed.
The surface water gauging network is designed
The surface water gauging network is designed to provide a comprehensive picture of flow rates from the principal sub-catchment tributaries and at intervals along the main stem of the Eddleston Water. The resulting hydrological network has some 24 stream gauges and is one of the densest in the UK (one gauge per 2.65km2). This ensures that we are able to generate high-quality precipitation input and stream flow data throughout the catchment. In addition, these locations are designed to be co-located not only for hydrological monitoring purposes, but also to provide the baseline for ecological studies and other monitoring disciplines reliant on this underlying hydrological network.
The ecological focus of this demonstration site
The ecological focus of this demonstration site builds on the initial Scoping Study (2010) which identified areas across the whole catchment where the introduction of different NFM measures could lead to the enhancement of habitats alongside the reduction of flood risk. This could be achieved by a number of means, such as extensive tree planting, the provision of high-flow log structures and the creation of temporary flood storage ponds, as well as remeandering parts of the oncestraightened.
Project Activities
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Development of Natural Flood Management (NFM) options and negotiation with landowners and farmers
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Project management and installation of NFM measures
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Facilitating and sourcing funding
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Monitoring hydrology, ecology, costs/benefits
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Stakeholder engagement, including Community events and policy workshops
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Reporting, Dissemination of results and hosting field visits
Expected Outcomes
Demonstrate the effectiveness of using Natural Flood Management measures to reduce flood risk and enhance riparian habitats | Natural Food Management measures including high-flow log structures and temporary flood storage ponds significantly increase lagtime in flood response and reduce flood peaks. | Remeandering straightened reaches of river leads to increases in channel habitat diversity and rapid recovery of aquatic macroinvertebrate populations. | NFM measures produce significant positive cost benefits