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Holnicote Project Finalist at Climate Week 2014 Awards
The progress and promising early results of PAA’s Multi-Objective Flood Management Demonstration Project, based in Holnicote, Exmoor, have been recognised with the project making the final of the Climate Week 2014 Awards.
The project was one of four finalists in the ‘Best campaign or educational initiative’ category, and an awards ceremony was held on Tuesday evening as part of the Ecobuild event this week (3rd-7th March) at the Excel Arena in London.
Watch a summary video by the National Trust on the Holnicote Project
The causes and implications of climate change are not wholly understood but there is a consensus growing that the recent flood events reflect a move towards a longer-term increase in the frequency and magnitude of higher intensity rainfall events that trigger flooding. Downstream alleviation schemes to protect urban areas have been the traditional approach to flood control and this will and should remain part of the defense against costly floodwater damage. However, there are other ways of tackling the problem.
Holnicote is one of three national demonstration projects to investigate how changing land management on a catchment scale can bring about a reduction in flood risk. The recent severe flooding across the country has highlighted the need to consider catchment-wide measures and the upstream changes in land use that could be implemented to address the problem at its source.
With sponsorship from the National Trust, Defra and the Environment Agency the project has already improved drainage from the surrounding Exmoor uplands, and more recently the floodplain of the Aller has been sculptured to retain floodwaters for longer.
Photo: controlled inundation to temporarily store floodwater on the Aller floodplain. This helps protect the villages of Allerford and Bossington further downstream and recreates traditional water meadows.
Watch a video presentation by project partners JBA on the Holnicote project
With significant support from the local farming community the River Aller will now be more connected to the adjacent meadows creating improved habitat and summer grazing as well as providing temporary storage of river floodwaters. Other schemes within the catchment include reversion of arable land to pasture and the creation of wet woodlands. Together these various changes in land use and management will influence the scale and timing of flooding and should provide evidence in support of making similar changes to catchments elsewhere in the UK.
You can download the Holnicote Project Position Paper, or contact us if you are interested in finding out more information on the Holnicote Project.
More information on Climate Week 2014 and Ecobuild can be found at their websites climateweek.com and ecobuild.co.uk
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