News

SEPA Launches Natural Flood Management Handbook

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has this month launched their Natural Flood Management Handbook, and PAA is delighted that the Holnicote project is one of the five main case studies examined in the document, which is available to download from the SEPA website http://media.sepa.org.uk/media-releases/2016.

PAA was the lead consultancy appointed by the National Trust and Environment Agency to manage the design, installation, and data processing of the hydrological and environmental monitoring programme for Holnicote, as well as developing strategies and options for delivering land management change within both catchments of the scheme. We appointed and worked closely with JBA to provide hydrological modelling scenarios in support of interpreting the monitoring data and in determining the optimum locations for various natural flood management works.

Our development of the Holnicote project also involved the acquisition of consents and permissions, an often overlooked, expensive and time consuming aspect of delivering change within river catchments; and supporting research from other institutions including Exeter and Cranfield Universities. We undertook various ecosystem services assessments and in a parallel project undertook a detail evaluation of the viability of Holnicote adopting a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programme. Working with contractors to implement changes within the catchments was a further and significant input PAA made to the Holnicote scheme, as well as participation in the equally important process of community engagement.

Although Defra funding for the Holnicote scheme came to a close at the beginning of 2015 the National Trust continued supporting our role at Holnicote to enable us to refine the monitoring programme so that by March 2016 we could possibly regard Holnicote as a ‘catchment laboratory’ providing data, experience, case studies and lessons learned about the multiple benefits that might be gained from natural flood management at a catchment scale.

If you would like more information on the Holnicote project, or on our services relating to Natural Flood Management, please contact us.