Most NFM projects will require funding for the material and labour required to implement works on the ground. Large scale projects such as river restoration will also require funding for the necessary scoping and pre-works assessments and design and, in some cases, a payment to the landowner for the services provided and costs incurred. There are a number of potential sources of funding for these various components including the Scottish Rural Development Programme, Government agency funding such as peatland action and private funding such as carbon offset schemes. Local Authorities may also fund NFM measures, especially where it helps to deliver NFM actions outlined in their Local Flood Risk Management Plans or other statutory targets. This topic includes information on these potential funding sources, new funding calls or success stories on novel funding sources.
The Helping Nature strand is now open for Expessions of Interest, which must be submitted by Monday 6 March 2023.
NatureScot invite protects requesting a grant of £25k - £250k to be delivered over a maximum of two years.
The priorities under freshwater restoration are listed below:
A report has been produced by the Environment Agency that evaluates their Natural Flood Management programme. Between 2017 and 2021, £15 million of government funding was invested in 60 pilots across England. The report looks at 4 phases of NFM project lifecycle; a) Partnership working, b) Valuing benefits and project assessment, c) Project implementation and d) monitoring and sustaining the benefits.
The Forestry Commission, Scottish Forestry, Natural Resources Wales and Northern Ireland Forest Service have published a new UK-wide guide outlining how our forests and woodlands can reduce the damaging effects and financial impact of flooding on vulnerable communities. Woodlands can play a key role in flood mitigation and make an important contribution to reducing downstream flood risk.
A new open access book entitled “Spatial Flood Risk Management: Implementing Catchment-based Retention and Resilience on Private Land” has been published. Centralising the role of land and landowners, the book brings together knowledge from socio-economy, public policy, hydrology, geomorphology, and engineering to establish an interdisciplinary knowledge base on spatial approaches to managing flood risks. It contains chapters from over 25 different European authors and is an output from the EU funded COST action "Natural Flood Retention on Private Land".
The Riverwoods initiative (see main website for more info) aims to create a network of thriving riverbank woodlands and healthy river systems across Scotland. It has recently published an interactive storymap which allows users to explore projects across Scotland and find out more generally on the initiative. This storymap can be accessed below.
A manual supporting the implementation of Natural Flood Management measures has been published by CIRIA. It aims to set out the key stages in the delivery process of NFM. The manual has five parts which cover an overview of NFM, the philosophy behind NFM, detailed information behind a selection of measures, the delivery process and a supporting appendices. The manual can be accessed via the link below.
A new policy note has been published by the Centre of Expertise for Waters on "Better Buffer Design, Placement and Management". The publication was produced by the James Hutton Institute and examines how considering an enhanced range of designs, and targeting them to most suitable landscapes and pressures on the environment, can be achieved to improve multiple outcomes (e.g. flood management), including aspects of wider context for improving the uptake of enhanced riparian measures. Many of the measures presented here could be viewed as Natural Flood Management approaches.
The Scottish Government’s Dynamic Coast project took a major step forward this year, with the publication of new research on coastal change across Scotland. DynamicCoast.com has been updated to reflect the latest science, outputs and tools now available for partners to use in NFM, resilience and adaptation planning. The work was funded via CREW and the St Andrews Links, the research was conducted by the University of Glasgow and managed by NatureScot.
International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for Flood Risk Management have now been published. The guidelines provide practitioners with the best available information concerning various elements of NNBF implementation. The guidelines cover a series of land uses and measures from uplands to coastal measures. They were developed as part of an international collaboration and the guidelines contain 20 chapters. Please click the link below to get more information on this publication and to download the guidelines.
Research findings just revealed by one of the EU North Sea Region Building with Nature partners in Scotland are revealing the true value of taking a sustainable approach to reducing flood risk - through the careful and targeted use of Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures, building with nature at a landscape scale across the whole Eddleston Water river catchment.