The way that rural land is managed, both in terms of the vegetative cover and the underlying soil, can greatly influence the pathways and speed by which incident rainfall reaches watercourses. Good land and soil management practices can help to minimise the generation of surface runoff and reduce downstream flood risk. Land and soil management for NFM involves cultivating soils to promote a good macro-structure and good organic matter content, thereby increasing soil infiltration and reducing surface flow generation and associated sediment transport. Surface water flooding is usually associated with heavy rainfall falling on impermeable surfaces, dry (capped) soils, frozen soils, or on a saturated catchment, causing overland flow to occur. This rainfall induced overland flow is quickly transferred to channels across the surface of the landscape due to the limited potential for soil infiltration. There is a consequent rapid rise in channel levels and a flashy catchment response to the rainfall. This high energetic flow of water across the landscape can result in erosion to soil and the transport of sediments (and sediment associated pollutants). Runoff management measures target these flow pathways, disconnecting them thereby attenuating the flow.
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.
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.
The Engineering with Nature initiative has now launched a new book "Engineering With Nature: An Atlas, Volume 2". The book showcases 62 international projects that demonstrate the concept of Engineering with Nature. Two Scottish case studies are highlighted in the new volume of the Atlas (Eddleston Water and River Nairn restoration projects). Please visit the link below for more information on the Atlas.
Results have recently been published from the Scottish Government’s flagship NFM study in the Eddleston Water catchment. Seeking to examine the effectiveness of NFM measures combined across the 69 km2 area of the Eddleston Water catchment, the study examines hydrological lag as an index of the effectiveness of NFM measures, and how this changes as a function of catchment scale. The paper shows that median lag time increases by more than 2 hours in headwater catchments treated with the installation of ponds and flow rest
A newly published paper in the international journal Water Security (Hankin, Page, McShane, Chappell, Spray, Black & Comins 2021) features results from Scotland’s Eddleston Water NFM study in attempting to answer this important question.
The Engineering with Nature initiative (led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) has developed a series of podcasts. The podcasts explore topics such as innovation, collaboration and combining natural and engineered systems and takes views from a wide range of organisation and disciplines. Currently, 10 podcasts are available from the Engineering with Nature website (see link below).
A report investigating multifunctional buffer zones has been published by the Environment Agency. The report "3D buffer strips: designed to deliver more for the environment" was developed by scientists from the James Hutton Institute and Forest Research and was supported by collaborators at Newcastle University, Rothamsted Research, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. The report considers ways to improve the effectiveness of riparian buffer zones to deliver wider ecosystem services (inc. Natural Flood Management).
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.
The Building with Nature (BwN) project, funded by Interreg, demonstrated BwN solutions that utilise natural processes to deliver flood risk and coastal erosion management whilst enhancing ecosystem services. The Scottish Government led the 'catchments' work package and the Eddleston catchment was the Scottish case study example. The project has developed an extensive list of outputs which are available from the link below.