How, why and when Catchment Partnerships should feed in to the next round of River Basin Management Plans; a summary of the kinds of information that can be fed in; and the timetable for the development of plans.

1. Informing second cycle
River Basin Management Plans
Paul Bryson
EA Senior Advisor
(catchment management)
Catchment
Based Approach
Partnerships f or Action

2. Informing second cycle River Basin
Management Plans
Paul Bryson
Senior Advisor (National Head Office)
05 November 2013 (London)
Catchment Based Approach Conference
UNCLASSIFIED
2

3. Presentation Content
15 min. introduction to ‘Informing 2nd cycle RBMPs’:
Why
What
How
When
Summing up

4. Why feed into River Basin
Management Planning?
Create a statutory framework (particularly water body
objectives) to direct local opportunities for improvement
Inform a strategic approach to water management across
catchments (- better outcomes and benefits)
Engage with stakeholders who are less well represented
at catchment level
We need Catchment Groups to feed into RBMP and vice
versa – You (hosts and coordinators) are pivotal to this.

5. What information would be helpful (1)
Evidence on:
Risks and Impacts
Reasons For Failure
Effectiveness of
measures/mechanisms (e.g.
voluntary advice versus
regulatory campaigns)
Costs and Benefits of
measures and mechanisms

6. What information would be helpful (2)
Views on:
Objectives, relative priorities and outcomes (levels of
ambition)
Broadland Partnership (Anglian)
Courtesy of Rory Sanderson
Opportunities for future major
re-development to co-deliver
benefit
Alternative funding
opportunities (e.g. LEPs, EU
funds)
Gather any new actions into the RBMPs

7. How the information can be provided
Providing evidence on:
Classification – specific data requirements
Reasons For Failure & Risk Assessment – more flexible
Measure Cost-Effectiveness & Benefits – more flexible
Engage with local Agency Catchment Coordinators to
agree with partners what the information means
As a minimum feed in views through the statutory 6 month
consultations (the earlier the better)
Over time we plan to develop ‘data standards and
protocols’

8. When do we need this
information?
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
1st cycle plan implementation
Challenges
& Choices
2nd cycle
Planning
Draft
Plan
Final
Plan
2nd cycle plan implementation
Incremental implementation of a Catchment Based Approach

9. Proposed Approach to Draft RBMPs
Centrally compiled RBD plans
Strategic overview and direction
Statutory requirements
Based on local data (including catchment summaries)
Shaping with Liaison Panels continues
Catchment Summaries
Regionally produced around core information template
Discuss and shape locally – role for partnership groups
Will complement partner’s Catchment Plans (these will be
measures in the RBMP)
Web-based Catchment data explorer
Aiming first release for draft plan publication

10. Catchment summaries
UNCLASSIFIED
10

11. Overview of Proposed approach
River Basin District
Management plan
Catchment
Planning
System
Catchment
Summaries
Other
statutory
plans (e.g.
Flood)
Partnership
Activities &
Plans
Catchment data
explorer (if available)
Water
body
data
UNCLASSIFIED
11

12. Next Steps
We are finalising the approach to draft RBMPs (February
2014)
The National Practitioner Group are setting up:
Training events from February 2014 (in development)
Data sharing systems (in development) linked to
Environment Agency data management work Catchment Explorer
We encourage you to engage locally with catchment
coordinators to determine how you can feed into RBMPs

13. Summary points
We need Catchment Groups to feed into
RBMP (and vice versa)
You (hosts and catchment coordinators) have
a pivotal role in this
The ability of Partnership Groups to feed in will
vary
As a minimum help shape the catchment summaries and
engage in RBMP consultations e.g. Challenges & Choices
and draft RBMPs
Catchment Based Approach is not just about producing
RPMPs but all aspects of managing water (i.e. developing
consensus and delivering action)
This is a long term ‘adaptive’ process and should not be
constrained by ‘plan’ production