Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
Alastair Driver Multiple Benefits
1. Achieving multiple benefits through
river and wetland restoration
Alastair Driver, National Biodiversity Manager
Environment Agency
2. Multiple Benefits
Through Flood Risk Management
KILLER FACT from the Mddx Univ Socio-economic study of the R. Quaggy: The
average amount of time spent per person in Sutcliffe Park increased by 44% after
“daylighting” of the river.
River Quaggy at Sutcliffe Park, South London,
before and after flood alleviation work
3. Multiple Benefits
Through Flood Storage Area enhancement
EA flood storage area of very
limited biodiversity value
R. Beam Parklands, Dagenham
4. Multiple Benefits
Through Coastal Erosion Risk Management
Steart managed realignment project,
Somerset
KILLER FACT from EA Ecosystem Services Case Studies report: 400 ha Alkborough
Flats managed realignment scheme cost app. £10M and provided £12M of storm
protection to land and property. Other ecosystems services benefits = app. £1M p.a.
Alkborough Flats
5. Multiple Benefits
Through Coastal Erosion Risk
Management
Freshwater wetland creation at Great Bells
Farm, Isle of Sheppey
Tidal surge breach, Dunwich,
Suffolk. Oct 2007
Tidal surge breach, Cley-
Salthouse, Norfolk. Dec 2013
6. Multiple Benefits
Through WFD – on watercourses
Radcot Weir bypass channel, R. Thames
Weir removal at
Prestolee on R. Irwell
7. Multiple Benefits
Through WFD – river restoration
R. Leith in
Cumbria
Natural
breach (L)
Restoration
(R)
R. Medlock in Manchester – brick and concrete lining removal
8. Multiple Benefits
Through WFD on land
Lunt Meadows, North
Merseyside
Fobney Island, Reading
KILLER FACT from study of ponds in Northumberland: Organic carbon is 10%
in uncompacted sediments in permanent ponds compared with 3% in adjacent
agricultural land
9. Multiple Benefits
Through upland restoration
Operation Peatland, Forest of Bowland
Upland bog restoration –
Hafren Forest, Upper Severn
KILLER FACT from Moors for the Future : eroded bare peat catchments produce
extremely ‘flashy’ storm-flow, with significantly shorter hydrograph lag times (20
mins) than observed at an intact reference catchment (70 mins).
10. Multiple Benefits
Through sustainable land management
KILLER FACT from Defra Soil Strategy for England 2009: The water treatment cost of
soil erosion is app. £21 million p.a. in England. Agriculture is responsible for 25% of
the phosphorus but 75% of the sediment in rivers.
13. Multiple benefits
Through SUDS
Green roof, London
Surface water collection pond,
Dunfermline
KILLER FACT from Environment Agency Introduction to SUDS: On average,
urbanisation without SUDS trebles the rate of run-off during storm events
Physical inactivity is a major preventable health risk which affects about 60% of the population and costs the UK over £8Bn a year.
Quaggy @ Sutcliffe Park: 2003 - a “daylighted” river with associated wetlands – now an LNR
Number of visitors to the park increased by 73%
Properties adjacent to parks like this in London cost an extra a 5-7%
In this photo there are app 700 properties within easy walking distance of the park and the average price for these streets is currently £350K. 7% thus equates to £17M of property value.
EA–commissioned study showed that 83% of visitors feel better about the park now the Quaggy runs through it. They cited increased biodiversity, better opportunities for recreation, and the peacefulness and relaxation of being near water.
Visit time increase from 34 to 47 minutes.
28% of visitors only visit park since completion of scheme.
Time spent in park per month increased by 3 hours. The overall benefits are substantial relative to the planned investment. The
In another more recent London river restoration project - the Mayesbrook scheme - the lifetime value of restoring the site across the four ecosystem service categories (provisioning, regulatory, cultural and supporting) yields a grand total of calculated benefits of around £27 million, even if ‘likely significant positive benefits’ for the regulation of air quality and microclimate are excluded. This compares very favourably with the estimated costs of the whole Mayesbrook Park restoration scheme at £3.8 million including the river restoration works. This produces an excellent lifetime benefit-to-cost ratio of £7 of benefits for every £1 invested.
FCRM flood storage area improvement project – new and ongoing initiative, emanating from FCRM 2009 report Operational Flood Storage Areas and Biodiversity. Great scope for cheap and effective habitat creation through modification to selected EA-owned flood storage areas.
The study has looked at the 391 sites over 5 ha which are not already SSSI and have whittled the list down to identify the largest potentially suitable sites.
The 5 largest of these flood storage sites where habitat creation may be possible (ie not high grade agriculture , no obvious operational constraints and not already priority habitat) has revealed that they alone add up to app. 1300 ha. However landowner co-operation will be the key, as we do not own most of these sites
In the meantime, all Areas are encouraged to investigate these opportunities for eg lowland meadow, grazing marsh, pond or reedbed habitats, and not wait for any final report or national programme, as we need some quick wins to demonstrate the potential and help increase habitat creation delivery.
The award-winning Beam Parklands Project centred on the Dagenham Washlands in the East end of London, is an extreme example of what can be done to enhance flood storage areas. This project has delivered 53 hectares of green space with a mosaic of habitats and improved flood storage, providing multi-functional benefits to the local communities and businesses. The flood storage area itself protects 400 homes, the Ford Works and Barking Power station which supplies a third of London’s electricity.
Steart project - not yet complete but is already attracting large numbers of wetland birds: eg in winter 12/13 1300 Shelduck , 500 Teal, 1000 Golden Plover, 4500 Lapwing, 1200 Dunlin
Abbott’s Hall Farm, Blackwater Estuary, Essex. 80 ha managed realignment 2002
In addition to the reduction in risk of coastal flooding to properties in the Blackwater Estuary, this project has had the following benefits:
Saves an estimated £0.5M in sea wall maintenance over 20 years
Improves water quality in the estuary by feeding STW discharges through reedbeds and wetlands
Imperial College research has shown that new saltings created by managed realignments improve water quality by trapping heavy metals and agro-chemicals
Assists with control of stormwater from the STW – benefitting nearby Oyster beds
5 km of new permissive path created. Sport fishing for Bass improved. Ecotourism opportunities at the site visitor centre and in local villages. Crop diversification opportunities include sheep, samphire, asparagus and sea spinach
At least 10 species of fish are using the area for feeding and breeding, eg sand smelt, common goby, bass and herring. Saltmarsh plants rapidly colonised, as have water voles and great crested newts (in the upper saltmarsh/grazing marsh areas).
A hydrodynamic model developed for the Blackwater estuary (UK) demonstrates that over a 50-100 year timescale the value of the habitat created and carbon buried is sufficient to make the large scale managed realignment cost effective.
Stream restoration with woody debris generates app £1 of fisheries, recreation, water quality, erosion control benefits per linear metre per year.
The time required to recover the active restoration investment ranged from 15 to 20 years in low- to middle-order streams.
Study showed that restoration of natural wood loading in streams greatly increases the ecosystem services they provide.
Woody debris restored to the R. Blackwater at Hawley, showed marked increase in BMWP invertebrate score and in dissolved oxygen compared with control reach (Queen Mary Univ of London study)
The River Leith has regularly attempted to re-find its natural course and now the landowner has agreed to us making that a permanent arrangement. So there is still scope for opportunistic projects !
We are still spending FCRM funds on water level management and and river restoration, largely on Natura 2000 sites, as a requirement of the Habitats Directive and as a legacy of the PSA3 target for SSSIs. However EBS requires us to tackle all relevant SSSIs and to achieve 50% in favourable condition by 2020, so the challenge of this work remains very significant.
There will be many sites where implementation of major river and floodplain restoration will be a legitimate measure for achieving GES under WFD, but we have a long way to go on this, and ensuring that these measures are included in the second cycle of river basin plans is of paramount importance.
42% of England’s floodplain area is disconnected from its watercourses.
National Ecosystem Assessment estimated the value of wetlands to society = £1200 per ha per year
A 2013 Defra-commissioned report on “Developing place-based approaches for payments for ecosystems services” estimated that around 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year could be sequestered or safeguarded if all 30,000 ha of blanket bog in the South Pennines were managed to improve carbon storage and sequestration. Of this, 6,000 ha would require restoration of grips, hags and changes to burning; and 24,000 ha could be restored by reducing grazing.
The same report states that if the 551 hectares of bare peat in the South Pennines were re-vegetated, this could save an estimated 17,000 tonnes CO2e per year in greenhouse gas emissions. At a carbon price of £20 per tonne CO2e, revegetating severely degraded peatland (and restoring it to a moderately degraded state) could provide a carbon revenue of around £600 per hectare per year.
Evidence from the Moors for the Future Partnership shows that bare peat sites are net sources of CO2, and all other sites were net sinks of CO2
Bare gullies are the largest sources of CO2 (mean = 32 mg CO2 m-2 h-1) with stabilised gullies with geotextile (mean = -78 mg CO2 m-2 h-1) and without geotextile (mean = -70 mg CO2 m-2 h-1) the largest sinks of CO2.
Preliminary results from the Defra / EA funded Making Space for Water Project show eroded bare peat catchments produce extremely ‘flashy’ storm-flow, with significantly shorter hydrograph lag times (median time = 20 minutes) than observed at the intact reference catchment (median time = 70 minutes).
The preliminary results from Moors for the Future are consistent with the hypothesis that peat erosion significantly decreases storm flow lag times and increases storm flow peaks in these peatland systems.
2.2 million tonnes of silt – ie topsoil - is lost from the land each year in the UK
Trying to remove it from rivers and lakes costs society app. £45M – mainly due to the actual cost to farmers, water quality treatment costs and dredging costs.
The actual cost of purchasing 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is app £40M
Field investigations 2002 -2011 showed soil structural degradation widespread in SW England; 38% of surveyed sites had degraded soil structure and increased surface-water runoff within the landscape
University of Exeter study on the impact of Culm Grasslands on water and soil quality show mean soil carbon content to be significantly higher under Culm grassland (133mg g-1) than their intensively managed counterparts (86 mg g-1) - ie intensively managed grasslands may only store ca. 65% of the carbon that their Culm grassland counterparts store.
The same study shows that soil moisture content (70 %) and soil depth (47 cm) in Culm is significantly higher than in the intensively managed counterpart.
These results illustrate the greater water storage capacity of Culm grasslands when compared to both intensively managed grassland on similar soils and both scrub and woodland sites.
2.2 million tonnes of silt – ie topsoil - is lost from the land each year in the UK
Trying to remove it from rivers and lakes costs society app. £45M – mainly due to the actual cost to farmers, water quality treatment costs and dredging costs.
The actual cost of purchasing 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is app £40M
Field investigations 2002 -2011 showed soil structural degradation widespread in SW England; 38% of surveyed sites had degraded soil structure and increased surface-water runoff within the landscape
University of Exeter study on the impact of Culm Grasslands on water and soil quality show mean soil carbon content to be significantly higher under Culm grassland (133mg g-1) than their intensively managed counterparts (86 mg g-1) - ie intensively managed grasslands may only store ca. 65% of the carbon that their Culm grassland counterparts store.
The same study shows that soil moisture content (70 %) and soil depth (47 cm) in Culm is significantly higher than in the intensively managed counterpart.
These results illustrate the greater water storage capacity of Culm grasslands when compared to both intensively managed grassland on similar soils and both scrub and woodland sites.
The Agency currently screens (per annum) over:
3500 planning applications
5000 flood defence consents
The screening process involves making a balanced judgement about the environmental and legal risks associated with each type of activity against the sensitivity of the wildlife interest present in that location
In addition we have great strategic influence on Town and Country Planning. The adoption of the London Rivers Action Plan by the GLA is a good example of our additional influence on strategic planning policies.
EBS Outcome contribution: We have not systematically recorded habitat creation and species conservation benefits from such third party activities, but we know from selected audits of the effect of our inputs and those of others such as the Wildlife Trusts, that the benefits are very significant.
Case example: Cornmill Gardens – River Ravensbourne, Lewisham
The SuDS for Schools Project was set up to pilot the retro-fitting of SuDS in schools in London. The project is based in the Pymmes Brook catchment which includes parts of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. The brook joins the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames, near Tottenham Marshes (north of the 2012 Olympic site).
Pymmes Brook was selected because of its degraded ecological status, unusually open course, comparatively deprived urban locality, connection to the Olympic site, and because some river health improvement work had been done in the catchment already.
Once ten schools had been identified, their grounds were surveyed for SuDS opportunities and several options identified at each. Representatives from each school attended a workshop in October 2012 where they developed ideas for SuDS related learning, and were trained as SuDS Ambassadors to engage with other stakeholders at their school.
SuDS have been installed at 10 schools. These have been planted with native wetland plant species by students, staff, parents and other members of the local school community.
The SuDS will be used as an outdoor learning resource - providing wetland habitats for learning outside the classroom that can be accessed without leaving the school grounds. Learning activities may include photo journals recording changes through the seasons, and plant and bug surveys. These activities along with more formal monitoring by eco-councils will track increases in biodiversity and will ensure that any necessary maintenance is undertaken.
