Evenlode Catchment Partnership NFM Hydrohack

Francesco Pelizza and Beccy Wilebore and attended the NFM HydroHack in the Evenlode Catchment (Oxfordshire) on the 16^th of June. The event was organised by the Evenlode Catchment Partnership (ECP) to support data collection at the ECPs Natural Flood Management (NFM) scheme. Members of Oxford University, Atkins Consultancy, SouthEast Rivers Trust and ECP installed a series of water level logging locations to monitor the functioning of the Phase 1 components of the scheme. The NFM measures – including woody dams, corner bunds, retention ponds and riparian woodland plantation – have been developed on one of the Evenlode tributaries, the Littlestock Brook, which flows through the village of Milton-under-Wychwood. In the afternoon the group moved to the area where the Phase 2 of the scheme will be completed this summer. The Wychwood Flora Group surveyed the plant species in the area in order to feed onto the designs of the features that will be implemented in the area.

Natural Flood Management aims to reduce flood hazard by restoring innate hydrological and morphological processes features and characteristics while sustaining or enhancing environmental co-benefits such as biodiversity, increased soil and water quality and carbon sequestration.

Francesco previously collaborated with Richard Bennet, the ECP NFM Officer, to monitor water levels in Littlestock Brook where 8 woody dams have been installed, in order to highlight possible changes in the morphology of the stream and to map all the NFM features that have been developed in the catchment.

Further information:

NFM pilot scheme developed in the Evenlode Catchment

https://www.wildoxfordshire.org.uk/biodiversity/river-catchments/evenlode-catchment/projects/river-restoration-including-water-quality-natural-flood-management-measures/

Photo: Participants in the ECP NFM Hydrohack. photo credit: Dave Gasca