Case study:Albany Park

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Location: 51° 40' 5.85" N, 0° 1' 59.94" W

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Environmental flows and water resources, Fisheries, Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Social benefits, Spatial planning, Urban
Country	England
Main contact forename	Matilda
Main contact surname	Biddulph
Main contact user ID	User:mbiddulph
Contact organisation	Environment Agency
Contact organisation web site	http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency
Partner organisations	London Borough of Enfield
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

Left: pre-restoration concrete channel Right: post-restoration sinuous, natural channel.

Project summary

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A partnership project between London Borough of Enfield (LBE) and the Environment Agency (EA; Biodiversity & Geomorphology team from Hertfordshire and North London Area). Funded by LBE, EA and the Greater London Authority (GLA). The environmental and flood risk benefits allowed for funding, and the project came to approximately £1.5million.

The Turkey Brook is a medium sized, clay-based catchment flowing initially through rural grassland into a dense urban area of London, before meeting the River Lee in Enfield. It is failing under the Water Framework Directive for: macrophytes and phytobenthos, phosphate, and drought/low flows, and hydromorphology. The river was confined in a steep sided concrete channel along the edge of the park, with very little biodiversity, habitat or connection with groundwater. The general public often did not even know it was there, or if they did they regarded it as an open sewer.

The Albany Park Restoration Project aimed to restore 400m of the Turkey Brook, by breaking it out of concrete and creating a natural, sinuous river through the park. The river now flows through a wide, shallow river corridor made up primarily of the Kempton Park Gravel Member, which allows the channel to reform and reshape itself during high flows until it reaches an equilibrium. The urban, flashy nature of the catchment means that intensive geomorphological work is achieved during each high flow event.

The river is now connected laterally with it's floodplain and riparian zone, and vertically with the groundwater and a hyporheic zone. The natural cross section and improved connectivity has improved the Turkey Brook's resilience to low flows, and its ability to store water and attenuate high flows. The constructed wetlands and SuDs features around the park has hopefully also improved water quality, but ongoing monitoring will determine the success of this.

The river is now a valuable public amenity in an otherwise heavily urban area, and provides an educational resource for local schools.

Monitoring surveys and results

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As the project was completed in the Summer of 2021, monitoring is still on going. Invertebrates, macrophytes, fish and water quality will be monitored before and after for a number of years, alongside morph surveys with accompanying drone footages to show the change in channel shape over time.

Lessons learnt

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The project was severely delayed due to a combination of Covid-19 and wet weather, there were also issues with securing planning permission due to the large number of stakeholders involved.

Image gallery

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Drone Photograph during early phase of construction

Breaking back into Turkey Brook at the downstream end, looking upstream.

The confined concrete channel pre-restoration.

During construction. Note the extremely gravelly ground through which the channel was created.

Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Edit the catchment and subcatchment details (affects all case studies in this subcatchment) Catchment River basin district Thames River basin London Subcatchment River name Cuffley Brook and Turkey Brook Area category 10 - 100 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 100 - 200 m Maximum altitude (m) 143143 m <br />0.143 km <br />14,300 cm <br /> Dominant geology Clay Ecoregion Great Britain Dominant land cover Improved grassland Waterbody ID GB106038033180 Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes GB106038033180 WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Cuffley Brook and Turkey Brook Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body No National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present No Invasive species present No Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) 400400 m <br />0.4 km <br />40,000 cm <br /> Project started 01/04/2016 Works started 2020/08/01 Works completed 2021/08/01 Project completed Total cost category 1000 - 5000 k€ Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources Local council, Greater London Authority, Environment Agency environmental funding and flood risk funding. Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Stakeholder engagement and communication Works and works supervision Post-project management and maintenance Monitoring Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Urbanisation Hydromorphology Channel pattern/planform Biology Fish, Invertebrates, Macrophytes Physico-chemical Nutrient concentrations Other reasons for the project improving a local park Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Creation of berms, Creation of backwaters Floodplain / River corridor River naturalisation, Reedbed creation, Scrapes, Fish habitat restoration Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Recreation Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents picture summary Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information