Case study:Restoring Brent Rivers and Communities

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Location: 51° 33' 44.75" N, 0° 15' 41.77" W

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Social benefits, Water quality, Urban
Country	England
Main contact forename	Carolina
Main contact surname	Pinto
Main contact user ID	User:Carolfp10
Contact organisation	Thames21
Contact organisation web site	http://https://www.thames21.org.uk/
Partner organisations
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects

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Project summary

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The Restoring Brent Rivers and Communities project engaged local people in areas of high social deprivation in Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Harrow. Together we restored and improved sections of the river Brent with the aim to also increase community well-being. We increased access to the river and its paths, collaborating with local communities on practical river restoration workshops, celebrating and sharing successes.

We aimed at rewilding sections of the river Brent by creating new wetlands, planting native aquatic plants, removing wooden toe-boards and helping the river meander more naturally in its channel.

A series of river channel improvement were planned and delivered by the project. Thames21 officers and technical experts designed the schemes and secured the appropriate permissions from the Environment Agency and the Local Authorities. Much of the work has been carried out by volunteers with Thames21 support. In Quainton St Open Space, approximately 40m of hard engineering (wooden toe boarding) was removed to re-establishing natural banks and native plant communities. Eight large wood deflectors in a 500m longitudinal section were installed in the channel at in Burnt Oak Brook at Watling Park. The wood helps to re-energise low water flow patterns, improving habitat diversity and water quality during dry weather river flows. The logs were sourced from vegetation management work that took place at Quainton Street Open Space in January 2021.

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Lessons learnt

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The most significant challenge encountered was impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The various lockdowns and meeting restrictions caused significant disruption to the planned community engagement and programme of volunteering activity. To mitigate this impact consultations were moved on to Zoom, social media, phone calls and emails. The classroom element of Thames21’s training courses were also move to on-line learning. This allowed the delivery of short and more flexible learning sessions that were supported by on-site, practical follow-up sessions. The new course structure, and the flexibility it offered was well received by volunteers.

As lockdown restrictions eased at the beginning of April 2021, Thames21 introduced a range of measures to allow the return of volunteering activity outside. This included: • Restricting the number of volunteers • Maintaining social distancing • Using extra hygiene procedures.

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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 Brent (below Silk stream down to the Thames) Area category 100 - 1000 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 100 - 200 m Maximum altitude (m) 130130 m <br />0.13 km <br />13,000 cm <br /> Dominant geology Calcareous Ecoregion Great Britain Dominant land cover Suburban Waterbody ID GB106039023590 Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present Invasive species present 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) Project started Works started Works completed Project completed Total cost category Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources 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 Hydromorphology Biology Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Floodplain / River corridor Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) 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 Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information