Case study:River Little Ouse at Thetford

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Location: 52° 23' 56.36" N, 0° 44' 55.03" E

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site
Themes	Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity
Country	England
Main contact forename	Chris
Main contact surname	Gregory
Main contact user ID
Contact organisation	British Trust for Ornithology
Contact organisation web site	http://www.bto.org/
Partner organisations
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

Little Ouse following restoration

Project summary

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In 1991 the site and adjacent land were purchased by the BTO to create a wetland bird reserve. The Little Ouse had previously been straightened and flowed in a trapezoidal channel. In-stream habitat was poor, macrophytes were confined mainly to the shallow margins and the substrate was dominated by sand with some silt and gravel. The Environment Agency were approached to assist with restoring flows to the original, meandering course which remained as a damp depression. By restoring flows to the old channel 900m of diverse river habitat with varied morphology and a connection to the floodplain was gained. Problems have been experienced with the breaching of several banks at meanders and the development of permanently ponded areas (the original design was aimed at encouraging seasonal inundation to create suitable nesting habitats for waders such as lapwing). Several attempts have been made to repair these breaches with techniques such as blue clay banks and pre-seeded coir matting Further remediation works are planned for September 2013 and will consist of the creation of 'living revetments'. The approximate cost of this additional work is £6,000.

Monitoring surveys and results

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Lessons learnt

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Catchment and subcatchment

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Site

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Name	River Little Ouse at Thetford
WFD water body codes	GB105033043090
WFD (national) typology
WFD water body name
Pre-project morphology	Artificial channel, Straightened, trapezoidal
Reference morphology	Sinuous meander
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	Wading birds (e.g. Lapwing)
Dominant hydrology
Dominant substrate	Gravel
River corridor land use	Agriculture (arable)
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

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Reach length directly affected (m)	900900 m <br />0.9 km <br />90,000 cm <br />
Project started	1994/04/01
Works started
Works completed
Project completed	1994/07/01
Total cost category	10 - 50 k€
Total cost (k€)	17.317.3 k€ <br />17,300 € <br />
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

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Mitigation of a pressure	Restore floodplain connectivity
Hydromorphology	Width & depth variation, Channel pattern/planform
Biology	Invertebrates, Macrophytes
Physico-chemical
Other reasons for the project	Creation of wetland area for wading birds

Measures

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Structural measures
Bank/bed modifications	Creation of pools and riffles
Floodplain / River corridor	Creation of backwater and ponds, New habitats construction, Reconnect and restore historic aquatic habitats
Planform / Channel pattern	Re-connect old meander
Other
Non-structural measures
Management interventions
Social measures (incl. engagement)
Other

Monitoring

Hydromorphological quality elements

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quality elements

Element	When monitored		Type of monitoring		Control site used	Result
	Before measures	After measures	Qualitative	Quantitative
Width & depth variation	No	Yes	Yes	No	No

Biological quality elements

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quality elements

Element	When monitored		Type of monitoring		Control site used	Result
	Before measures	After measures	Qualitative	Quantitative
Invertebrates: Diversity	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Improvement
Macrophytes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Deterioration

Physico-chemical quality elements

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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

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Element	When monitored		Type of monitoring		Control site used	Result
	Before measures	After measures	Qualitative	Quantitative

Monitoring documents

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Image gallery

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Additional documents and videos

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Additional links and references

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Link	Description

Supplementary Information

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