Case study:Wye Herefordshire Improvement Project

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Location: 52° 8' 2.45" N, 2° 57' 50.68" W

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site
Themes	Economic aspects, Environmental flows and water resources, Fisheries, Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Land use management - agriculture, Spatial planning, Water quality
Country	England
Main contact forename	Simon
Main contact surname	Evans
Main contact user ID	User:Simon Evans
Contact organisation	Wye & Usk Foundation
Contact organisation web site	http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org
Partner organisations
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects

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Project summary

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WHIP is a £1.6m project working with 400 farmers across Western Herefordshire to reduce the impact of agriculture on the Wye catchment. Using a bottom up approach, the project starts with the ecology of the rivers and then works with the farmers individually to identify the causes and adapt the management that is causing WFD failure. The project operates on a free and confidential basis, bringing farmers together into groups according to the catchment they are in and annually reviewing progress and monitoring results. This way we transfer 'ownership' of the project to the farmers. We commonly achieve over 95% engagement of the agricultural community in each water body.

The principle issues we are seeking to correct are - Excessive loss of top soil to watercourses. - Excessive loss of phosphate to watercourses. - Pesticide contamination of water. - Excessive overland flow. - Degraded riparian habitat. - Barriers to fish access.

The project delivers land use change by developing pragmatic and effective solutions with the farmers and agri-businesses on a farm by farm basis and delivering them. Fencing works and farm infrastructure works are supported with a delegated grant pool (50% of cost for fencing, up to £15,000 at max 50% for farm infrastructure). In combination we are achieving measurable improvements on a waterbody and catchment scale.

We have developed and adapted Durham University's computer model SCIMAP to create a practical and effective tool that both engages farmers and allows works to be effectively targeted on both a field and subcatchment level.

After a decade of WUF action removing/alleviating obstructions to fish migration in the Wye catchment the last few are being addressed in this project.

Monitoring surveys and results

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The project is monitoring its progress against the project targets and its effects on the water courses.

Progress to 31st March 2014. Whole project targets in brackets. 223 farmers engaged (400) 176 whole farm plans completed (320) 49 farm infrastructure projects completed (150) 11.7km of riparian fencing erected with alternative stock watering (75km)

The ecological monitoring is in addition to the existing WFD monitoring conducted the EA. Full results are available from the Wye and Usk Foundation.

Headlines - Measurable improvements in phytobenthos communities in catchments with over 80% landowner engagement - 4 water bodies lifted to high status for fish. - Widest ever distribution of Atlantic salmon in Herefordshire was recorded in 2013. Salmon found in Curl and Humber: 2 waterbodies previously too 'silty' to support salmonid spawning.

Lessons learnt

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Correcting diffuse pollution is best achieved by working at the appropriate scale (farm by farm) in a catchment context. This delivers real and measurable benefits to WFD status as well as improving farm profitability.

Our revised SCIMAP is proving an invaluable tool in addressing problems of excessive overland flow and top soil loss to water.

Image gallery

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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 Severn River basin Wye Subcatchment River name R Arrow - source to conf Gladestry Bk Area category 10 - 100 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 500 - 1000 m Maximum altitude (m) 540540 m <br />0.54 km <br />54,000 cm <br /> Dominant geology Calcareous Ecoregion Great Britain Dominant land cover Acid Grassland Waterbody ID GB109055036590 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 Defra Catchment Restoration Fund 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 Pollution incident, Barriers to fish migration, Impoundments (not hydropower), Riparian development Hydromorphology Channel pattern/planform Biology Fish Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Bank reprofiling, Reduce diffuse pollution Floodplain / River corridor Weir/barrier removing Planform / Channel pattern Other UK BAP habitat creation/restoration, Non BAP habitat creation/restoration, Farm infrastructure interventions Non-structural measures Management interventions Fencing, Non/agricultural business changed its way of working Social measures (incl. engagement) Community involvement Other Economic aspects 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