Case study:Bringing Back the Bulbourne

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Location: 51° 44' 38.07" N, 0° 29' 9.53" W

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site	http://www.boxmoortrust.org.uk/river-bulbourne/
Themes	Fisheries, Habitat and biodiversity, Land use management - agriculture, Monitoring, Social benefits, Water quality
Country	England
Main contact forename	Liam
Main contact surname	Dennis
Main contact user ID	User:Liamd
Contact organisation	Environment Agency
Contact organisation web site	http://http://www.boxmoortrust.org.uk/river-bulbourne/
Partner organisations	The Box Moor Trust
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

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Project summary

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The River Bulbourne is a chalk stream that has been severely impacted by historic alterations, over-abstraction and its interaction with the Grand Union Canal. The one kilometre section is owned by the Box Moor Trust and is common land open to the public.

Prior to this project, the River Bulbourne was straight, over-wide and silty. Due to high banks and old dredging bunds, the river was disconnected from its floodplain and had little marginal habitat. Excessive grazing pressure resulted in bank erosion and little riparian vegetation. A large weir prevented fish passage and also caused an impoundment upstream further degrading the habitat.

The chalk stream characteristics had been almost completely lost. What should have been a beautiful gravelly stream meandering through rich, biodiverse floodplain, was actually a silty homogeneous channel with little habitat to provide home to wildlife.

Monitoring surveys and results

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We have undertaken an integrated approach to monitoring and evaluation using complementary surveys incorporating professionals, academics and citizen scientists.

Electrofishing surveys have been conducted prior to delivery phase and post project. Further surveys will be carried out in future years to track population changes.

A group of volunteers regularly undertake Riverfly monitoring to help us understand the changes to the health of the river’s invertebrate populations. We worked with academics from Queen Mary University of London to apply the new Modular River Survey to assess changes in habitat composition as a result of the restoration work. This was complemented by localised detailed habitat assessments, physical biotope mapping and a river corridor survey undertaken by the Environment Agency. Sediment sampling was carried out and methods employed to minimize the introduction of pollutants present in the bank material into the river. We also used real-time monitoring sondes to demonstrate that the water quality of the river remained acceptable throughout the main phase of works. The results will provide a case study to help better inform similar schemes in future.

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Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment 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) 10001,000 m <br />1 km <br />100,000 cm <br /> Project started 2013/06/01 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 Abstraction Hydromorphology Channel pattern/planform Biology Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Re-grading, Bed raising Floodplain / River corridor Scrapes, Floodplain reconnection Planform / Channel pattern Introducing large woody debris, Channel narrowing Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Citizen participation in the restoration project Other Survey work, Fish surveys 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