Case study:Plough Hill Farm Meander and Wet meadow restoration

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Location: 52° 0' 43.63" N, 0° 20' 40.07" E

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site
Themes	Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology
Country	England
Main contact forename	Kieren
Main contact surname	Alexander
Main contact user ID	User:KierenAlexander
Contact organisation	Essex Wildlife Trust
Contact organisation web site	http://http://essexrivershub.org.uk/
Partner organisations
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

Project Site

Project summary

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This project furthers the development of the River Pant and builds on the work undertaken at Millfield, Bocking and Ironbridge farm. The aim of all three projects is to target an improvement in the River Pant under the Water Framework Directive.

Currently the river is failing under the Water Framework directive. There are a number of overriding issues in this waterbody most notably a heavily modified water body that has become disconnected from the floodplain, phosphate and diffuse pollution input, point source and fish passage.

Whilst it is impossible that this project will single handedly turn around this assessment, it will along with the other projects begin to make a difference to this waterbody and start to improve it ecologically and with multi benefits such as flood alleviation seeing improvements.

This is a fairly simple intervention and is focused around enhancing existing geomorphological processes such as riffle creation, and sediment deposition. Both are of major benefits to invertebrates, spawning fish and fish fry, which are arguably the key components in any river's ecosystem.

We aim to improve the river by opening up an old meander bend. Historically the river would have flowed around this bend but at some point in the past this has been straightened. This has left a relict channel which is partially open at one end. This floods but only infrequently, we aim to connect at one end to allow increased wetting up. This will have a series of effects, it will promote aquatic and emergent vegetation in the derelict channel, it will provide a fish fry refuge at time of high flows and offer some flood alleviation by increasing connectivity with the floodplain and allow silt to settle out of the floodplain.

In addition to the above, three pieces of woody debris will be installed which will further kick start geomorphic processes, in this case riffles, bank and bottom erosion and deposition. The woody debris allow pollutants to be filtered out, berms to be created and river flow to be more dynamic. Beyond the works on the river there will also be some hedge planting to connect up the landscape and the river and allow birds and other animals to move freely around the project site and other

Work has now been consented and has received planning permission and once the bird breeding season is complete, work will commence. Physical earthworks will take around a week to complete.

Monitoring surveys and results

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Fixed point photography will be used to assess vegetation changes and changes in river performance.

Lessons learnt

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This is a small project, total cost is expected to be less than 5k. However, it still has to be treated as if it is a major project. This has led to a very bottom heavy project with a substantially more spent on the consenting process rather than the delivering the project. There is a strong argument to suggest that any river restoration project must be worth the consenting process and smaller projects may not offer value for money.

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 Anglian River basin Combined Essex Subcatchment River name Pant Area category 10 - 100 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 Arable and Horticulture Waterbody ID GB105037041180 Other case studies in this subcatchment: Ironbridge Farm, Millfield Plantation 2 Site Edit site Name Plough Hill WFD water body codes GB105037041180 WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pant Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body No National/international site designation Local/regional site designations BAP Habitat Protected species present Yes Invasive species present Yes 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) 5050 m <br />0.05 km <br />5,000 cm <br /> Project started 2015/04/06 Works started 2015/08/17 Works completed Project completed Total cost category Less than 1 k€ 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 Quantity & dynamics of flow, backwater creation Biology Fish, Invertebrates, Macrophytes Physico-chemical Specific non-synthetic pollutants 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 http://www.essexrivershub.org.uk For more information on this and other projects in Combined Essex catchment Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information