7 minute read
The art of natural flood management
Slow The Flow volunteers working at Hardcastle Crags. © Samuel Townsend
Artists’ engagement in a project in Calderdale is creating a new approach to tackling the climate emergency.
An exciting new project in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, is bringing together internationally renowned artists to create a series of artworks that respond to the climate emergency by acting as natural flood management (NFM). These artworks will help reduce flood risk in Calderdale, using established and proven NFM techniques to help slow the flow of rainwater into the valley during heavy rainfall.
The impact of climate change is felt in everyday life in Calderdale in many ways. Its steep-sided valleys and riverside communities make flooding a perennial threat, with devastating floods in 2012, 2015 and 2020. In winter 2019–20, 37% of all residential properties which flooded in England were in the Calder Valley. The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and have made climate action a priority. Calderdale’s Climate Action Plan is a key part of this, and NFM sits within the Plan’s theme of working with land and nature to protect the borough in the long term. This builds resilience – a major focus of Calderdale’s ‘Vision 2024’ place strategy.
NFM is simply replicating natural processes to reduce flooding. This can be done by restoring moorlands so they hold on to rainwater, creating dry ponds or building ‘leaky dams’ which temporarily hold back water in times of high rainfall. The ‘Art as NFM’ project, as it is known, is led by newly formed community interest company Confluence Arts CIC. Comprising a team of passionate people with a wealth of experience working in the arts, the group also enjoys support from a range of partners including Calderdale Council. The artist launching this innovative project is none other than Andy Goldsworthy OBE, an English sculptor who produces site-specific work inspired by and working with nature. His piece reflects the local landscape, using locally sourced materials to create unique dams within a watercourse. 'I hope to create a social, environmental, community-driven art project that attempts to address the problem of flooding, but also articulate people's concern, and connection to the land,' Goldsworthy said of his project.
a fantastic example of how an environmental art project can help tackle the climate emergency, whilst placing Calderdale on the international art map. It will command attention globally and inspire new ways to artistically address the climate crisis.
Some of the other artists involved include:
– David Nash OBE, whose famous slow art piece ‘Wooden Boulder’ was a giant carved oak sphere which he set journeying downstream on the river Dwyryd in Wales, followed over the course of 35 years. For The Art as NFM project, David has designed a beautiful piece utilising his signature charring of wood, preserving it whilst giving it a striking black colour.
– Trudi Entwistle is a site-specific artist based in Calderdale who has been commissioned to work all over the world. Trudi completed a residency funded by Calderdale Council as part of the Art as Natural Flood Management project in 2022, resulting in two proposals, one in stone, and one using earth to create a series of bunds to capture the overland flow of rainwater.
– Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a contemporary visual artist working across a variety of media and has designed a piece that is a striking juxtaposition to the natural environment of Calderdale. Elpida’s piece uses goldleaf to guild natural materials.
So far, Confluence Arts CIC has invited artists to be involved, but has plans for an open call for artists at all stages of their career to respond to the question of how to slow water using art, sympathetically and often in difficult environments. A commissioned piece will specifically address the issue of access. NFM is most effective in upland locations, so the artworks will likely be in locations which might not be overly accessible. To complement the artworks and offer greater accessibility to the project, exhibitions showing photographs, artist drawings and potentially artworks by the artists will be held in Halifax at the prestigious Piece Hall Gallery, another partner of this project.
Funding is now being sought to achieve the first artwork by Andy Goldsworthy, with the Henry Moore Foundation and the Environment Agency already on board as funders. It is expected that most of the funding for these artworks will come from private and arts funding. Confluence Arts CIC hopes to have this first piece installed in spring 2024, with subsequent pieces following once funding is achieved. In time, a trail linking the artworks together will be developed.
As well as highlighting important climate issues, the project showcases Calderdale’s distinctive art and culture and complements its Year of Culture 2024.
Sir Peter Murray CBE, Founding Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, said that the project is 'a fantastic example of how an environmental art project can help tackle the climate emergency, whilst placing Calderdale on the international art map. It will command attention globally and inspire new ways to artistically address the climate crisis.'
As Murray suggests, the enterprise will be instrumental in raising awareness of Calderdale’s community response to tackling flooding – with over 20,000 trees planted and almost 1,000 leaky dams created by volunteers so far, to slow down rainwater flow into the valley. Following the 2015 floods, local charity Slow The Flow was formed by a group of likeminded individuals keen to take action to tackle flooding. By engaging community volunteers, it focused its efforts in the woodlands of Hardcastle Crags and has created almost 1,000 ‘leaky dams’ in small watercourses and several kilometres of contour dams, supported by landowner the National Trust. Hardcastle Crags sits upstream of Hebden Bridge, and this work will not only have a positive effect on reducing the peak flows hitting the town during heavy rainfall, but also on the mental health of the thousands of local volunteers that have got their hands dirty working on this project.
A map of the work completed by Slow The Flow and the National Trust has been created and is available to visitors interested in taking a closer look at these dams in situ. Slow The Flow has now started working with volunteers at nearby Broadhead Clough above Mytholmroyd, and strives to expand NFM knowledge by offering a dedicated accredited course.
In addition to this community action, plenty of other NFM measures are being implemented across Calderdale. Moors for the Future and other organisations are working to restore moorland, rewetting the moors and enabling more sphagnum to grow so it captures rainwater. Calderdale Council and the Environment Agency are offering landowners funding to implement NFM projects on their land and have funded over 50 successful projects so far. The National Trust is leading on a project to restore the uplands using NFM, and by revegetating upland river valleys. And White Rose Forest is offering support to landowners interested in creating new woodlands in Calderdale.
There is plenty of national evidence provided by the Environment Agency showing the effectiveness of NFM in slowing down the time it takes rainwater to flow from the top of a catchment to the towns below. Slow The Flow claims its work at Hardcastle Crags can cause a delay of between 30 and 105 minutes. If this is true, replicating this work across each valley could have a significant effect on reducing flooding in Calderdale.
Ben Fenton is Natural Flood Management Project Officer at Calderdale Council.
