How nature is helping to protect from flooding

THE heavy rain and flooding of November has been a strong reminder that areas of Sheffield and Rotherham are still at risk. Climate change forecasts are telling us we can expect extreme weather events more frequently in future. Protecting Sheffield and Rotherham in years to come will undoubtedly require a range of actions.

Amongst those actions is increased work to develop the existing capacity of the countryside, to slow the flow and hold water back. The Sheffield Lakeland Landscape Partnership, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Environment Agency, is working with land owners and tenant farmers above the Little Don, Rivelin and Loxley Rivers on a range of Natural Flood Management projects.

Anthony Downing, coordinator of partnership projects for the Environment Agency in the Don Catchment, told us: “We’re really pleased to be involved in the Sheffield Lakeland Landscape Partnership. It’s fantastic to see local organisations working together to improve the environment and reduce flood risk using natural flood management techniques.

“Natural flood management can be a costeffective and sustainable way to manage flood risk alongside traditional engineering, while also creating habitat for wildlife and helping regenerate rural and urban areas through tourism.

Natural flood management is a developing area. We hope to use the valuable experience and knowledge the partners are gaining in this project to develop further projects of its type.”

David Renwick, Director of England North, at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “As we have seen in recent times, extreme weather is not always a stranger to us in the UK. Projects like the natural flood management measures being undertaken as part of the Sheffield Lakeland Landscape Partnership scheme will help to not only reduce the flood risk to local communities, but can also aid habitat creation and cultural regeneration in the area.

“At The National Lottery Heritage Fund we are pleased to be able to invest in projects that will yield such a positive impact for the areas within Sheffield Lakeland.”

The Sheffield Lakeland Partnership Coordinator, Keith Tomkins, is a full convert to Natural Flood Management but feels there is a long way to go before it meets even a fraction of its potential: “Natural Flood Management undoubtedly has a role to play in the suite of actions we have available to us, but we need to consider it at a landscape scale. A few new wet areas, improved hedgerows or areas of tree planting may help, but the benefits are easily negated by a loss of habitat and inappropriate use of land in the same landscape. Where you see curlew and lapwing, these areas are also likely to be where water is absorbed and stored. Currently we have a double challenge as these birds decline due loss of habitat and the reduction of capacity of the land to help slow the flow.”

Nabil Abbas, Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust Working with Water Project Officer, who is leading on the delivery of this work said: “The countryside has the capacity to soak up water and to hold it in pools, soils and plants, releasing it again slowly. This means that heavy rainfall does not immediately flow across the surface and into our rivers. We are identifying places that are already providing us with this service and working with farmers and other land owners to protect and improve them. As well as helping to hold water these places are also where wildlife thrives. As an example, on one of the sites we have been working on, we discovered a colony of water vole.”

Water vole is one of six species being supported by National Lottery Players via the Local Conservation Action Plan (LCAP). Other species of the list include; barn owl, bat, goshawk, osprey and willow tit. Read the LCAP here: https://www.wildsheffield.com/discover/your-community/sheffield-lakeland-landscape-partnership/landscape-conservationaction-plan/