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West Thames River Basin area, where around
112,000 properties are thought to be at risk of
flooding if rivers burst their banks, almost
10,000 are at risk of groundwater flooding, and
many more are in danger of surface water
flooding. Work will initially focus on the Loddon,
Pang and Upper Thames catchments, before
being scaled up to the Thames river basin
upstream from Oxford and Maidenhead. The
project will explore whether broad scale
changes in land use and management could
have helped to reduce the severity of flooding
events of July 2007 and winter 2013/14.
Following the successful NERC funding bid,
the team will gather data to test how effective
these measures are for small to large flood
events and from local to large river basin scale.
They will bring together local knowledge on
current land management methods, record
how they impact water infiltration and storage
below ground using field measurement and
new satellite technology, and run modelling
experiments based on the data collected and
local knowledge.
A new, easy-to-use, interactive online data
visualisation tool will be developed to help
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everyone in the team evaluate data sources
effectively. This work will be supported by
workshops and further field visits, working
together with farmers, communities and local
authorities.
The Institute for Environmental Analytics, a
cutting-edge data science organisation hosted
by the University, will be leading the
development of an interactive online
visualisation tool to view and analyse the data
effectively.
The team will aim to find realistic
opportunities for future Government policy on
land use and management changes after
Britain leaves the EU. NFM measures could
also improve water quality, biodiversity and
sustainable food production.
The scientists will also carry out further study
into the potential risk of more flooding that
could be caused by increased infiltration and
storage of water in deep groundwater if it
results in higher groundwater levels.
NFM projects led by the University of
Manchester and the University of Lancaster
were also granted NERC funding.
Professor Robert Van de Noort, University of
Reading Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic
Planning & Resource and Chair of the Thames
Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, said:
“We are all too aware of the risk of flooding to
people, infrastructure and businesses in the
Thames Valley and invest significant amounts
of money to reduce this flood risk. Natural flood
management is a critical part of this work. The
LANDWISE project will give us urgently-needed
evidence of the effectiveness of natural flood
management that will provide us with the
confidence to work more with nature.”
Christopher Short, of the Countryside and
Community Research Institute at the University
of Gloucestershire and chair of the Upper
Thames Catchment Partnership, said: “We are
particularly delighted that this project has
secured funding as it recognises the strength of
the partnership in the Upper Thames involving
a wide range of stakeholders all of whom have
something to contribute to the long-term
management of the catchment. Their
knowledge and experiences will be key to the
successful delivery of the project and we look
forward to working with them.”
November 2017 | Farming Monthly | 11