Have you learnt what a river ought to appear to be? Actually appear to be, that’s.
Over a whole bunch of years, the form and stream of our rivers and marshland has been dramatically altered to empty land for farming, housing and industrial growth.
As a substitute of permitting our rivers to naturally meander and, throughout heavy rainfall, to slowly flood and gently deposit their silt and water on neighbouring plains, now we have manipulated them.
Riverbanks have been straightened and deepened with steep banks which makes water stream sooner and retains it hemmed in.
With the impression of local weather change and extra intense climate occasions, we’re seeing heavy rainfall run off the encompassing land far too shortly, with the consequence of rivers flooding extra typically, and with the impression of flooding affecting an estimated one in six properties within the UK.
Restoring our rivers and permitting them to meander once more might be the answer to the issue.
In addition to slowing down water, meandering rivers and their marshlands enhance the standard of the water, create good habitats for wildlife and sequester carbon.
So what must be achieved and the way? Within the Lake District, the Cumbrian River Restoration Programme has already improved practically 100km of river. One of many streams it has tackled was flowing into the River Eden and had been straightened and moved away from its pure course within the late 1700s.
It has now been restored, its canalised channel moved to a brand new route decrease on the floodplain with options added together with gravel bars, riffles and meanders to encourage a extra pure motion.
The outcomes? Its capability to retailer water has been elevated, the stream of water and sediment downstream has been slowed and it’s creating higher habitats for trout, eels and Atlantic Salmon. When the river is excessive it might probably ‘gently spill’ onto the encompassing fields earlier than draining away because the water ranges drop.
In Norfolk, the Breckland Farmers Wildlife Community, a gaggle of 58 landowners, wish to ‘rewiggle’ numerous native rivers and join them as soon as once more with their floodplains.
The area’s rivers at present transfer rainfall far too shortly in direction of the ocean, eroding the soil and flooding downstream settlements.
The farmers’ plan would have biodiversity advantages and assist a lot wanted aquifers, an necessary supply for irrigation of the land, to recharge for for much longer.
Restoring our rivers is not only a British factor. Holland noticed cataclysmic floods in 1993 and 1995, which made the Dutch rethink their method to water administration. As a substitute of channelling water off the land as quick as doable, they determined to reverse the method and preserve it on the land for longer.
They’re giving extra room to rivers by restoring conventional wetlands and marshes chopping in meanders to gradual the stream of water.
A pioneering venture to revive 45km of the River Meuse has already lowered flooding and proven the wide-ranging advantages of working with nature.
It has been achieved by reducing giant areas surrounding the river and broadening the river with banks of sand and gravel, diverse shorelines and areas of woodland and grassland. This has created a ‘dynamic, braided river panorama which is allowed to flood and shift course naturally’.
The rewilding course of has additionally led to the pure restoration of each crops and animals together with beavers in addition to higher biodiversity. It’s also having tourism advantages.
As panorama architects, pure flood administration is a sizzling matter at Land Studio.
It is among the the reason why we lately launched our personal in-house Civil Engineering division. There’s by no means been a greater time for panorama architects and civil engineers not solely to work intently collectively – however to work with nature.
