Climate proofing north east England:  Benefits for river and sediment management

P. R. Brunner  (Royal Haskoning - p.brunner@royalhaskoning.com)

N. Cooper  (Royal Haskoning)

P. Kerr  (Environment Agency)

Proceedings paper from the 10th Annual River Restoration Centre Network Conference, 1st - 2nd April 2009

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Abstract

Global climate change affects us all. It is widely considered as one of the greatest threats affecting the environment and is currently high on both political and media agendas, although climate-proofing strategies at the regional or local scale are not routinely undertaken despite having the potential to be widely implemented in the United Kingdom.

Royal Haskoning and the Environment Agency have completed a regional climate-proofing project in north east England which has particularly focused on climate change impacts and adaptation measures related to various land uses and integrated benefits to river and sediment management and to the local community.

The project is located in the Cheviot Hills and was split into three phases:

Phase 1 – Predicting the climate changes by the 2050s. This was undertaken using a climatic model to make predictions of future rainfall, snowfall,  temperature and wind patterns. Published information relating to sea level rise and changes in wave and surge frequency was also incorporated.

Phase 2 – Assessing the impacts of the predicted climate changes on various land and water habitats. Some of the key impacts anticipated were changes in rainfall with more intense winter flood events in the upland catchment areas impacting upon riverine habitats, for example increased river bank erosion, siltation of gravel beds and adverse surface flooding.

Phase 3 – Identifying possible adaptation measures to counter the predicted impacts. Adaptation examples include approaches that are now more commonplace, but also other approaches such as tree planting to enhance fisheries (having the benefits for stability on riverbanks or natural ‘surface roughness’ to attenuate out-of-bank flows), or upland sediment management through creation of wet woodlands (having the benefits of detention of peak flows and reduction of sediment entering rivers), or irrigation retention (reducing winter peaks and providing valuable water resources).

This paper will present a summary of the project (focusing on river and sediment management), and discusses the applicability of the project to other areas of the United Kingdom, where the type and magnitude of changes and impacts may be different, and hence possible adaptation measures may differ also.

Keywords

adaptation measures; climate change; flood risk; riverine management