The river Eden catchment is an important place for research
on flooding and water quality. In addition to the Eden Environmental Virtual Observatory pilot project, a number of
other projects are being carried out;
follow the links below to find out more information.
The Eden Demonstration Test Catchment (Eden
DTC) project's aim is to develop a large-scale
research platform to test measures for reducing diffuse pollution from
agriculture. As part of the project, a wide range of high-tech equipment for measuring data about the local environment is being installed in the catchment. This includes near real-time measurement of stream water quality and flow level which is available through their website. The project is also developing on-farm measures for trying to reduce diffusion pollution from agriculture in collaboration with the local farming community.
ALFA UK is based in the Eden
river catchment and is part of a European initiative which aims to help protect
people against the effects of flooding by creating new capacity for water
storage within river catchments. In the Eden, this involves identifying and
demonstrating ecologically sustainable solutions for storing water within the
catchment and managing river flows. Research is being carried out to
investigate the ability of rural land use adaptations to decrease river peak
flood flows and increase base low flows. The project involves a whole range of
people in the Eden catchment from communities to farmers and land owners. It
aims to deliver a number of practical projects such as the Thacker Beck Flood
Alleviation Scheme to demonstrate sustainable solutions for river flow
management and look at the wider benefits such as those to wildlife, farming
and recreation.
MOPS2 is a project looking
at Mitigation Options for Phosphorus and Sediment by using field wetlands to
mitigate diffuse pollution in agricultural catchments. The six year project
(2008 – 2013) has three sites in the Eden catchment where a variety of
different edge-of-field constructed wetlands have been installed. The sites cover both sandy and silty soils
types and are located at Whinton Hill, Crake Trees Manor and Newton Rigg. The
aims of these sites are to establish the effectiveness of ponds and wetlands
for controlling diffuse pollution by quantifying the soils and phosphorus
trapped by the systems.
SCIMAP is project focussed
on identifying the locations within a landscape where diffuse pollution from
agriculture may potentially be a problem. This approach generates risk maps for
diffuse pollution within catchments by assessing both the sources of pollution
and their likely connectivity to water courses. The risk based approach used,
allows the prioritisation of management activities to address hydrologically well-connected
land areas and risky land uses. The approach has been used in a number of river
catchments including the river Eden.
If you are aware of any other active flooding or water quality projects going on in the Eden area, please let us know so we can include links to them here.
