National River Restoration Inventory

The River Restoration Centre’s National River Restoration Inventory (NRRI) is used by the Centre to document best practice river, watercourse and floodplain restoration, enhancement and management efforts in the UK. There are also a number of non UK/ international projects. The resource includes information on:

• Project name, river, length and location (National Grid Reference where recorded)
• Detailed breakdown of objectives and techniques used in the project
• Background setting and motivation/s behind the project
• Comments as to the success/failure of techniques/project and other useful evidence
• Available documentation, references and details of whether the site has been audited
• Catchment, waterbody and reach data (including geology, substrate, catchment type and flow data)
• Cost information (and breakdown where available)
• Main contact (and secondary contacts and project partners where known)

Other established resources include the National Biological Information Infrastructure’s (NBII) National River Restoration Science Synthesis (NRRSS) in the United States of America, and the European Centre for River Restoration (ECRR) which holds details of projects across Europe. The LIFE+ RESTORE project (RRC are the ‘West Europe’ lead organisation) is developing a ‘Wiki’-based inventory of river restoration case studies which is freely available to view online.

Helping us update the resource
As of November 2011, the resource holds information on over 2,000 river projects, and requests can be made by members of the RRC to view a subset of these. Alternatively if you are interested in helping RRC develop the resource, contact the Centre. To contribute a project, either:

• Submit project information in a suitable format to RRC - files and images accepted
• Go through to ‘Register Your Project’

A regional summary on Anglian rivers and the North West (England) region demonstrates the scope of NRRI data.

Examples of where the NRRI has been used or referenced
NRRI data has been used to identify trends in river restoration practice; and to assess the success of river restoration techniques and approaches in the following academic papers and reports (note: ordered by date - most recent at the top):

• Environment Agency (2011). Weir removal, lowering and modification: A review of best practice (In press)
• Bellamy P, Rivas Casado M, Harris J, Mant J, Gill A, and White S. (2009). Statistical analysis design study to investigate river restoration effectiveness. Environment Agency Science Report –SC070024 (available on request)
• River Restoration Centre (2005). A Review of Catchment Scale River Restoration Projects in the UK, 48pp (available on request)
• DEFRA/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Defence Report (2004). Scoping and environmental river engineering design manual (available on request)

The NRRI is also referred to in a number of academic papers, reports, books and newsletters (note: ordered by date - most recent at the top):

• Gilvear, D. J., Casas-Mulet, R., Spray, C. J. (In Press). “Trends and issues in delivery of integrated catchment scale river restoration: Lessons learned from a national river restoration survey within Scotland”, River Research and Applications
• Darby, S. E., Sear, D. (2008). River Restoration: Managing the Uncertainty in Restoring Physical Habitat. John Wiley and Sons, Chicester, UK
• Gilvear, D. J., Casas, R. (2008). “River restoration at the catchment scale in Scotland: Current status and opportunities, Final report (draft)
• Wharton, G., Gilvear, D. J. (2007). “River Restoration in the UK: Meeting the dual needs of the European Union Water Framework Directive and floods defence? International Journal of River Basin Management, Volume 4, Number 4: 1–12
• Wheaton, J. M., Darby, S. E., Sear, D. A., Milne, J. A. (2006). “Does scientific conjecture accurately describe restoration practice? Insight from an international river restoration survey”, Area, Volume 38, Issue 2: 128-142
• Clarke, S. J., Bruce-Burgess, L., Wharton, G. (2003). “Linking form and function: towards an eco-hydromorphic approach to sustainable river restoration”, Viewpoint in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, Volume 13, Issue 3: 439-450
• Kent, A., Kent, W. A. (2000). Reflective practice in geography teaching: p33
• River Restoration Centre (1999) “RRC’s Database”, RR News, Issue 2: 4-5

The NRRI has also been the focus, or data has been used in BSc and MSc Thesis reports (note: ordered by date - most recent at the top):

• Nelson, D. R. (2011). “The suitability of long-term macroinvertebrate data for evaluation of river restoration in the Hampshire Avon”, MSc. Dissertation, Birmingham University
• Matthews, K. (2010). “Short-Term Indicators of Rehabilitation Success”, MSc. Thesis, Radbound University, the Netherlands in association with Arcadis
• Beatson, S. (2009). An Assessment of River Restoration Techniques, MSc. Thesis, Cranfield University.

Home WEBSITE RRC Manual WEBSITE RRC Project Advice & Reports WEBSITE RRC Conferences WEBSITE Contact Us