Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) have become increasingly popular in recent years with Wales leading the way, setting out legislation requiring a SuDS design/ consideration for any site with more than one building or a development area greater than 100m2. This indicates we are moving away from the traditional grey (hard engineering) approach to a more natural blue-green approach.
Rewilding is held back by quibbles over its precise definition and scope - we need simply to embrace it.
Rewilding is a simple concept: giving land back to wildlife and wildlife back to the land.
To rewild is to restore natural processes, revive degraded habitats, reintroduce species either missing or depleted, and then step back and watch as the ecosystem becomes self-willed and self-regulating once again in an alchemy of flux, dynamism and unpredictability.
by icasp
Defra and Welsh Government are consulting on proposed management measures for 14 invasive alien species which are widely spread in England and Wales
The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) has developed an online tool to calculate the anti-pollution effect of planting trees in local areas.
Siwan Lovett, Australian River Restoration Centre
Geoff Vietz and Steve Clarke from Streamology, highlight the need for us to turn our attention to our urban waterways where the majority of our population live, work and play…
The Rivers Trust has just signed an exciting new agreement with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (EFF) to provide financial loans to local Rivers Trusts to help them implement 13 river improvement projects across England.
The loans will enable local Rivers Trusts to cash-flow the implementation of their Water Environment Grant projects – a government grant scheme which provides funding to improve the water environment in rural England. Once the projects have been completed and reimbursed by WEG, the loan will be returned to EFF.
The UK’s peatlands are making a significant contribution to our greenhouse gas emissions because of the way they are managed, a major study has shown.
Peatlands occupy 12% of the UK’s land area and store vast quantities of carbon. Healthy peatlands capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and so can help to offset the effects of human activities such as fossil fuel burning that are raising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, leading to climate change.
However, around 80% of the UK’s peatlands have been significantly affected by the way they are managed, such as:
Water, water everywhere – but is it enough?
Ruth Hawksley - Wildlife Trusts BCN
DEFRA is seeking evidence on how it should develop its approach to managing the risks from flooding and coastal erosion, looking particularly at funding local flood protection initiatives and adapting to coastal change.
The call for evidence points in particular to coastal areas “where it is not sustainable or affordable to build and maintain defences in the long term”, and where “authorities need to plan for a proactive transition”.