Catchment Based Approach
Our Catchment Based Approach will focus on the management of land and water in a co-ordinated and sustainable way to balance environmental, economic and social demands at a catchment scale.
We hope it will develop into a holistic approach that recognises the many different pressures facing ecosystems and align funding and actions within a catchment.
The scheme was announced on World Water Day, 22nd March 2011, by Richard Benyon (Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries).
Latest news
- 3 February 2012 – £28 million fund announced to clean up England’s rivers and encourage local wildlife to flourish (press release). Eligibility and how to apply (Environment Agency website)
Working with stakeholders
Our vision for the approach is to work with stakeholders to establish a framework for integrated catchment management across England by the end of 2013. This will support the 2nd cycle of River Basin Management Plans to deliver the objectives under the Water Framework Directive.
This recognises that tackling land management and water issues effectively cannot be solely undertaken by, or the responsibility of, one organisation but requires many actors to work in conjunction.
Catchment scale operations will help ensure local knowledge is used to drive local change, through:
- identifying and understanding issues within a particular catchment
- involving local groups in decision making
- sharing evidence
- identifying priorities for action
- seeking to deliver integrated interventions in cost effective ways that protect local resources.
All of these activities will emerge from a mutually agreed vision developed by all stakeholders within an individual catchment. It will be captured within a ‘catchment plan’ which will be a jointly owned, living document that sets out future aspirations and the road map for achieving them.
Pilot phase
We recognise that this cannot be a prescriptive process, but is a strategy which needs to evolve and develop through collective learning and analysis.
To kick start the approach, we are running a pilot phase until December 2012. The Environment Agency will host the approach in 10 catchments, and we have invited expressions of interest from other organisations to host in additional catchments, 15 of which will be formally evaluated.
An independent evaluation of the pilots will be undertaken to inform the strategy for future roll-out of the approach.
Information on the development of the approach and progression within the pilot catchments is available on the Environment Agency’s website.
A catchment approach requires many groups working together and we need your input to ensure this evolves into something that is responsive to the needs of local issues within catchments across the country. We would welcome feedback and encourage you to do so throughout the pilot period through the links of the Environment Agency’s website.
Research Programme
The catchment-based approach is supported by an ongoing programme of research. For example, Defra and the Environment Agency have established three Demonstration Test Catchments in the Hampshire Avon, Eden (Cumbria) and Wensum (Norfolk) in an £8.5M programme of research. These catchment-scale studies are developing and testing cost-effective approaches to reduce the impacts of agricultural diffuse pollution on ecology and society whilst maintaining the profitability of farm businesses.