Natural flood management (NFM)

The River Wye and Lugg NFM pilot project (2018 to March 2021) was one of 26 catchment scale projects funded by £15m of DEFRA funding for NFM projects in England.

Through the project, catchment advisors from the Wye and Usk Foundation and Severn Rivers Trust worked with over 140 individual landowners, providing them with free tailored advice about the NFM opportunities available on their land.

A wide variety of NFM measures were implemented within seven priority sub-catchments, helping to slow the flow of water and reduce the flood risk to downstream communities.

NFM measures implemented through River Wye and Lugg NFM Pilot project - images provided by NFM Construction grant scheme recipients and Herefordshire Council.

These measures included:

• Soil management: 60.9 ha grassland aeration, 106.3 ha arable sub-soiling
• Over winter cover: 189.13 ha cover cropping, 87.36 ha undersowing maize
• Water retention: 20 attenuation areas, creating approximately 4,410 m2 of additional storage, 137 leaky dams, 3 in-ditch seepage barriers
• Fencing: 1,117 m fencing to enhance channel roughness or protect newly planted trees and hedges
• Trackway improvements: 26 cross drains (traditional and natural design)
• Tree planting: 4.78 ha tree planting, 795 m hedge planting (supported by Woodland Trust)
• Landowner innovations: GPS system to remove need for tramlines, 2 rainwater harvesting systems, 176 ha direct drilling, under-sowing maize drill, 0.8 ha meadow creation, bankside willow planting, overflow wetland area, 300m electric fencing to protect newly planted woodland and 60 m enhanced wetland ditch

A further £417,000 (approximately) of Mid-tier Stewardship funding was secured to implement NFM interventions. You can find more details, including photographs on the Rivers Trust's AGOL tool.

The River Wye and Lugg NFM pilot project has also been used as a case study in CIRIA's NFM Manual. You can download CIRIA's NFM manual for free  or buy a copy from the CIRIA Bookshop.

You can watch a recording of the NFM manual's launch event webinar on the CIRIA website.