Farming and Water for the Future
Location
The Farming and Water for the Future (FWF) report presents an innovative and simple approach to the management of flood risk, working with farmers and landowners to deliver sustainable and cost effective solutions that also bring a range of other advantages. The programme seeks to demonstrate ecosystem services through development of sustainable flood risk solutions across the Trent catchment whilst delivering a range of other environmental and economic benefits. The key benefits of the programme are promoting sustainable farming, reducing flood risk, enhancing biodiversity, improving water quality, conserving water resources, delivering green infrastructure and promoting recreation. The FWF programme seeks to integrate all of the improvements identified in ways that compliment existing farm management and are natural, simple, cost effective and appropriate to both the farm business and the wider environment.
The long term objectives of the programme are to
- further demonstrate the extent of the role that rural land management can play in sustainable flood risk management;
- help reduce flood risk in specific locations within the Trent catchment; and
- enable flood management to deliver wider benefits to the environment (biodiversity, landscape and water quality), farmers (secure incomes) and local communities (reduced flood risk and an enhanced access to the countryside).
The FWF programme is a collaborative approach being built by the OnTrent Initiative and supported by The Environment Agency and Natural England to extend the scheme piloted by the Farming Floodplains for the Future project. The programme is aiming to target several priority areas across the Trent catchment. Initially the focus will be catchments upstream of the City of Leicester, but other potential project areas include:
- tributaries of the Trent in and around Stafford;
- tributaries of the Derbyshire Derwent upstream of Derby;
- tributaries of the River Soar between Leicester and Loughborough;
- and the River Devon upstream of Newark.
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