Waterbodies covered

• Coln (Source to Coln Rogers)

 

The rural hamlet of Andoversford lies near the Source of The River Coln on the Cotswold plateau and in periods of heavy rain the water flows from the top of the catchment towards the village putting homes and businesses in at risk of flooding. The Upper Thames Catchment Partnership (hosted by FWAG SouthWest and the Countryside and Community Research Institute) have now been awarded £50,000 (over four years) from the Environment Agency to look at how natural flood management might help reduce the flooding risk and provide evidence on how successful these interventions are.

The project will be working with the local community to put in place physical structures such as woody debris dams and hedges and assessing whether we can improve the water holding capacity of the soil and infiltration rates by tackling compaction issues, planting deep-rooted legume and herb-rich swards and creating wetland areas. The key delivery partners are Gloucestershire Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Gloucestershire Rural Community Council and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. Reading University will support the work with computer modelling, monitoring and analysis through the LANDWISE project.

 

Useful Links

• https://landwise-nfm.org/about/
• https://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR746954.aspx

 

To read more about the various projects within the Upper Thames Catchment Partnership, click here.