Catchment to Coast will be implementing measures at approximately 17 different sites across Southend and Thurrock to improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion.
There will be specific measures implemented in the upper, middle and lower areas of the catchment. The project will take a catchment-based approach to increase resilience to flooding and coastal erosion, a combination of nature-based solutions that each generate small benefits will combine to produce a greater impact.
Measures will be monitored in isolation throughout the project and then evaluated collectively at the end of the programme. Evidence gathered from this project will inform how flooding and coastal erosion are tackled on a national scale.
A Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) is a way of looking after our rivers and the areas around them. It’s all about working together to make sure our water and nature are healthy. Local communities, businesses, and groups team up to take care of the environment. This approach helps us deal with water challenges and make our surroundings better. It’s like a teamwork approach to keep our rivers, wildlife, and nature in good shape.
Visit this link to read more about a Catchment Based Approach.
Nature-based solutions (often referred to as NBS) involve working with nature to address societal challenges, providing benefits for both human well-being and biodiversity.
In Catchment to Coast, we use nature-based solutions across all of our sites: from creating areas of wet woodland in Belfairs Woods that will help prevent flooding downstream to extending saltmarsh on Two Tree Island that will slow coastal erosion.
Southend and Thurrock are experiencing more frequent, multi-source flood events, resulting from intense rainfall. Investigations into flooding events showed that these events are exacerbated by a combination of interconnected factors throughout different parts of the catchment, such as:
When high sea levels prevent river flows from draining away as usual and cause them to back up
Nature Based Solutions (NbS) are actions that benefit both people and nature, oftern increasing an areas biodiversity while adding further societal value.
SUDs are Sustainable Drainage Systems built into the land that are designed to encourage water infiltration, enhance biodiversity and aid water quality treatment.
Nature-based Solutions will focus on land management and regenerative agriculture to hold water upstream for longer. So, in times of heavy rainfall there is not a big flush of water downstream which causes flooding, it travels down the catchment slowly ‘keeping the water on the land’.
Nature-based Solutions will help tackle surface water flooding and high levels of ‘run-off’ that come from a lack of impermeable surfaces for rainfall to infiltrate.
Mirco-SuDs and ‘rainscaping’ on new developments in flood risk areas will be applied to reduce amounts of run-off.
Rainwater harvesting, store and re-use for community use will be key, which will also help tackle peak droughts.
The above measures will help reduce the amount of water reaching the lower catchment. This will reduce the capacity pressure on surface water networks which can often become tide-locked and in turn the amount of pollution ‘outfall’ events.
The long-term erosion of historic landfill sites will be tackled through various Nature-based Solutions including saltmarsh regeneration and the adding of seawall on some sites.
Trials will be undertaken in areas where residents and businesses live and work in high-risk surface water flooding areas.
Trialling of not only innovative measures to improve flood and erosion resilience but also the use of smart tools for monitoring and evaluation.
We are in the process of developing a community engagement strategy with the scope to incorporate co-design, the implementation of measures and their monitoring where possible and to gather and share local knowledge around the sites throughout the project. If you have any local knowledge of our specific sites then please get involved with the project by sharing stories through our Oral History scheme or your thoughts on the community hub.
Through the collaborative expertise of the Partnership, innovative approaches and techniques will be developed to ensure effective, two-way communication throughout the life cycle of the project and develop the Water Guardian and My Blue Footprint concept.