Quantifying the effectiveness of natural flood management in lowland

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Further calls for the inclusion of natural solutions in flood alleviation schemeswere made following the severe floods in Cumbria, December 2015. NaturalFlood Management (NFM) has emerged over the last decade as a very usefuland sustainable approach. It involves the adoption of a multitude of measuresthat mitigate flooding by restoring or enhancing natural processes in upstreamcatchment areas. Evidence of the effectiveness of NFM in flood riskmanagement is limited. Therefore, the overall aim of this project is to monitora range of NFM interventions and evaluate their functioning in space and time.This will provide the information needed by numerical modellers to assesstheir effectiveness at a range of scales. More specifically the objectives of thisproject would be to: (1) monitor the functioning of NFM interventions bothindividually and in combination for a range of event magnitudes and antecedent conditions; (2) define floodhydrograph metrics and determine the potential of interventions to mitigate specific flood characteristics (e.g.peak flow, peak level, flood duration, rate of rise); (3) consult numerical modellers to translate measurements ofhydraulic and hydrological intervention functioning into useable parameters (e.g. roughness and storage indices);(4) interpret and communicate measurements of intervention functioning to a wide range of stakeholders; and (5)consider the sustainability of interventions and their potential in mitigating future environmental change. Thisproject benefits from the unique opportunity to monitor the effectiveness of interventions being implemented aspart of the first Thames Basin NFM trial in the Evenlode catchment. This is a 5 year trial (2016 to 2021) beingco-ordinated by the Evenlode Catchment Partnership. The potential of using citizen science to enhance themonitoring of interventions will be considered. This project will compliment previous NFM modelling studiesand benefit from alignment with current initiatives. A range of novel monitoring techniques will be used tomonitor intervention functioning (e.g. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photography and a remote controlledsurveying boat).