Overview

This half day workshop introduces the Water Framework Directive as one of the most significant pieces of legislation that steers planning and permitting authorities and provides an overview of what biological, hydromorphological and physio-chemical elements define the status of a waterbody.

Successful sustainable river restoration, linking channel and floodplain form to current system processes, requires a sound understanding of fluvial geomorphology/hydromorphology.  Without this, environmental and ecological benefits are likely to be short lived before adverse and unanticipated river response alters the nature of the system.   Furthermore, restoration schemes should consider in their design, the broad range of environmental quality elements that define ecological status;  the onus is on the restorer to demonstrate that a scheme will not result in gains to one quality element, whilst compromising another.

The workshop will then focus specifically on hydromorphology and will introduce simple readily usable tools to determine appropriate hydromorphology for a given river, working with current processes to predict and work with probable river response.  It acknowledges the fact that our rivers in the UK are not static and many current engineering and management practices are unsustainable, providing guidance on how to work with the river to generate a dynamic channel and floodplain system within local environmental constraints.

The course has four main objectives

• To ensure that we make the most of the opportunities contained within the Water Framework Directive linked to improving the status of our rivers
• To investigate the value of current approaches to river restoration
• To introduce a geomorphological/hydromorphological approach to sustainable river management
• To present simple methods to read our rivers and apply the knowledge to dynamic channel restoration

Who should attend?

Anybody aiming to carry out works on or near a river, particularly those who want to create a more diverse and dynamic fluvial landscape in the UK.  No previous experience/understanding is assumed.   It will also be of interest and value to those who are seeking to comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive.

Topics covered

• Issues and drivers linked to river restoration
• UK rivers and floodplains;  their current form and what they really want to be
• Field methods to assess channel condition and directions of channel response
• An assessment of potential restoration approaches and likely channel response
• Restoration in constrained situations, making the best of a difficult situation
• Discussion centred around participant examples

Presenters

George Heritage

George is Head of Geomorphology with JBA.  He is one of the country's foremost experts on fluvial systems with 25 years of experience linked to hydromorphic assessment;  process based natural channel design and WFD compliant practical design implementaion.  He specialises in understanding the sediment transport system and its effect on channel form and river response.

Sebastian Bentley

Seb is a geomorphologist who specialises in river restoration.   He has developed numerous river restoration schemes for a variety of clients with JBA.  He has successfully designed restoration schemes that work with natural processes to fulfil multiple local and WFD targets.