Copyright: Colin McLean
Summary
Join Professor Chris Spray to visit the UNESCO and CIEEM award winning Eddleston Water project co-ordinated by the Tweed Forum and project partners. We will meet at the COSLA Conference Centre and go by minibus to Eddleston Water.
This member network event is linked to the CIEEM Scotland conference ‘The Role of Trees in a Sustainable Future’.
Description
The Eddleston Water project is internationally significant and shows how the restoration of natural processes can increase flood resilience and help restore natural habitats. In doing so, we can help respond to the biodiversity crisis and our changing climate where extreme weather events such as flooding are becoming more frequent.
Tweed Forum’s Eddleston Water project was started in 2010. Since then, nature-based solutions and natural flood management measures implemented across the catchment include the creation of 38 new ponds to catch and temporarily store surface water flow, and the remeandering of some 3.5km of once-straightened river channels. The ponds are providing new wetland habitats for amphibians and dragonflies across the whole landscape, whilst remeandering has enhanced the structural and habitat diversity of the river channels. Over a hundred engineered log structures have been created on streams in the upper catchment. Built to allow fish to pass underneath, these slow excess water by directing it into land on either side of the river channel. Over 330,000 native trees have been planted across the catchment providing not only a direct biodiversity benefit and positive impact on ecology, but also sequestering carbon. In time, these will also aid water infiltration in upstream areas where floods are generated and will help to slow overland water flows. During the event we will discuss the monitoring and reporting that’s undertaken and the engagement with local farmers, the wider community, media, statutory bodies, and ministers.
The UNESCO-recognised initiative is a living laboratory that’s collecting evidence of the benefits of nature-based solutions to deliver reduced flood risk and enhanced biodiversity across the whole 69km² Eddleston Water catchment, while also maintaining sustainable livelihoods for local farmers. Tweed Forum and its project partners won the 2023 CIEEM Best Practice Award for Large-Scale Practical Nature Conservation, as well as the Tony Bradshaw Award – an accolade selected from all the best practice winners which recognises an exceptional project that sets an impressively high standard.
The Eddleston Water project is delivered by the Tweed Forum in collaboration with SEPA, the University of Dundee, British Geological Services, local farmers and the surrounding community and is funded by the Scottish Government, EU Interreg and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
This event is part of the #TwentyTwentyTree series of events hosted by the Scotland Committee to tie in with the 2023 Scottish conference.
Professor Chris Spray is a trustee of the Tweed Forum, Emeritus Professor of Water Science and Policy at University of Dundee and a CIEEM Fellow. He has been involved in the Eddleston Water project as the scientific co-ordinator since its initiation in 2010. A wetland ecologist by training, he has been involved in designing the monitoring, reporting and co-ordinating the stakeholder engagement.
Knowledge Level
Suitable for all
Refreshments
Attendees to bring own lunch/ refreshments.
Tickets
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Person(s) |
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CIEEM Member Ticket
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1
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Non Member Ticket
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1
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£20.00
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