Case studies tagged with United Kingdom

Understanding the potential for private sector investment in natural capital in the Spey catchment

The aim of this research was to understand how private sector natural capital investments could be increased and diversified in the Spey catchment. The focus of the study was on businesses that do not primarily manage land, but nevertheless rely on the Spey landscape, e.g. for their supply chain or to attract customers. Specifically, the study tried to answer four questions:
1. How do businesses currently invest in natural capital?
2. What motivates and hinders businesses to invest in natural capital?
3. Is there potential for coordinated business investment in natural...

Elderberry Walk

To create a development on a brownfield site where Green Infrastructure (GI) is integral to the layout of dwellings and create a sense of place whilst delivering a rich mix of housing tenures with a focus on affordability for local people.

Bath Quays Waterside Park

To create a riverside park, reconnecting the city centre to the riverside and to mitigate flooding for more than 100 existing properties.

Integrated green grey infrastructure (IGGI) - Ecologically enhanced sea defence

Passive enhanced boulder with water retention feature uppermost.

Ecological enhancement of hard coastal structures. Project aimed to mitigate expected habitat losses associated with improving coastal defences for both the natural substrate & pre-existing defences within Natural 2000 site, & minimise future habitat losses due to sea level rise & coastal squeeze.

Application of Eco:Actuary in the Thames catchment, UK: A series of tools to operationalise strategic planning and investment for Natural Flood Management. H2020 NAIAD Project.

EcoActuary: an open-access catastrophe model capable of assessing the impact of green infrastructure on local and downstream assets at risk of flood.

Using the widely used Policy Support System tools at www.policysupport.org as a basis, we built an insurance industry-relevant policy support system called Eco:Actuary. The objective of this project is to to co-develop and test the Eco:Actuary with NAIAD project partners & stakeholders in the fluvial non-tidal Thames as a DEMO catchment in the NAIAD project.

EcoActuary is an open-access catastrophe model capable of assessing the impact of NbS on local and downstream assets at risk of flood. It simulates a minimum of 1200 spatial...

UoG Green Screens

To investigate the extent to which green screens (helix hedera) may provide regulatory ecosystem services. This includes acting as a buffer against airborne particulate pollution and reducing rainfall runoff rates compared to normal plywood construction hoarding.

BEGIN (Blue Green Infrastructure through Social Innovation)

Together we can build more resilient and liveable cities

The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue-Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.

BEGIN’s driving ambition is to substitute traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ such as concrete for ‘blue-green infrastructure’ (BGI) such as parks, rivers, and lakes.

SuDS in Sutton's Schools

The aim was to deliver sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) measures on school sites in order to reduce local flood risk, provide benefits for participating schools and educate the pupils and wider community about surface water flooding .

Water Haigh Woodland Park, Lower River Aire Valley – Leeds, UK

The case study site provides connected multi-functional green space that maximises ecosystem services for the sites and the local communities. Objectives include:

The provision of regionally important landscape scale natural habitats, encompassing mixed woodlands, hedgerows, grasslands and wetlands, encompassing the reclamation of UF-NbS (Urban Forests as Nature-Based Solutions) of previously mined industrial land.
The provision of unlimited public access via footpaths, cycle ways and bridle ways;
The health and well-

Wetland restoration to mitigate diffuse water pollution entering Rostherne Mere, Cheshire, UK

This project aimed to utilise nature-based solutions to restore wetland habitat at Rostherne Mere, delivering water quality improvements via reduced nutrient loads entering the mere, alongside wider environmental benefits through a habitat that can support a range of species and ecosystem services

“ H2020 PONDERFUL: Water Friendly Farming NBS: a pondscape for biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services

New clean water ponds that provide a significant biodiversity gain in this agricultural landscape

This pondscape is located in a farmland near Leicester. All waterbodies in three upper catchments have been monitored since 2010. The results show an underlying landscape-wide decline in freshwater plant biodiversity of 0.5-1% pa. However doubling the number of clean-water ponds turned the decline around: producing a steep increase in richness and tripled the number of uncommon species.

H2020 PONDERFUL: Pinkhill Meadow NBS: a small but highly valuable floodplain pondscape for biodiversity

One of the many ponds in the Pinkhill Meadow complex

This pondscape of newly created ponds is located in a floodplain meadow on Thames Water's Farmoor Reservoir property, on the banks of the River Thames, near Oxford. It was designed by Freshwater Habitats Trust to maximise freshwater biodiversity and has been closely monitored as a partnership since its creation in 1990.

The results show the exceptional value of the site for wetland plants, aquatic invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and birds, maintained over 35 years.