LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT IN THE DOE LEA CATCHMENT

Diffuse Pollution Risk

Introduction

Excess flows and poor ecological quality have been identified in the Doe Lea Catchment. The Doe Lea Project, led by the National Trust, aims to enhance the ecological status of the water bodies and the surrounding landscape and reduce flood risk. The approach is catchment wide, in which landscape management can be used to reduce the pressures.
The Doe Lea Project is a co-operation between The National Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derbyshire County Council, National Farmers Union, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, Bolsover Countryside Partnership and the Catchment Science Centre. For further information, contact Tina Bardill, Tina.Bardill@nationaltrust.org.uk.

The CSC has contributed a preliminary study of the catchment, including:

A description of the catchment and its geology, hydrology, soils, and land use.
An assessment of the existing pressures leading to the problems of poor water quality and excess flow.
A conceptual model of the catchment in relation to the pressures.
An assessment of the risks arising from different parts of the catchment.
Suggestions for monitoring.

The report is available to download from downloads box in the right hand side.

For further information, contact David Lerner, d.n.lerner@sheffield.ac.uk

Along with the preliminary analysis for integrated management actions, the Doe Lea catchment is also used as a test area for the PAttERN project.

The "Pathway Attributive Elimination Routine for Nutrients" model was designed as an integrated framework for various landscape elements, selected on the basis of their capacity to mitigate diffuse agricultural pollution.

PAttERN is an interactive spatial model, which enables the user to manipulate landscape structures and farm management systems, and to associate the changes with ecological outcomes, like soil and water quality. Functionally, this is first surface-driven integrated risk/solution model.

Besides the scenario provision for various environmental tasks, the model also aims to evaluate externalities, derived from structural changes in agribusiness– emerging questions on the edge of water management and rural sociology - and serves as the test framework for an integrated science-management interface.

PAttERN contact person: Natasha Tkachenko, N.Tkachenko@sheffield.ac.uk