The impact of changes in rural land use and management practices
Developing methods for analysing rainfall runoff data to isolate and quantify flooding effects caused by changes in rural land use and management practices.
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Details
Very little is known about the effects on flooding of historic changes in rural land use and management practices. In particular, little is known about the effects on flooding at the larger scale, downstream from where the land use and management changes were made.
If flooding effects can be isolated and quantified in historical rainfall runoff data, this would help to support policy decisions. It would also feed into the methods selected to predict the likely impacts of flood prevention and mitigation measures proposed in the future.
Project objectives
This project aimed to develop methods for analysing rainfall runoff data to isolate and quantify flooding effects caused by changes in rural land use and management practices.
The project produced a report containing details about the choice of catchments, the methods of analysis and the full results.
Recommendations
Both climate (particularly rainfall) variability and land use / management affect changes in flood runoff. Changes in discharge should not be analysed without consideration of changes in catchment rainfall inputs.
The preliminary study of catchment responses within different event classifications was the most promising form of analysis developed during this project.
Adequate information about past land management changes and soil conditions is not readily available. This data should be collected and made available for different land use categories to gain a better understanding of the links between runoff and land management.
This project shows that it will be difficult to estimate the benefits of such measures in respect of any reduction of flood risk.
There’s difficulty in identifying consistent change given the limitations of the available data. This means that land management measures cannot be relied on as alternatives to more proven flood risk management options.
The difficulty in identifying consistent change given the limitations of the available data should not be taken to imply a policy of taking no action.
This project ran from 2006 to 2008. The project cost was £144,582.