Multi-objective flood risk management demonstration project

The Holnicote Project aims to generate evidence to demonstrate how integrated land management change, working with natural processes and partnership working, can contribute to reducing local flood risk while producing wider benefits for the environment and communities.

This pioneering scheme looks at the whole catchment of the rivers, 90% of which is owned by the National Trust.  With the backing of the farmers who are tenants of the land, changes were made which allow some fields to flood and also to slow down the speed and volume of the water in the rivers.

The land is used to temporarily store excess water upstream of the villages in the River Aller and Horner catchments, allowing it to be released more slowly and naturally back into the river systems once the heavy rainfall event has passed. The lessons learnt from this project will be transferred to other catchments to help manage flood risk and bring improvements for water quality, soil management, biodiversity and the local community.

The project is being delivered by the National Trust, Penny Anderson Associates and JBA Consulting.

JBA Trust supported this project by co-authoring a position paper ‘An Analysis of the Impacts of Rural Land Management Change‘.

Find out how the wet meadow scheme was constructed here.

Who we are working with