Newcastle University

Integrated Systems Demonstrations: Catchments

At the centre of our research activities sit our flagship ‘Integrated Demonstrations’.  These bring together the themes of our research activities in place based analyses in three areas that are outstanding examples of coupled human, natural and technological systems:  

(i) Infrastructure systems, 
(ii) Catchments, and,  
(iii) Urban areas.  

These large scale integrated demonstrations are essential in order to test the methods developed elsewhere in the CESER research programme and to demonstrate and communicate the contribution that they will make to improved decision making. Our integrated demonstrations represent the culmination of the research, interacting continuously with the other themes, so testing and demonstration can stimulate new ideas and approaches.  Through our funded portfolio of projects we have major systems modelling projects under way in London, in the Eden, Belford and Hodder catchments, the East Anglian coast, and at a number of engineered slopes. 

Integrated catchment management

It is increasingly recognised that the management of land and the management of water are strongly interdependent, and that whole-catchment integrated management approaches are needed. A number of recent legislative and policy initiatives have resulted in questions being raised concerning the impact of modern rural land management practices on flooding, diffuse agricultural pollution and ecology. To provide the scientific understanding to inform policy makers and provide the basis for developing reliable methods for impact prediction, multiscale monitoring and field experimentation is being conducted in a number of catchments. The field data are being used to underpin innovative coupled rainfall, runoff and hydraulic modelling.

‌‌The Eden catchment, Cumbria, is a major focus of activity – we surpassed a decade of field experimentation and data collection. The data have supported a diverse range of research activities, including understanding the scale dependency of flood characteristics, the potential impacts of climate change on flow regime and the consequences for salmon populations, and the joint use of tracers for the conceptualisation of recharge processes. Newcastle University is a partner in the Eden Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) programme, which aims to evaluate alternate farming practices to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture.

The Hodder catchment, a major tributary of the Ribble NW England, has recently undergone extensive changes in land use and management under the United Utilities Sustainable Catchment Management Programme (ScaMP). A nested multiscale monitoring network of river flow recorders has been installed to record the impact that these changes are having on downstream flooding. The field data are supporting the development of a novel modelling approach which uses information tracking to investigate the sensitivity of the downstream flood hydrograph to upstream changes in land management. Results are presented in the form of maps that show how the hydrograph peak is affected by spatial changes in land use management.

The village of Belford, Northumberland, has a history of fluvial flooding. The use of soft engineered management features in the upstream catchment (6 km²) is being investigated as a means to alleviate the flooding. This interventionist approach of managing flow pathways is also being evaluated as a means of improving water quality and ecological habitat.  An important part of this project is stakeholder engagement, with the development of visualisation tools to convey the underlying principles of multipurpose mitigation measures. Ultimately, an aim of this work is to address the practicality and reliability of using soft engineering to alleviate flooding in larger catchments, such as the Eden or Hodder.

Key publications