H2O:Source2Sea
Project partners
Financing programme: Interreg V A France (Channel) England 2014 – 2020 (co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund- ERDF)
Total Project Budget: €2,496,348.60
ERDF Amount: €1,722,480.51
Duration: January 2019 to March 2023
Our H2O Source2Sea Project is using Nature-based Solutions to address water quality and quantity issues in Stour catchment (Kent) and Authie catchment (France). Partners include CPIE, KCC, & Nausicaa.
Projects include:
- Planting hedgerows with farmers in France to slow sediment in Flash floods (CPIE).
- Creating ponds across 5 sites in Kent to manage ground-water levels (KWT).
- Creating natural capital valuation tool (KWT).
- Creating rainwater harvesting tool (KCC).
- Engaging with 500,000 people (Nausicaa).
- Assessing the health and condition of saltmarsh (a natural flood defence) at Sandwich and Pegwell Bay NNR and will suggest restoration (KWT).
- Having 4 citizen science programmes running including RiverSearch (monitoring river health) and Shoresearch (monitoring intertidal species) (KWT).
To find out more about the H20 project and the Stour and Authie Catchments, discover our story map here.
Description
The Kent and Pas-de-Calais regions face the same water management challenges and have similar issues of flooding, drought and pollution of waterways, which damage our shared ecosystem, the Channel, and affect local communities and businesses alike. Flooding alone costs millions of euros in the UK and France annually, and traditional flood and drought management through hard engineering can be expensive and ineffective. Climate change is also likely to increase the likelihood of extreme weather events, which could have a severe impact on water resources.
The H20:Source2Sea project intends to demonstrate how solutions based on nature reduce water management costs while improving freshwater quality, reducing pollution, and benefiting the wildlife and local communities through the implementation of Natural Flood and Drought Management measures (NFM and NDM).
Partners of the project will implement NFM and NDM measures on pilot sites on the catchment of rivers flowing into the Channel: the Stour in the UK, and the Authie in France. The project will bring together all stakeholders including local communities, and provide a new economic tool to support decision and policy making.
Aims
The H20:Source2Sea project aims to improve water management and quality from the source to the sea, and to adapt to climate change by:
- Identifying, valuing and encouraging the wider roll-out of natural flood and drought management solutions to supplement and overcome the high costs of hard infrastructure in the Channel area;
- Reducing the total costs of managing water issues and climate change;
- Restoring ecosystems in lowland areas;
- Enhancing the evidence base for climate resilient decision making;
- Addressing the fragmentation of policy across the water system;
- Increasing stakeholder engagement in integrated water management decision-making;
- Including local communities in Citizen Science Programmes to monitor water quality.
Anticipated Outcomes
- Demonstrated value of natural flood and drought management in the Channel area;
- Reduced pollution of transnational and coastal waters;
- Restored ecosystems;
- Improvement of water quality (reduced amount of nutrients, pollution and sediment)
- Reduction of water stress and improvement of fresh water usage;
- Tools and guidance to deliver adaptive water management measures tailored to local scenarios.
