Weardale Natural Flood Management Demonstrator Project (1)

North Pennines AONB Partnership 

WEARDALE NATURAL FLOOD MANAGEMENT 

DEMONSTRATOR PROJECT 

www.northpenninesaonb.org.uk

THE NORTH PENNINES AONB PARTNERSHIP 

INTRODUCTION 

The North Pennines was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1988 and 

covers almost 2000km2 of Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham (with a small area 

in North Yorkshire around Tan Hill). In 2003 the North Pennines became Britain’s first 

European Geopark and in 2015 it was designated a UNESCO Global Geopark, part of 

UNESCO’s first new heritage programme since World Heritage Sites in 1972. 

All AONBs have an organisation responsible for making things happen in support of the 

designation and co-ordinating the efforts of others – locally this is the North Pennines AONB 

Partnership, based in Stanhope, in Weardale, County Durham. 


Weardale Natural Flood Management 

Flooding is a natural process, but it causes damage to 

property and farmland and distress and expense to 

communities. Addressing the problems caused by 

flooding can be costly to the tax payer and isn’t always 

effective or sympathetic to the environment. 

But there are ‘Natural Flood Management’ (NFM) solutions 

which, though they can’t ‘prevent’ flooding, work with the 

grain of nature to reduce the frequency and impact of 

flood events, whilst enhancing the environment. 

NFM measures have proven to be effective on a small 

scale of a few square kilometres. In Weardale, the partners 

in our project are seeing if we can demonstrate its 

effectivness over 100km2 in the biggest project of its kind 

to date. 



The Origins of the Project - the Border 

Uplands Demonstrator Initiative 

The project has come out of the Border Uplands 

Demonstrator Initiative (BUDI), which aims to see how 

organisations and communities can ‘do things 

differently’ in the northern Pennine uplands and 

Scottish Borders to achieve more for people and nature. 

BUDI is steered by Natural England, the Environment 

Agency, the Forestry Commission, Northumberland 

National Park Authority, the North Pennines AONB 

Partnership and Northumberland County Council. 

BUDI currently has three geographical foci for action: 

North Cumbria, The Cheviot and Upper Weardale, 

where the focus is our Natural Flood Management 

Project. 



Weardale NFM Partners 

Defra bodies: 

Environment Agency (project lead), 

Natural England 

Forestry Commission 

North Pennines AONB Partnership 

(with contracted support from the Wear 

Rivers Trust) 

Durham County Council 

Objective 

Explore and deliver opportunities to reduce 

flood risk through Natural Flood Management, 

enrich the landscape and enhance local wildlife 

across Weardale by 2027 


The project is focused on five sub-catchments of the River 

Wear in Upper Weardale, in the North Pennines AONB. 

It targets communities which are identified by the 

Environment Agency as being at risk of flooding. 




What does it entail? 

The first phase of the project, led by the North Pennines 

AONB Partnership, is all about engaging with the farming 

community. What are they willing to do on their land for 

NFM and how can we help and support them? By the 

end of 2018 we will have established ‘in principle’ 

agreements with the farmers who want to get involved. 

The Environment Agency is also undertaking 

hydrological modelling to assist with targeting different 

flood storage interventions. 

From 2019, we’ll begin delivering the work with local 

farmers. This won’t just be good for flood management, 

but will have major wildlife benefits too. 

It will be funded by project funds allocated by Defra to 

the EA, by Countryside Stewardship and by the AONB 

Partnership through its EU LIFE-funded Peatland 

Programme. 



Peatland Restoration 

The North Pennines AONB Partnership has a national and 

international reputation for its long-running Peatland 

Programme and we’ll be leading this work on behalf of the 

NFM Project partners. 

Blocking drainage grips and restoring bare and eroding 

peat areas helps to slow the rate and volume of water 

coming off the moors. 

It also means that our peatlands – already the UK’s best 

natural store of carbon – can be even more effective at 

sequestering and storing carbon in the future. 



Woodland Creation 

Tree planting – away from peatland sites, valuable 

habitats and historic features - has a number of NFM 

benefits. It: 

stabilises soils and prevents them washing away 

and ending up in rivers and streams; 

roughens the landscape, reducing run-off; 

leads to water being taken up into the trees 

themselves; 

diversifies habitats for wildlife; and 

brings texture and depth to the landscape. 



Off-take Structures, Screens and Leaky 

Timber Barriers 

Off-take structures, screens and leaky timber barriers 

‘slow the flow’ and encourage water to spread out 

temporarily over the land rather than race downhill to 

threaten properties and lower-lying farmland. 



Woody Debris Dams 

Woody debris dams are among the most natural of 

Natural Flood Management techniques. These leaky 

structures slow and spread the flow water and create 

valuable habitat. 



Farm Management 

One of the effects of many NFM measures is to ‘roughen’ 

the land and thereby reduce the rate of water flow. But 

simply the way farmers manage their land every day can 

make a big contribution to flood mitigation. The rushy 

pasture and ‘white ground’ in these pictures will be 

doing more for natural flood management than the 

improved grassland in the distance. 

That’s not to say we should have no improved grassland 

areas on farms, or that excessive, dense rush cover is a 

good thing, but it’s about ensuring that we don’t lose all 

the texture and roughness in the landscape and that we 

add it where we can. 



Farmer Engagement So Far 

We’ve contacted 50 farmers so far and met 36 who 

want to find out more about the project to see if they 

can get involved. There are more to meet after 

lambing. 

Having meaningful one to one engagement with 

farmers is crucial to the success of this project. 

There are still some issues we’re grappling with, 

including: working out how we can work on common 

land, how we maintain structures in the long-term and 

ensuring that we plant the ‘right tree, in the right 

place’ and not damage other conservation interests. 

But the project is being really well-received. It’s also a 

n opportunity to discuss wider issues on the farm and 

how we can work together. 



Influencing Future Policy and Practice 

Like all of the work in the Border Uplands Demonstrator, 

the goal is to influence future policy and practice. 

The partners will be monitoring the outcomes of this 

work closely and learning lessons as we go along. 

The individual interventions in an NFM scheme are often 

quite small, but together they can have a big impact. We 

aim to show that this approach doesn’t just work on small 

catchments but can be developed and delivered, 

through cooperation between conservation 

organisations and farmers, across whole landscapes and 

across the whole country. 


Photographs (c) North Pennines AONB Partnership 

Maps (c) Environment Agency

Weardale Natural Flood Management Demonstrator Project (1)

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