The CCRI is delighted to announce that in collaboration with Stroud District Council, the University of Gloucestershire will be hosting a major conference on Natural Flood Management in January 2017.
The conference will link directly to a project that CCRI’s Chris Short has been working on with Stroud District Council building natural flood management in the catchment area of the Stroud River Frome.
The project is called the Rural Sustainable Drainage System (RSuDs), which is a type of natural flood management that implements techniques to reduce flood risk by improving and restoring natural habitats to restore and make use of natural drainage processes. Measures include creating ephemeral ponds and wetlands to hold flood waters and remove silt, improving connectivity between water courses and flood plains and providing new habitats for wetland and aquatic species.
The conference is entitled ‘Natural Flood Management: Enabling Partnerships and Action’ and is aimed at building partnerships between local communities, flood groups, local authorities and land managers to deliver effective natural flood management at the local scale.
It will be held at the University of Gloucestershire Oxstalls Campus in Gloucester on Wednesday, 25th January 2017, from 9.00 to 17.00 hrs.
Chris said:
“This will be a conference that aims to increase the number of projects with natural flood management in them, reducing the barriers and increasing the opportunities. The university is pleased to host the event and to be a partner in the Stroud project, something that we are delighted our students have been able to contribute to as well as the CCRI’s research expertise, which will support this important local project for the long-term.”
It is free to attend, but spaces will be limited. You can register to attend the event on the conference website.
It will describe the real partnerships established to enable Stroud District Council to deliver the project and will be relevant to all those planning or working towards implementing natural flood management projects, particularly those working in local government, members of community flood groups and representatives of land owners.
Delegates will benefit from senior speakers from the Environment Agency, Gloucestershire County Council and national experts on building partnerships and community engagement; creating effective and long lasting partnerships; and facilitating natural flood management projects on the ground.
There will be an opportunity to visit one of the Stroud project’s worksites on the morning of January 26th and again spaces will be strictly limited.
There will also be an opportunity for delegates to choose to attend two of the following seminar sessions to discuss and debate these topics in more detail:
1. Community engagement and involvement in NFM
2. Funding and partnerships
3. Consenting and regulation of NFM structures
4. Practical delivery, techniques and land management
Please register on the event conference page, and indicate your preferred seminar topics.
The agenda can also be viewed on the event conference page.
For any queries, please email: NFMconference@stroud.gov.uk
The Stroud rural sustainable drainage project was recently awarded a 2016 Gloucestershire CPRE award for ‘innovative use of natural resources, including land and water’.
The CCRI worked with Stroud District Council to produce a film which won the ‘best green award’ at the fourth Stroud Community TV awards in March 2016. You can watch a short ‘taster’ version below.
