Expand, restore, enhance and maintain riparian habitat to improve water quality through secured management plans and appropriate policies in spatial strategies.

Existing Rivers, Ditches and Watercourses

Canals

Promote industry good practice to reduce pollution events, such as through re-routing or retrofitting nature-based solutions or pollution

traps.

Existing Rivers, Ditches and Watercourses

Canals

Restore, enhance, buffer and maintain watercourses to improve their morphology, substrate, aquatic vegetation to bring all watercourses to at least ‘good’ Water Framework Directive standards.

Existing Rivers, Ditches and Watercourses

Canals

Priority Areas for Floodplain Reconnection and Restoration

Promote, encourage and restore natural flow regimes, re-naturalisation and enable natural flood management and natural flood alleviation measures.

Priority Areas for Floodplain Reconnection and Restoration

Leaky barrier

Increase watercourse connectivity through the removal of artificial barriers and, where restoration of natural function is not feasible,

implement fish, eel and lamprey etc passages.

River Obstacles

Restore, enhance and maintain canals to improve their aquatic vegetation and marginal habitat especially along hard engineered

banks.

Canal