18/04/2005 - Conservation
officers from the Environment Agency displayed
their exciting ideas on how London’s rivers
could be improved at a river restoration conference
last week.
The capital’s rivers have been severely affected
by decades of urban development with wildlife
habitats depleted and precious green space
covered over by concrete. But the restoration
of rivers can play a positive role in urban
regeneration, providing social, economic and
environmental benefits.
This spring the Environment Agency will be
launching its North London River Restoration
vision document, which describes what urban
river restoration is all about, what the benefits
are, how organisations can get involved and
more specifically where to start in North
London. The document is intended to unite
with the existing South London plan to form
a London wide approach to river restoration.
In London more than 90 per cent of rivers
have suffered from land drainage works for
navigation, flood defence work and building
development which has resulted in widespread
environmental degradation of the capital’s
rivers. Many residential and business communities
near London’s rivers also suffer from a lack
of green space and many areas are in need
of regeneration.
River restoration is not possible along the
entire lengths of some of North London rivers
but areas that could see improvements include
parts of the upper and lower Colne, the Lower
Lee, the Brent, Crane and parts of the Roding,
Beam and Ingrebourne rivers.
These improvements could include removing
concrete banks and riverbeds, putting natural
meanders back into a straightened river channel,
adding fish passes at weirs, creating floodplains,
encouraging sustainable urban drainage systems
and reducing water pollution, and improving
the natural environment for different plant
and animal species.
There are also opportunities to improve rivers
that run through areas due to be developed
where a margin of land could be left alongside
a river to create an accessible green space
and culverted rivers could be brought back
into the open as part of the building project.
Fran Bayley, one of the Environment Agency’s
conservation technical specialists, said:
“We and our partners strongly believe that
regeneration and river restoration go hand
in hand especially when it comes to opportunities
within London. We hope that our document will
inspire some partnership work in the capital
to restore rivers and floodplains throughout
London, so that we that we can improve Londoners’
quality of life and ensure a better environment
for now and future generations.”
These ideas were presented at the UK River
Restoration Centre's Annual Network Conference
last week (April 13 and 14) at the University
of Hertfordshire. The conference, sponsored
by the Environment Agency and WWF, included
delegates from government agencies and departments,
local authorities, consultants, wildlife and
rivers trusts, universities and numerous other
community and environmental groups from both
the UK and abroad.
The main aim of the conference was to provide
a networking forum to promote the exchange
of ideas and experience from people with a
wide range of disciplines and backgrounds
who are keen to apply 'best-practice' techniques.
The programme this year not only provided
delegates with examples of recent and current
project work being undertaken, but also an
insight into the use of wider ranging sustainable
river management strategies.
