North Buckinghamshire Freshwater Resilience project

The project was setup to use Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures to reduce the risk of flooding along the East West Rail line, north of Aylesbury. It also aimed to restore and improve freshwater habitats.

We worked with Network Rail and Freshwater Habitats Trust on the project. It ran from 2021 to 2023.

North of Aylesbury, across sections of the East West Rail Line.

During the project we improved our understanding of the interaction between the tributaries around the area. This helped us to design and implement measures to slow down the flow of water and temporarily store water in the landscape.

We implemented 66 measures including:

• field-corner bunds
• leaky dams
• temporary water storage areas
• spring and river restoration
• creating, restoring and managing ponds and fens
• the creation of a wetland mosaic (an area with multiple wetlands)

These measures helped to slow and store around 13,000 cubic metres of water. This reduced the water runoff from the top of the tributary catchment, which reduced the flood risk for homes and businesses downstream.

Some of these measures will develop over time and provide more benefits including:

• restoring healthier hydrological processes
• improving water quality
• improving biodiversity

Watch our slideshow below which shows some of the features we used, including:

• ghost ponds
• leaky dams and barriers
• the creation of a wetland mosaic
• the management of peaty fens

You can read more about the project on the Freshwater Habitats Trust website.