ADAS has been commissioned by Natural England to undertake source apportionment work to inform the improved management of the River Mease SSSI/SAC.
Many Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) designated for fluvial habitat are currently failing to meet ‘Favourable Condition’ on account of the pressures arising from the excess loadings of sediment and orthophosphate delivered to rivers. In response, targeted programmes of advice and on-farm intervention are being used to deliver improved catchment management for addressing compliance failures and these initiatives include Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF), currently in its third phase.
Appropriate targeting of advice and interventions including those supported by the CSF Capital Grant scheme depend upon a robust and compelling evidence base for the source apportionment of key pollutants including sediment and orthophosphate. This evidence base should be cross sector in nature to assist the engagement of catchment stakeholders including farmers, rather than being focused on agricultural inputs alone.
In the above context, Natural England has recently commissioned an ADAS team led by Professor Adrian Collins to undertake source apportionment work to inform the improved management of the River Mease SSSI/SAC. The source apportionment work will provide practical usable evidence to support the targeting of CSF Environmental Stewardship options and Environment Agency work by quantifying the contribution of various sources of sediment to the overall phosphate burden of the catchment. The programme of work will address both the key spatial sources (characterised as tributary sub-catchments) and source types (including grass and arable topsoils, drain flow, farm tracks, reclaimed mine spoil, damaged road verges, channel banks, urban areas and point source discharges) contributing to the sediment and orthophosphate pressures on the River Mease.
To deliver the programme of work, ADAS will use its recently refined numerical source apportionment modelling framework incorporating a combination of statistical approaches for source discrimination and both local and genetic algorithm optimisation. The ADAS team has the strongest track record in the UK for delivering catchment pollutant source apportionment work for a range of clients including Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Salmon and Trout Association, the Wild Trout Trust, Somerset County Council, and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and this work is recognised internationally as being at the cutting edge of this area of catchment science.
For further information regarding the work on the River Mease SSSI/SAC, or for more general enquiries regarding pollutant source apportionment for river catchments, please contact Professor Adrian Collins on adrian.collins@adas.co.uk or 01902 693404, or Fiona Grant on fiona.grant@adas.co.uk or 01249 758213.