Flood-prone homes in a Norfolk village have been protected from storm waters by a river project harnessing the protective potential of the natural landscape.
The natural flood management (NFM) scheme was completed in response to flooding concerns in Gissing, near Diss, amid a winter of exceptionally high rainfall.
The River Waveney Trust (RWT) and Norfolk Rivers Trust (NRT) joined forces, in collaboration with funding partners, landowners and the parish council, to install low-cost natural solutions to make the landscape more resilient to floods.
It included the creation of new flood relief channels and water storage areas, reconnecting the floodplain and restoring old, dry river channels.
The new features faced their first significant test during Storm Babet in October, when a deluge of rain was diverted into an adjacent meadow, where it could be temporarily stored and released gradually to reduce the flood peak.
Since the scheme was installed, eight named storms have now passed with no reports of flooded properties.
Dr Emily Winter, catchment officer at the River Waveney Trust, said: "Following the terrible floods in December 2020 [when six Gissing properties were flooded], we were approached by members of the public to help relieve flood pressure on homes in Gissing by reconnecting the local stream to its floodplain.
"We planned to lower the stream banks in strategic places to allow peaks of high water to escape onto the surrounding meadow land.
"We also installed a leaky dam, reconnected a dry, historic channel and created new shallow depressions, which we call scrapes, to slow and store water. We’re really pleased to see it working as we’d hoped.
"This has been a fantastic example of a relatively simple and low-cost project that will have far-reaching, positive impacts for the local community."
The initiative received funding from a partnership between WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and Aviva, as well as grants from the Environment Agency and Garfield Weston Foundation.
Steve Walker, nature based solutions officer at the Norfolk Rivers Trust, said the project "demonstrates the effectiveness of low-cost, nature-based measures", which could become increasingly vital as climate change increases the frequency of extreme rainfall events.
"However, joined up policy and planning, along with active community engagement, is needed to scale-up the adoption of these measures so that flood peaks can be reduced across entire river catchments," he added.
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