Implementing GI approaches to river engineering protection measures

Green infrastructure (GI) river engineering approaches are fundamental to improving the quality, morphology and ecology of our waterbodies; and as part of an overall strategy to help people and communities adapt to the negative effects of climate change. There is also a strong legislative framework which drives the need to protect and enhance the environment.
GI solutions include green engineering measures and greening grey river engineering assets with equivalent or increased benefits compared to conventional "grey" infrastructure. They can become self-regenerating and represent a long-term solution that also promotes bio-diversity.
There are however, procedural and technical barriers which prevent and obstruct the implementation of green solutions as part of river engineering protection schemes. They are perceived as having a higher risk of failure than grey (or hard) engineering solutions, are insufficiently supported by design and maintenance guidance and procedures or by evidence-based approaches.
The objective of the project is to support asset managers, engineers, decision-makers, and other end-users to identify and select green engineering options for river engineering protection in the fluvial environment. The project will develop a decision support framework for selection and application of green infrastructure approaches to fluvial flood defence and erosion risk management interventions in rivers. The proposed work will draw together the existing academic knowledge on green infrastructure measures for flood risk and erosion protection schemes and be complemented with a range of case studies that support their practical application. This will underpin the decision support tool that will be developed. It will answer the questions: what techniques work in different channel typologies and what are their benefits and limitations.
The project will pull out the new available and relevant research and experience and knowledge and make it more widely available to practitioners helping them to select green and green-grey solutions using similar type of criteria than when exploring grey solutions. This will help to overcome some of the barriers of prejudice and ignorance and enable the implementation of GI concepts.
The uptake of GI approaches will strengthen the functionality of fluvial ecosystems by greening the new and existing river protection and management infrastructure and will assist in compliance with the environmental aspects of the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive.

The project will build on previous research and development work undertaken by a range of organisations to provide greater and more accessible evidence and address the perceived lack of a clear methodology to adopt when seeking to include green engineering measures when designing or improving fluvial protection assets. It will pull out the new available and relevant research and experience in this area and make it more widely available to practitioners helping them to select green and green-grey solutions using similar type of criteria than when exploring grey solutions. It will provide regulators and planning bodies with authoritative material to share with designers and contractors at early starges of planning a scheme. This will help to overcome some of the barriers of prejudice and ignorance and enable the implementation of GI concepts.
The uptake of GI approaches will strengthen the functionality of fluvial ecosystems by greening the new and existing river protection and management infrastructure and will assist in compliance with the environmental aspects of the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive.
It is envisaged that at a future stage, the outputs of this project would be part of a green infrastructure guidance manual that would be supported by the Environment Agency and CIRIA. The guidance manual will cover both fluvial and coastal green interventions and thus would bring together the outputs of two NERC Innovation projects (should they both be funded), i.e. both this project and the coastal GI project proposed by Dr Naylor at Glasgow University The guidance will become available to the community of flood risk asset managers, planners, engineers and decision-makers that are engaged in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of structures in the water environment. The guidance will also help to inform the growing third sector, working through the England Defra Catchment Partnerships to deliver environmental improvement, catchment and river restoration and passage around structures in watercourses. Many of these groups are already using the more cost-effective GI approach to many hundreds of miles of rural agricultural land to address diffuse pollution from bank erosion.