An Integrated Approach to Assessing Catchment Resilience: Combining GIS and Field Data in Relation To Climate Change Projections in the River Derwen

Lead Research Organisation: University of Leeds
Department Name: School of Earth and Environment

Abstract

Changing conditions such as land-use and climate change in the UK has affected catchment behaviour, one of the key challenges is related to the removal, redistribution and deposition of sediment within a catchment. The increased deposition of sediment within catchments is causing problems such as increased water quality treatment costs. This is clearly seen within the River Derwent study area. One way to reduce costs associated with water quality treatment is to include the whole supply chain, from land owners to water companies.

The source of fine grained sediment within a catchment can be mapped using software such as geographic information systems (GIS). This research aims to produce a GIS model and framework to assessing sensitive reaches and areas within a catchment in relation to fine grained sediment including source areas, sediment pathways and sediment deposition within the catchment. The model will integrate high resolution satellite imagery to inform seasonal changes in land-use and vegetation and climate change projections. Once sensitive reaches have been identified, field work will be undertaken to assess the validity of the output. Field work data collection will include sediment grain size analysis and sediment fingerprinting to identify source areas. The model will identify areas within the catchment where management or intervention is required to reduce the impacts of fine grained sediment.

The model will directly benefit Yorkshire Water as creating a GIS model will reduce the costs of fieldwork associated with highlighting these areas. By including the whole supply chain and land-users, costs will be reduced in relation to soil erosion and the removal of valuable top soil. Further reducing the input of fine grained sediment into rivers will reduce flood risk. Water is an integral part of the economy, and by reducing costs associated with water treatment, the water supply will become more resilient. This will help keep a resilient economy, a key challenge with regards to the Industrial Strategy.

Publications

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Richardson J (2019) Muddying the Picture? Forecasting Particulate Sources and Dispersal Patterns in Managed Catchments in Frontiers in Earth Science

 
Description Erosion risk mapping was undertaken on the River Derwent catchment, Yorkshire; which has a recognised fine grained sediment problem. In order to expand on the erosion risk mapping already undertaken on the catchment using SCIMAP, seasonal land-use maps were produced to assess the temporal variation of erosion risk within the catchment, the maps were compared against freely available land-use maps. Sentinel 2 imagery was used to produce seasonal land-use maps for 2016, increasing the land-use maps to a resolution of 10m. Outputs show there is significant variation in seasonal erosion risk within the catchment when using seasonal land-use maps; often the freely available maps underestimate risk and do not show the seasonal variation. Temporal variation in rainfall was also assessed using monthly 2016 values and the long-term averages; whilst variation due to climate change was assessed using UKCP09 data - incorporating a range of rainfall data to understand yearly variation and future change. Using variation in rainfall and seasonal land-use maps; temporal and spatial variation in erosion risk was observed. When using climate change data, the risk source areas do not change and no new risk areas were observed, however volumes of sediment are likely to change due to climate change. Artificial drainage, prevalent in the catchment due to the intense agriculture was also integrated into the model; which increases the number of pathways for sediment to enter the main river system. The erosion risk outputs were compared against ecological data. The portion of sediment sensitive species (PSI) data indicated where sediment is settling out of suspension, and offers a good way to ground truth erosion risk model output, by highlighting if the issue is from the surrounding area or not. Fieldwork highlighted the importance of smaller pathways, such as woodland paths and rills that cannot be picked up using a 5m resolution digital elevation model and should be investigated further.
Exploitation Route Sediment is a key issue for multiple stakeholders working in the environment industry; by showing the importance and ease of producing seasonal land use maps using satellite imagery and integrating artificial drainage networks and climate change into erosion risk mapping multiple organisations will be able to increase the resolution of maps to incorporate erosion risk. Further work is required to further understand the role of artificial drainage pathways and smaller pathways within the catchment as well as to integrate storm events using UKCP18 data.
Sectors Environment
 
Description By working closely with Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency during the work and after, the methods used in the research have been translated to different organisations who are now able to produce higher resolution erosion risk maps to use for planning and implementing catchment management; this will allow management options to be more cost effective and target areas more efficiently. The data output has been used to feed into a HLF bid, by Ryevitalise in the upper region of the study catchment. Further, the lessons learnt and approach has been duplicated for the Nidderdale AONB to feed into their HLF bid, which was successfully awarded in December 2020 (£1.4 million). Lessons learnt, and data sharing has occurred with the Environment Agency, with methods applied to catchments such as Bishops Dyke. Due to relationships built during the IMF, Yorkshire Water approached JR for a project related to the impact of signal crayfish in the Derwent.
First Year Of Impact 2018
Sector Environment
Impact Types Economic
 
Description Derwent INNS
Amount £104,000 (GBP)
Organisation Yorkshire Water 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
 
Description KE Fellowship: Sediment matters - using recent advances to unlock effective catchment decision-making
Amount £171,148 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/V018701/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2021 
End 06/2024
 
Title Fine-grained sediment diffuse pollution risk mapping scenarios for the Yorkshire Derwent catchment 
Description Erosion risk mapping showing river channel concentrations modelled using SCIMAP for the Yorkshire River Derwent, UK. Scenario mapping has been carried out and the dataset includes the following scenarios to assess variation in model output: 1) traditional land use map; 2) satellite derived land use maps; 3) long term rainfall averages; 4) integrating the artificial drainage network and 5) incorporating future climate change. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
 
Description Environment Agency - York team 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Transfer of research outcomes and methods used in the project to the Environment Agency team in York who work on the Derwent Catchment. Wider lessons learnt have been applied to other EA work such as that in Bishops Dyke.
Collaborator Contribution Provision of expert sector knowledge. The Environment Agency team are primarily ecologists, during the project they highlighted the use of ecology macroinvertebrate data to ground truth the sediment model outputs using 'sediment sensitive species' which was then included in the project.
Impact Information on sediment sensitive species was integrated into the report. The Environment Team are primarily ecologists.
Start Year 2018
 
Description Nidderdale AONB 
Organisation Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Lessons learnt and processes from the Derwent work have been applied to the Nidderdale AONB area for a HLF bid on diffuse pollution. HLF bid awarded in 2020 - for £1.4 million
Collaborator Contribution Nidderdale AONB are using the data output to inform a bid.
Impact This is not multi-disciplinary and focuses on diffuse pollution.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Ryevitalise 
Organisation North York Moors National Park Authority
Department Ryevitalise
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Ryevitalise have been using the outputs from the project to inform future HLF bids on erosion risk in the catchment - this includes using summary sheets of the data, recieving GIS datasets for their projects, and using the lessons learnt from the work to inform their future work.
Collaborator Contribution Ryevitalise have ensured that any outputs provided to them are in a useable format.
Impact Summary sheets of research have been used by Ryevitalise. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary, but is mainly focusing on the diffuse pollution aspect of the work.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Yorkshire Water 
Organisation Yorkshire Water
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Information and model outputs were discussed with Yorkshire Water including a report of the methodology, so it could be duplicated in other catchments. The outputs of the research could be used to inform catchment management.
Collaborator Contribution Yorkshire Water were hosted the PI during the project and supervised the development of the work by guiding the project aims. Yorkshire Water contributed via their expert sector knowledge.
Impact A report was written for Yorkshire Water detailing the outcomes of the research and the methods used (step by step guide); this will be hosted on the Yorkshire iCASP website in due course. Yorkshire Water is multi-disciplinary and includes ecologists and catchment managers.
Start Year 2018
 
Description iCASP 
Organisation Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Lessons learnt and methodological approach have been applied to several iCASP (NERC funded RiSE programme) - projects including the Don Hidden Heritage Secret Streams, National Trust Payment for outcomes and work with the Nidderdale AONB on the Skell.
Collaborator Contribution Translation of research
Impact Outputs from iCASP projects are hosted on the website: https://icasp.org.uk/
Start Year 2019
 
Description Meetings with Environment Agency on Sediment issues in the Derwent 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Ongoing meetings with the Environment Agency about sediment issues in the River Derwent. Lessons learnt from this project have been applied to other catchments such as Bishops Dyke.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021,2022
 
Description Talk at Yorkshire Derwent Catchment Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Talk regarding research output to practitioners facilitated by the Yorkshire Derwent Catchment Partnership; the main aim was to disseminate the methods used in the project. One delegate explained the talk and following discussion had made them think about how sediment is modelled within their organisation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019