An assessment of the impact of floodplain woodland on flood flows

Thomas, Huw; Nisbet, Tom

doi:10.1111/j.1747-6593.2006.00056.x

Cited by 130 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…These are all industry developed hydraulic models, with user interfaces that simulate steady and unsteady flows for single and dendritic channels, as well as whole channel networks (Thomas and Nisbet, 2007).…”

Section: Numerical Modelling Methodology For Downscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This section has showed that several land use change scenarios, both in the channel and on the floodplain can be tested using hydraulic models. Thomas and Nisbet (2007) showed that 1D models are suitable for this purpose and that the increased process representation of 2D models does not improve hydrograph reproduction.…”

Section: Hydraulic Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because it may be easier to change the flows from more than one sub-catchment by a smaller amount and still achieve the same effect as shifting one sub-catchment by a large amount. Furthermore, it is very unlikely that land use change scenarios will affect either the magnitude or the timing of the flows (Thomas and Nisbet, 2007). Land management scenarios, especially floodplain storage will most likely cause flows to be attenuated, meaning that high flows are both reduced in terms of magnitude and delayed in terms of timing.…”

Section: Isis-flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, although Thomas and Nisbet (2007) stated that this change could desynchronise subcatchment contributions, the effect of this land management change on the catchment scale at the downstream outlet was not assessed. The fourth study was by Lane (2003) on the River Ouse in Yorkshire, which analysed the thirty largest floods between the early 1990s and 2001.…”

Section: Chapter Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effect of relative timing on peak flows downstream has been investigated in a limited number of studies (Acreman et al, 2003;Lane 2003a;Thomas and Nisbet, 2007).…”

Section: ) To Determine Which Areas (Sub-catchments) Of the Catchmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rural land management impacts on catchment scale flood risk

Pattison¹

2010

Role of Hydrology in Managing Consequences of a Changing Global Environment

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source• a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses• the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Most approaches to this problem aim to upscale from individual grid cells to whole catchments, something that restricts the complexity of possible process representation, produces models that may not be parsimonious with the data needed to calibrate them and, faced with data uncertainties, provides computational limitations on the extent to which model uncertainty can be fully explored. Rather than upscaling to problems of concern, this thesis seeks to downscale from locations of known flood risk, as a means of identifying where land use management changes might be beneficial and then uses numerical modelling to identify the kinds of management changes required in those downscaled locations. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to test an approach to understanding the impacts of rural land management upon flood risk based upon catchment-to-source downscaling.This thesis uses the case study of the River Eden catchment (2400 km 2 ) as a test (1) it was shown to have a significant impact on downstream flood risk; and (2) it had range of data and information needed for modelling land use changes.The second part of this thesis explored the land management scenarios that could be used to reduce flood risk at the catchment scale. The scenarios to be tested were determined through a stakeholder participation approach, whereby workshops were held to brainstorm and prioritise land management options, and then to identify specific locations within the Eamont sub-catchment where they could tested. There were two main types of land management scenarios chosen: (1) landscape-scale changes, including afforestation and compaction; and (2) corresponding to a 5.8% decrease in peak discharge. A key conclusion is that land management practices have been shown to have an effect on catchment scale flooding, even for extreme flood events. However, the effect of land management scenarios are both spatially and temporally dependent i.e. the same land management practice has different effects depending on where it is implemented, and when implemented in the same location has different effects on different flood events.

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Section: Numerical Modelling Methodology For Downscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hydraulic Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Isis-flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chapter Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effect of relative timing on peak flows downstream has been investigated in a limited number of studies (Acreman et al, 2003;Lane 2003a;Thomas and Nisbet, 2007).…”

Section: ) To Determine Which Areas (Sub-catchments) Of the Catchmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rural land management impacts on catchment scale flood risk

Pattison¹

2010

Role of Hydrology in Managing Consequences of a Changing Global Environment

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The role of tributary relative timing and sequencing in controlling large floods

Pattison

Lane

Hardy

et al. 2014

Water Resources Research

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Hydrograph convolution is a product of tributary inputs from across the watershed. The timespace distribution of precipitation, the biophysical processes that control the conversion of precipitation to runoff and channel flow conveyance processes, are heterogeneous and different areas respond to rainfall in different ways. We take a subwatershed approach to this and account for tributary flow magnitude, relative timing, and sequencing. We hypothesize that as the scale of the watershed increases so we may start to see systematic differences in subwatershed hydrological response. We test this hypothesis for a large flood (T > 100 years) in a large watershed in northern England. We undertake a sensitivity analysis of the effects of changing subwatershed hydrological response using a hydraulic model. Delaying upstream tributary peak flow timing to make them asynchronous from downstream subwatersheds reduced flood magnitude. However, significant hydrograph adjustment in any one subwatershed was needed for meaningful reductions in stage downstream, although smaller adjustments in multiple tributaries resulted in comparable impacts. For larger hydrograph adjustments, the effect of changing the timing of two tributaries together was lower than the effect of changing each one separately. For smaller adjustments synergy between two subwatersheds meant the effect of changing them together could be greater than the sum of the parts. Thus, this work shows that while the effects of modifying biophysical catchment properties diminishes with scale due to dilution effects, their impact on relative timing of tributaries may, if applied in the right locations, be an important element of flood management.

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The forgotten forests: Incorporating temperate peat‐forming wet woodlands as nature‐based solutions into policy and practice

Milner,

Baird,

Davidson

et al. 2024

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Peat‐forming wet woodlands (forested wetlands) are naturally occurring carbon‐dense ecosystems that have considerable potential to form an important part of net zero woodland establishment and peatland strategies, as well as provide crucial co‐benefits to restore biodiversity and regulate hydrological systems. Despite their potential, temperate peat‐forming wet woodlands have been widely lost, are critically understudied and are being overlooked in land‐use strategies. Unlike temperate ‘dry’ woodlands, some wet woodlands are peat forming and can store large amounts of carbon below‐ground in peat in addition to the carbon in the tree biomass. The complex structure of these peat‐forming wet woodlands creates high abiotic heterogeneity, resulting in a wide variety of microhabitats to support high levels of biodiversity, and this structural complexity can also increase water storage in the landscape and slow flood flows, providing natural flood protection. Co‐written by experts in academia and UK Government, we highlight critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of peat‐forming wet woodlands that, once addressed, could form the basis for radical changes to their inclusion in net zero and land‐use policies. Policy and practice implications: The significant role that peatland restoration has to play in reaching net zero presents an immediate policy opportunity to consider the full range of ecosystems to achieve net zero targets, while protecting and enhancing socio‐ecological sustainability. In co‐writing this paper, our aim is to stimulate discussion and sharing of knowledge between those involved in research, policy and practice in order to strengthen the evidence base for peat‐forming wet woodland re‐establishment and future management. We call on researchers, policymakers and land managers to take temperate wet woodlands from understudied and overlooked, to integrated ecosystems that hold great promise in the contributions they can make as nature‐based solutions.

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An assessment of the impact of floodplain woodland on flood flows

Cited by 130 publications

References 8 publications

Rural land management impacts on catchment scale flood risk

Rural land management impacts on catchment scale flood risk

The role of tributary relative timing and sequencing in controlling large floods

The forgotten forests: Incorporating temperate peat‐forming wet woodlands as nature‐based solutions into policy and practice

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