The Rivers catchment covers an area of around 3,200km area of an around covers catchment Rivers Broadland The Catchment Plan 2014 in Catchment to WaterLIFE. prior its produced and Trust Rivers Authority by Broads the and co-hosted is Partnership Catchment Broadland The crop. anotable beet sugar with agriculture, by arable intensive dominated is landscape , the of Upstream butterfly. hawker swallowtail and dragonfly, Norfolk bittern the as such species endangered and rare Interest (SSSI) Scientific to home thatare over Sites of Special 90 include which habitats, Park unique for their Yare, the aNational designated are including Broads The Bure,Broads. Wensum Waveney and Norfolk the into – flow BROADLAND RIVERS W ater LIFE DEMONSTRATION CATCHMENT FACTSHEET CATCHMENT DEMONSTRATION LIFE flood defence, land drainage or milling activities. milling or drainage land defence, flood historic of result as a –often modified physically have been rivers ofBroadland half Over supply. public and wildlife agriculture, between water resources scarce for demands competing are There inputs. sediment and nutrients have excessive habitats wildlife valuable aconsequence, As leaching. or run-off erosion, to due pesticides and nutrients topsoil, valuable losing landowners with pressure; significant a poses agriculture from pollution Diffuse Status. Ecological Good meet to failing are catchment the in ofwater bodies 90% RIVERS BROADLAND IN THE ISSUES 2 of Norfolk and northern . Its main rivers - - rivers main Its Suffolk. northern and of Norfolk © HUGHMEHTA

© JIRI REZAC 2015 © BROADS AUTHORITY WHAT DID WATERLIFE DO? WHAT DID WATERLIFE ACHIEVE?

WaterLIFE worked with Norfolk Rivers Trust and the Broads • Undertook on-farm advisory visits on over 20 farms, Authority - the co-leads of the Broadland Catchment Partnership including large estates of over 2,000ha. – to deliver an innovative approach to water stewardship: getting business understanding the risks they face from water scarcity • Identifiedfarming land-use changes to reduce field and pollution, and taking action to help ensure water is managed run-off and increase water retention on over 500ha sustainably as a shared, public resource. of farmland. • Delivered a number of silt trap and other interventions – such as moving gateways from low field corners and installing bunds and channels to capture run-off and retain within field margins – to prevent sediment-rich surface flows reaching adjacent watercourses.

© HUGH MEHTA

This was achieved by enabling a catchment-wide farm adviser to provide advice directly to farmers, and help them deliver water sensitive agricultural practices that can reduce the diffuse agricultural pollution currently harming the catchment’s rivers. SILT TRAP INSTALLATION © NORFOLK RIVERS TRUST Practices included: installing silt traps to reduce sediment • Raised farmer awareness of water sensitive running off fields into rivers; land use improvements and cropping farming practices. changes such as installing cover crops and buffer strips; and innovative tramline disruption to prevent run-off from the bare- • Worked in partnership with the Broads Authority, soil wheel-lines within crops. There was also promotion of good an agricultural machinery developer and a major practice at agricultural shows and events, as well as tailored farm supermarket to promote and trial disruption walks and knowledge exchange events for farmers. equipment to reduce tramline run-off.

There was close collaboration with the adjacent CamEO catchment, where similar water sensitive farming work was also undertaken. Work in both catchments is continuing beyond WaterLIFE with private sector support.

The Broadland Rivers catchment was one of five demonstration catchments that were part of WaterLIFE, an EC LIFE+ project that brought together communities, business and government to accelerate the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

For more information and to contact the Catchment Partnership, visit TRIALLING TRAMLINE DISRUPTION © BROADS AUTHORITY www.broads-authority.gov.uk or www.norfolkriverstrust.org • Engaged with over 2,500 farmers, in total, in the Broadland and adjacent CamEO catchments.

• In association with the CamEO catchment, enabled changes in farming practice that, by summer 2018, will replenish over 750,000m3 of water back to the environment that would otherwise run-off into rivers – a volume equivalent to 300 Olympic swimming pools!