The guidance is primarily for NFM scheme developers who use Leaky Woody Structures (LWS), but it will also inform landowners, commissioning bodies, contractors and consenting bodies about the risks they need to consider when planning the installation of these structures.

The guide summarises the basic data that should be collected by all Defra funded Community Scale Natural Flood Management (NFM) schemes. Catchment scale schemes are also required to collect this data, but are also expected to supplement this with more detailed monitoring and evaluation described in the full Monitoring and Evaluation guidance, to be re-released shortly.

The Environment Agency has identified 40 projects in the Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk
Management current investment programme that include NFM measures as part of their solution.
The Environment Agency has surveyed project managers and practitioners to learn more about NFM, to have more confidence in it, and be able to use it as one of
the tools to reduce flood risk.

How much can natural measures reduce flooding at large scales? To answer this question over the next three years the Q-NFM investigator team, lead by Lancaster University, will work in three large Cumbrian catchments (‘test basins’), the Eden, Derwent and Kent with their partners who are delivering NFM interventions .

This guide has been developed to provide simple, clear information on natural flood management measures for landowners and farmers in the North West.

This quick guide will help Environment Agency officers understand potential risks and liabilities to consider when working with natural processes to reduce flood and coastal erosion risk. This is relevant when working on projects involving natural flood management (NFM) interventions to be undertaken by:
– the Environment Agency itself
– contractors or other risk management authorities on our behalf
– others, such as local community groups, landowners and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) with whom we are working in
partnership

Upstream thinking is an initiative which looks at how land is managed to protect our rivers. By working with landowners, we can make changes to how land is managed to keep unwanted things out of rivers.

Monitoring and evaluation needs to be a part of initial project planning. It can help to secure future funding and engage local communities. This section provides links to guidance, training material, tools, templates and case studies that can help you to develop a monitoring plan.

A list of funding sources for natural flood risk management projects.

As part of the Cumbria Flood Action Plan, the Cumbria Strategic Flood Partnership hosted a series of workshops in 2017 for experts and practitioners to share with partners, stakeholders and communities across Cumbria, their current understanding and knowledge on a number of topics critical to managing flood risk on a catchment wide basis.

This guide has best practice recommendations and learning based on delivery of a number of different NFM techniques including offline and online flow storage, methods to intercept fast flow pathways, large woody debris, riparian zone management and habitat creation.

This handbook provides information on NFM techniques, assessment tools, managing an NFM project and monitoring.