Organisation: Various
Location: National
Type: Technical Support & Training
You will need to develop your Catchment plan at least annually and publish it online to share with partners. A plan will provide a clear focus for ambitious CaBA delivery; aids strategic and project-based collaboration and opportunistic project delivery.
The main component of a CaBA catchment plan is a list of projects and activities that move the partnership towards its vision for the catchment, whilst delivering the strategic objectives of key CaBA organisations including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Water Companies and Local Authorities.
A key feature of highly effective partnerships is to think big, designing larger projects which deliver significant multiple benefits.
Below are 4 suggested methods to help capture and share projects, both current and aspirational.
A list of what partners are already doing can be used to champion the expertise and capacity of the partnership, showcasing the environmental, social and economic benefits realised and building confidence in it as a delivery partner.
This is often done in partnership workshops where partners identify current projects. There are lists of projects published by the Environment Agency and as a minimum, the Catchment Plan should capture what projects the catchment partnership are or intend to support with regard to the Environment Agency’s Environment and Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) Programmes. Water Companies do have an investment plan for each AMP cycle. These may be available from the relevant water company.
There are a number of different formats and approaches developing across the Environment Agency to share a list of WFD priority projects. The best way to access these is via your catchment co-ordinator.
These are an effective way to move away from ‘business as usual’ by identifying a shared list of projects that have been developed by the partnership. A critical component of this approach is to identify what each project contributes to the strategic objectives of some of the main CaBA organisations.
The Environment Agency Catchment Coordinators are starting to develop a project database in some river basins which can be used to show project partners what each other are doing, or planning to do, within the catchment.
This is potentially a good way to share project information widely across the partnership and look for opportunities to collaborate. Some catchment partnerships are also developing their own database of ‘shovel ready’ projects which satisfy the vision of the partnership.
Both these approaches allow for an element of independent delivery whereby organisations can just get on with delivering to their own agenda while allowing the wider partnership to spot both gaps and opportunities.
The CaBA Support Team have developed a range of ArcGIS Online templates that allow partnerships to share ‘Current’, ‘Aspirational’ and ‘ready to go’ projects live and online.