Monitoring and Evaluation – Natural Flood Management Projects (WWNP)

Organisation: Various

Location: National

Type: Templates

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 draft guide ‘Monitoring and Evaluating the DEFRA funded Natural Flood Management Projects‘ has been developed by the Environment Agency and CaBA to support the Defra £15M program of NFM projects. The guide will be improved in 18/19 as we get feedback from community groups and partnerships who are using it.

The monitoring of WWNP projects generally takes one of 2 approaches:

  1. ‘Detailed’ approach. This looks at the extent of the effects of local-scale flow changes and or catchment-scale flow changes on flood risk.
  2. ‘Lighter touch’ approach. This looks at how, where and when a measure is working; whether the effects of a measure can be used to inform modelling studies; and how the measures perform in non-flood and low flow conditions.

Templates and tools

Monitoring of NFM projects and schemes is necessary to:

  • Demonstrate success
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Know when adaptive management is needed
  • Inform funders, partners and local stakeholders of how the projects has worked
  • Fill known research gaps

Below are some templates and tools that can help you develop a CaBA monitoring plan for NFM projects.

Monitoring Planner

The Monitoring planner  is a worksheet developed by the River Restoration Centre to help guide you through the process of planning a collaborative monitoring strategy and setting to evaluate projects in your catchment. A worked example for an NFM project will be added soon.

Monitoring Decision Flow Chart 

Used in conjunction with the monitoring planner above, the 2-part Monitoring Decision Flow Chart included in the Environment Agency’s Evidence Directory, can help you to establish the extent of monitoring that may be necessary and feasible in the project catchment.

Practical River Restoration Appraisal Guidance

Guidance on monitoring protocols, and how to plan the right things to monitor to demonstrate success for river restoration projects.

Download here

River Restoration Factsheets

These free to download factsheets provide an overview of things to consider when planning, implementing and evaluating river restoration projects.

Visit RRC site

Translate »