Saltmarsh Restoration Handbook
Organisation: Environment Agency
Location: UK and Ireland
Type: Technical Support & Training
This Saltmarsh Habitat Restoration Handbook aims to provide practical guidance on restoring and creating saltmarsh habitat across the UK and Ireland. It brings together advice on planning and implementing such schemes with case studies and lessons from previous examples.
Restoring saltmarsh habitat requires a diverse mix of approaches depending on the location, surrounding landscape and condition. Overall, this handbook aims to support greater application of both small scale feasibility projects, as well as larger, more complex saltmarsh restoration efforts.
This handbook is aimed at catchment/coastal partnerships, eNGOs and community groups looking to undertake their own saltmarsh restoration project. It aims to lead to the creation of more saltmarsh habitat, leading to (amongst others..) improved biodiversity & water quality, adaption to climate risks, and carbon benefits.
What's included
- An introduction to what saltmarsh is, why it is important, the threats to saltmarsh habitat and the concept of restoring resilient and well functioning saltmarsh (Chapter 1);
- Information about starting a restoration project including choosing a site, project planning, choosing a design and calculating the benefits of restoring saltmarsh (Chapter 2);
- An overview of the consents and licences likely to be required and key organisations to contact about licensing (Chapter 3);
- An outline of how to effectively communicate a restoration project before, during and after changes are made (Chapter 4); and
- A non-technical summary of the different approaches and methods to restoring saltmarsh habitat, and advice regarding monitoring and maintenance (Chapter 5).
This handbook is one of a quartet of restoration guidelines, along with those developed for native oyster reefs, seagrass, and for restoring coastal habitats using dredged sediments.
Partners: Environment Agency, Royal Haskoning DHV, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Trinity College Dublin, Jacobs, University of Cambridge, Asia Pacific University.