Catchment management is an environmentally friendly and potentially low-carbon impact method of influencing raw water quality at its source by managing land use practices on a catchment scale. It can also help build stakeholder trust, reduce flood risk and increase resilience.
We apply a multisector approach to understanding the sources of water quality issues, surface water and groundwater pathways, and human and environmental receptors – such as environmentally protected sites or drinking water abstractions. We can help you manage river catchments intelligently, developing sophisticated models to understand what can be done in each part of the catchment.
Through close collaboration with our clients, we develop appropriate and cost-effective approaches to water quality problems throughout a catchment – from walkovers and surveys, stakeholder engagement and management, to detailed modelling and options assessments.
Around the world, our specialists provide guidance in conceptualising and modelling diffuse and point sources of pollution and appraise catchment, societal and engineered mitigation measures – to protect coastal water, surface water and groundwater environments from water quality risks.
By looking beyond the direct effects of water quality, our solutions focus on sustainability and are sensitive to external drivers. We evaluate the multiple influences of mitigation measures by integrating our holistic understanding with policy, stakeholder engagement and assessment of ecosystem services and natural capital.
Our specialist teams can help you with:
- Water quality modelling – to understand the nature of the problem and the possible effectiveness of mitigation measures
- Diffuse pollution management – combining agricultural understanding with that of industrial and urban sources to present the best options to meet water quality targets
- Nature-based solutions – pioneering approaches to catchment management to reduce flood risk
- Ecosystem services and natural capital – to capture the real impact of a project and identify opportunities for enhancing delivery
- Stakeholder engagement – to record knowledge and opinion and maintain stakeholder buy-in as solutions are developed and implemented