Maximising the benefits from new reservoirs

Opportunity

Two new strategic resource option (SRO) public water supply reservoirs have been proposed for the Anglian region. The reservoirs - in Lincolnshire and the Cambridgeshire Fens - will secure water supply for customers in the region for future generations. Anglian Water wants to create places where water, people and nature come together, so space for wildlife is coupled with new recreational and educational activities and natural places for people to explore. They also want to maximise benefits of the reservoirs on the wider surrounding landscapes.

We were appointed with our partners North Star Transition to explore how the surrounding landscapes could deliver this additional value, via further investment around the reservoirs to generate co-benefits, taking a broader view of co-funding options.

Solution

A preliminary, indicative system-wide concept was created for each reservoir, comprising three key sub-systems:

• upstream catchments − where interventions could bring benefits of flow regulation and water quality to the reservoir as well as additional local benefits. Key interventions: habitat restoration, wetlands, washlands, natural flood management and soil health improvement.
• catchments surrounding the reservoirs – where the interventions could interact with the reservoir, such as: open water transfers, reservoir conjunctive use, farm water storage, bankside storage washlands and wetlands, protected cropping, hydroponics, marinas, country parks and cycleways.
• indirect catchment benefits – such as river restoration associated with reduced groundwater abstraction from chalk and limestone aquifers facilitated by the reservoir storage.

Relevant interventions and benefits were identified for each sub-system, reflecting the collaborative inputs of key stakeholders. Interventions were scaled and costed based on previous systematic conservation planning work. Benefits of each intervention were then monetised against all criteria. A range of funding and investment options were identified and mapped to relevant interventions. Key system synergies were identified along with implications for the design of the reservoirs.

Outcome

The systems assessment of SRO reservoir and landscapes for the reservoirs identified interventions and their potential funding opportunities totalling £0.9bn that would create £5.7bn of benefits. Our work demonstrated how investing in landscapes alongside the creation of major infrastructure provides an important opportunity to overcome some of the current barriers to widespread uptake of nature-based solutions at scale. Undertaking further work on integrated water management, partnership financing and governance arrangements were highlighted as key to deliver on this opportunity.

Importantly, our approach has focused on mobilising private sector finance to deliver transformative change in landscape systems, such as widespread improvements in soil health to generate widespread benefits for agriculture, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, flood control and water quality.