Case Study - Rivers - Lambourn, Hunts Green

Project Brief

To:

•  Restore an 800m reach of the Lambourn to favourable condition using cutting edge restoration techniques.
• The installation of signal crayfish-resistant banks  was a key objective.
•  Create specific habitats for a number of target BAP species.
• Create a demonstration SUDS system to address runoff issues from a local highway.

Solution

  A variety of Innovative, low-cost techniques were combined with signal crayfish-resistant materials  throughout the 800m reach. Sustainability and whole life cost benefits resulting from these techniques are a key project feature.  The project was undertaken in three stages:

 1: Reinstate the coarse plan form within the over widened channel to kick-start essential fluvial processes.

  2: Installation of structures to the river bed and margins to  create specific in-channel features; i.e.detailed channel refinements to the crude channel form.

  3: The use of natural materials such as logs, brushwood and gravel to create specific habitats for key BAP species.

No formal monitoring was incorporated into the scheme, however early indications suggest that the elimination of their bank side habitat is restricting signal crayfish distribution within the restored reach.