Hadrian Cook

Water Meadow Management in Wessex: Dynamics of Change from 1800 to the Present Day

Abstract Relatively little attention has been given to post-1800 changes in water meadow management. Before this, many ‘bedwork’ systems originally provided grazing within sheep-corn husbandry but this changed in the nineteenth century when water meadows provided grazing for dairy herds and grew hay crops. Using oral and published accounts, this paper explores changes in management from water meadows as heavily invested agricultural systems to ecological, hydrological and landscape service providers today.

Catchment Management – Relevant in Developed and Developing Countries

Clean rivers, improved ecology and adequate drinking water quality can be achieved by encouraging farmers and communities to prevent pollutant run-off entering watercourses and groundwater. Voluntary and community-based approaches are necessary to meet the challenge of diffuse pollution at affordable cost, but appropriate institutions, regulations, economic incentives, and technology development are also essential.

Field-Scale water management in Southern England to A.D. 1900

ABSTRACT Material evidence is considered for agricultural soil-water management at the field scale in southern England from prehistory to the nineteenth century. The objectives of soil-water management in earlier times are drainage, the constraint of livestock and, possibly, the control of soil erosion on steeper slopes. Irrigation was used to flush pastures with nutrients, protect from frosts or warm the soil during early spring more often than to reduce the soil-water deficit, which is the usual modern objective. Interest in management systems employing the natural function of the floodplain, such as flood-meadows or water-meadows, or the re-instatement of wetlands, is of particular relevance at this time of agricultural ‘extensification’ and habitat restoration.

River channel planforms and floodplains: a study in the Wessex landscape

ABSTRACT For south ‘Wessex’, despite complexity evident on the ground, there is little research that directly links river channel form with historic economic development; that is, channel genesis and planforms are seldom discussed in relation to landscape development within valleys. Of specific interest are relationships linking channel topography, artificial cuts and floodplains with development associated with mills, water-meadows, artificial watercourses and gravel extraction. These are an outcome of a strong regional culture of economic development including water management. It is demonstrated that river planforms within the valleys determine the location of fixed assets and there is a strong relationship between soils and floodplain development. It is concluded that there is an intricate continuum between perceived ‘natural’ fluvial process and human-influenced environmental change, and that genetic interpretation of river channel forms presents a challenge for landscape historians.

An Assessment of Intermediary Roles in Payments for Ecosystem Services Schemes in the Context of Catchment Management: An Example from South West England

Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) schemes are an underdeveloped component of the policy mix for catchment management in many countries. The importance of intermediaries to such schemes is acknowledged in the literature but few studies go beyond theory to evaluate practice. This paper analyses generic intermediary functions for PES. It then evaluates an innovative example from southwest England that provides illustrations, and some lessons regarding necessary capabilities and characteristics for intermediaries, and understanding of their form, functions and modalities. The ‘UpStream Thinking’ project was co-developed by a private water company and an environmental charity. The former translated effective demand from shareholders and water customers for improved raw water quality into finance, whilst the latter had capabilities for catchment-scale on-farm delivery and trusted acceptance as an intermediary. While any sector can potentially provide a PES intermediary, the value driven, not-for-profit and politically neutral voluntary sector proves to be a good fit. Such ‘boundary organisations’ are also well placed for horizontal coordination of catchment management authorities and actions.

'An unimportant river in the neighbourhood of London' : the use and abuse of the River Wandle

Abstract Being neither large, nor unusual in its natural attributes, environmental and historical interest in south Londons River Wandle lies in the human impact on water quality, habitat modification, maintenance of discharge and physical channel form. Problems emerged during the first half of the nineteenth century deriving from sewage and industrial development, so that between about 1930 and 1970, with the authorities negligent, the river channels became functionally open foul sewers. Recovery since then has included efforts to improve water quality, restore the banks and associated habitats and create enabling initiatives within all economic sectors. This article describes the Wandles significance as an arena for scrutinizing water resource conflicts since the 1950s, its contribution towards Integrated Water Resources Management and the rise of an urban nature conservation ethos. Questions remain around how — and to what condition — the river might be restored.