Demonstration Test Catchments
Programme Context, Drivers, Objectives, Approaches and
Outputs
Context
The Water Framework Directive is an international obligation to improve and maintain good quality in
our freshwater ecosystems. At the same time we have to continue to produce food to meet a growing
population. We now recognise that such goals cannot be achieved in isolation and the approaches we
take have to be more integrated. In any given catchment it becomes increasingly important that we
understand how the river and the land functions together sufficiently well to recognise the nature of the
problems that need to be managed and hence ensure that the solutions are effective and efficient.
The DTC programme is specifically focused on improving water quality impacted by diffuse agricultural
pollution. There are uncertainties and complexities in the linkage between cause and effect through the
source – mobilisation – delivery – impact continuum at all scales. These gaps in our knowledge and
understanding, particularly at the higher scales at which we manage the environment (catchment, river
basins) need to be filled. DTC will attempt this through new monitoring and the use of existing
stakeholder knowledge and data in combination with modelling. The process is iterative, always testing
hypotheses and assumptions against observations
In addressing the diffuse pollution problems we need to be mindful of the impact of the solutions on
food production and farm economics. Will we be able to balance the need to reduce water pollution with
the continued need to produce food?
Overall Objectives
The Demonstration Test Catchments (DTCs) Programme has three main objectives.
1. As a research project: to provide underpinning research, from farm to catchment scale, that
informs both policy and practical approaches for the reduction of agricultural diffuse
pollution and the improvement of ecological status in freshwaters, whilst maintaining
economically viable food production.
2. As a research platform: to host collaborative research in the longer-term on diffuse pollution
from agriculture and establish a sustainable research platform to enable short and longerterm research questions to be answered. The platform will also help with the:
a. development of more efficient and effective ways of undertaking research;
b. development of better organised interdisciplinary research which informs integrated
policy;
c. refinement and testing of an improved integrated toolkit for monitoring water quality,
environmental and social outcomes and dissemination of the knowledge gathered
therein;
d. better co-ordination of UK Integrated Catchment Science.
3. To explore a potential new approach to catchment management in the UK centred around a
partnership between stakeholders with local knowledge and understanding and
scientists/practitioners.
These 3 objectives are linked since some of the answers to the research questions will not be resolved
within the 5-year length of the DTC research project. Hence, there is a need to maintain the facilities, the
data, the knowledge and the understanding built up within the research community, in order to
investigate and verify long-term changes (Objective 2) and refine remedial actions. At the same time,
catchment scale science requires the research community and the local stakeholder community to be
engaged in partnership. The community of practice that emerges as a result, centred around an interest
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in, and understanding of the river and its interaction with the land, is the basis of a form of Integrated
Catchment Management (ICM) (Objective 3).
OBJECTIVE 1
As a research project: to provide underpinning research, from farm to catchment scale, that informs
both policy and practical approaches for the reduction of agricultural diffuse pollution and the
improvement of ecological status in freshwaters, whilst maintaining economically viable food
production.
Drivers (Why):
 Many of our waterbodies are currently impacted by pollution (only 27% of water bodies in
England and Wales are at good ecological status). We have obligations through EU and national
legislation to address this gap.
 We know that agriculture is responsible for some of this problem (in the UK 60% of nitrates, 25%
of phosphorus and 75% of sediments polluting water bodies come from farming1 and
approximately 40% of water bodies are currently at risk of failing to meet good ecological status
due to agriculturally-derived water pollution)
 At the same time, society faces major challenges to feed a growing global population in the face
of dwindling resources and a changing climate.
 Defra is committed to:
o support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production and
o help to enhance the environment and biodiversity and to improve quality of life.
 Diffuse agricultural water pollution and its effects on aquatic ecology remain relatively poorly
understood.
 The evidence that we have to support specific mitigation measures is largely based on plot-scale
experimentation – we do not fully understand how measures behave in combination or when
applied over larger catchment scales.
 We wish to predict the effectiveness of mitigation measures at locations which may be spatially
and/or temporally distant from both the source of pollution and the point at which we measure
the quality or status of the freshwater.
Approach (How):
DTC establishes a nationally co-ordinated programme of work focused on three specific areas,
representative of land use and farming practice across England and Wales. It takes a two-pronged
approach to improve our understanding of diffuse agricultural pollution and the effectiveness of
mitigation measures as illustrated in Figure 1 below.
1.
Measures
It will establish land use and mitigation measures within targeted areas and
compare water quality changes against “business as usual” control areas. Water quality data, collected at
nested spatial scales, will be interpreted together with farm practice information using a range of
statistical approaches. These will be used to assess the effectiveness of manipulation in target areas and
provide evidence on the effectiveness of agricultural diffuse pollution mitigation measures at the farm to
catchment scale. The statistical interpretation of the conventional water quality data will be undertaken
within the context of a wider toolkit for assessing environmental and social outcomes in the DTCs. The
use of the toolkit will permit a ‘weight of evidence’ approach for supporting improved recommendations
for mitigating diffuse water pollution from agriculture. Further work within the platform will be
commissioned through Component 2 (Measures) and will collect field/farm scale data using a range of
experimental designs and technologies to provide information on the cost-effectiveness of individual
measures.
1
http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/issue/facts.html#refs
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2.
Catchment characterisation
Monitoring activities in the DTC programme will provide
quantitative and qualitative evidence that will provide an improved conceptual understanding of
catchment processes, including the sources, pathways and receptors driving diffuse pollution from
agriculture to support future modelling activities to achieve the purposes highlighted above. This is the
first time that it has been done simultaneously in a coordinated national effort across a range of
typologies for England and Wales.
Figure 1: DTC will undertake parallel work on understanding catchment processes, through river
catchment characterisation, and testing the effectiveness of mitigation measures. These will provide
information to inform future modelling and policy development.
Specific objectives are to understand:
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The processes affecting pollutants as they propagate throughout the catchment – whether via
the subsurface, shallow drainage or across land and whilst in transport downstream (including
macro-nutrient cycling, transformations and attenuation).
The spatial and temporal scales at which interventions can reduce the impact of agricultural
diffuse pollution on water quality, ecology and other receptors across catchment scales and how
these fit with policy perspectives. Temporal scales include short (acute) and long term (chronic)
responses.
The win-wins and trade-offs necessary in selecting mitigation strategies.
The social and economic actions necessary to improve the adoption of effective mitigation
measures.
The improved integration of different data and information into a unified conceptual model of
the linkages between water quality and the supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural
ecosystem services (as defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2). This will underpin
the development of appropriate modelling tools.
These objectives will be informed by data collected on:
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Pollutant levels in rivers and groundwater at multiple, nested spatial scales.
http://www.ecosystemservices.org.uk/ecoserv.htm
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Impacts on freshwater ecology (ecosystem process rates and community assessments).
The economics and practicality of implementation.
Impacts on agricultural productivity.
Other benefits and impacts (e.g. the impact of measures on flooding, greenhouse gas emissions
and terrestrial biodiversity).
Interactions between multiple environmental, social and economic factors.
Suites of diffuse pollution mitigation measures according to:
o Effectiveness: Identify and demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of pollution mitigation
options.
o Lifespan: Assess the lifespan of mitigation measures (to determine short and long term
fixes).
o Management of measures: Develop guidance on maintenance required to maintain
effectiveness.
o Interactions: Test conflict/ interaction between measures
o Uptake: How do we quantify uptake, barriers to uptake and socio-economic implications
of mitigation options?
o Targeting: Improve the spatial and temporal targeting of diffuse pollution mitigation
measures through modelling and risk mapping to identify priority areas and optimise
pollution reduction.
The programme will co-ordinate closely with other relevant projects and programmes in fulfilling its
goals. It is therefore a means of focussing effort that has been otherwise distributed across a range of
research sites in a rather ad hoc and disparate manner.
Outputs/Success Criteria
Costs and Benefits
– Component 2 (Measures) will provide robust quantification of the real and marginal costs and
benefits of approaches to diffuse pollution mitigation.
Evidence and communication
– A range of on-farm measures to bring changes in water quality/ecosystem that policy-makers
and industry have confidence in.
– Uncertainties are well understood and communicated.
– Development of a robust and transferable integrated toolkit for monitoring freshwater systems
and their social dimensions to determine consequential changes in water quality / aquatic
ecology from changing land management practices.
– Clear, evidence-based messages on the relationship between land management and the
environment are developed. Policy and industry stakeholders have confidence in these
messages.
Tools and guidance
– Models, decision support systems and guidance is developed to inform decision making by
farmers, policy makers, delivery bodies and other stakeholders.
OBJECTIVE 2
As a research platform: to host collaborative research in the longer-term on diffuse pollution from
agriculture and establish a sustainable research platform to enable short and longer-term research
questions to be answered. The platform will also help with the:
 development of more efficient and effective ways of undertaking research;
 development of better organised interdisciplinary research which informs integrated
policy;
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refinement and testing of an improved integrated toolkit for monitoring water quality,
environmental and social outcomes and dissemination of the knowledge gathered therein;
better co-ordination of UK Integrated Catchment Science.
Drivers
Policy focused research related to water quality is commissioned and managed by a number of groups
(at least 10) in the UK across government departments, devolved administrations and delivery agencies.
Basic science relevant to these programmes is also funded by several Research Councils. This research is
relevant to a broad range of related policy areas. There is considerable scope to improve coordination
between science programmes to answer cross cutting research questions and achieve better value for
money.
The limited nature of resources available to Defra and the EA sets challenges both in terms of funding
research on large geographical and temporal scales, and employing the human resources necessary to
maintain a focus on policy priorities and to disseminate relevant information.
Regular staff turn-over in science and policy teams limits the “corporate memory” of science that has
been funded in the past. This increases the risk of repeating research that has already taken place and
has adversely affected the efficiency with which R&D outputs have been translated into evidence based
policy.
Conversely, staff in research organisations are generally stable and hold much of the knowledge and
“corporate memory” that Defra relies on to inform policy. This knowledge is currently often accessed
through small consultancy contracts and the commissioning of ad hoc review projects to distil
information from research into outputs that are accessible to policy makers.
Purpose
The Defra Evidence and Innovation Strategy sets out the need to develop multidisciplinary research that
takes into account the interdependencies, trade-offs and interactions between food production and
ecosystem services whilst adapting to the effects of climate change. There is a need to set the conditions
to support such collaborative and interdisciplinary work by facilitating linkages between research groups.
Clear communication of research that takes into account these interactions can be presented in a coordinated fashion to policy teams across Defra to inform efficient policy making.
Approach
An alternative model for commissioning, managing and translating policy relevant R&D has been
developed for the Farming and Food Science Sustainable Water Management Programme and is being
tested through the DTC programme.
The DTC programme will establish a “research platform” or “outdoor laboratory” consisting of:
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A national network of catchment-scale study sites. These sites will collect appropriate temporal
and spatial data in a consistent manner from monitoring arrays that cover groundwater, surface
water, flow and ecology. Data will be collected to meet the objectives above.
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Co-ordinated catchment-science research activities. Currently disparate research on
interrelated impacts of agriculture on the environment will be linked through the DTC
programme. Researchers will work closely with wider stakeholder groups using existing data,
information and knowledge more effectively to provide a more robust evidence base. There will
be a co-ordinated approach to the development and calibration of improved modelling tools to
assess the viability of defined policy interventions for achieving targets through the compilation
of a series of robust and accessible datasets.
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An integrated data infrastructure allowing others to freely use the data and information to
promote collaboration in research and analysis. Working closely with the NERC Pilot Virtual
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Observatory, this will contribute to wider NERC objectives in developing innovative new ways of
collecting and making available experimental data through the use of remotely controlled
monitoring instrumentation and web-based data portals to ensure that data can be managed
and disseminated efficiently and effectively. This will, in turn, underpin the development of
unified data analysis and modelling solutions describing and forecasting relevant processes and
transformation across scales.
The DTC research platform will act as a focal point for catchment research to improve linkages with
wider UK and international research activities including research council programmes (e.g. BBSRC and
NERC) and programmes being taken forward by devolved administrations and other EU member states
(e.g. Scottish Monitored Priority Catchments and the Irish Agricultural Catchments project). It will
establish a community of researchers, policy makers, delivery bodies and other stakeholder groups who
are developing a shared understanding of the policy challenges, evidence gaps and practical implications
of addressing diffuse agricultural pollution in the context of wider objectives and ecosystem services
which land management is expected to provide. The DTC platform will offer a flexible and adaptive
approach to providing evidence to policy.
The platform will draw in resources from other funders by providing field sites, equipment, data and
expertise. It will be able to host low cost reactive projects to answer immediate policy questions whilst
building up long-term datasets to improve our conceptual understanding of catchment processes.
Outputs/Success Criteria
Strong consortia
– Well established consortia with a mix of all relevant disciplines fully engaged on environmental
and social outcomes.
– The majority of key academics and research institutions are engaged.
– Local consortia build institutional capacity and develop their own work programmes and are
successful in bidding into other funding sources.
Co-operation and Collaboration
– Consortia have strong and sustainable working relationships with local stakeholder groups.
– Farmers within study areas collaborating with the project.
– DTC and research councils are collaborating well delivering added value through links to other
projects and programmes (e.g. NERC Pilot Virtual Obervatory, NERC Changing Water Cycle, NERC
Macronutrient Cycling Programme).
Sustainability
– Total funding grows based on the research platform and demonstration catchment concepts.
OBJECTIVE 3
To explore a potential new approach for catchment management in the UK centred around a
partnership between stakeholders with local knowledge and understanding and
scientists/practitioners.
Drivers
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Big society
A need to take an ecosystems approach that takes account of multiple factors.
A need to involve the community, farmers and key stakeholders in the process in order to make
changes happen.
Purpose
By developing a community around researchers and other stakeholders with knowledge, the Consortia
will explore a different approach to environmental management and governance than current practice.
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Operating at the scale of the river catchment or sub-catchment techniques for stakeholder engagement,
mechanisms for influencing key stakeholders and ways of sharing information between local actors will
develop that will be helpful in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.
One of the key challenges facing the implementation of the WFD, and more broadly the development of
ICM, is to connect top-down, largely government-led processes operating at regional, national and even
international scales, with local energy and activity operating at smaller scales. We hope that the models
that will develop over the life of the DTC Programme will aid our understanding of how to connect the
levels of governance better through experimenting with facilitating mechanisms such as farmer groups
and other local community organisations.
Approach
The approach will be more integrated, inclusive, participatory, adaptive and collaborative. One term for
this is Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) a definition of which is: “a process that recognises the
catchment as the appropriate organising unit for understanding and managing ecosystem goods and
services in a context that includes social, economic and political considerations, and guides communities
towards an agreed vision of sustainable land and water resource management for their catchment.”
This objective will be delivered through the Knowledge Exchange component of the DTC Programme
(Component 3).
Outputs/Success Criteria
Influence and transferability
– Evidence on the effectiveness of different methods for influencing behaviour and communicating
information.
– Mechanisms to encourage bottom-up involvement of farmers and stakeholders in prioritising
land management approaches are established and tested – a ‘big-society’/ integrated catchment
management approach.
– Results are transferable to other catchments and other situations.
– Demonstration activities lead to landowners outside of the test areas taking up new land
management approaches.
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Expected outcomes
Water quality and ecological quality monitoring strategies in the Demonstration Test Catchments need
careful design to ensure that they can detect changes despite temporal and spatial effects. It is essential
for the design to understand what can and what cannot be achieved within the funding span of the DTC
and what has to be undertaken as a longer-term research platform.
DTCs are using a range of approaches to optimise the best possible evidence for informing policy
decisions on water quality. It benefits substantially from the national level coordination, that for the first
time attempts to harmonise approaches across a range of landscape typologies in England and Wales. In
order to set this in place the level of investment is necessarily high, especially in equipment and
infrastructure. Against this backdrop, it is important to be realistic about expected outcomes.
Each of the individual DTCs are undertaking a nested approach to monitoring. Social, economic and
behavioural factors are included as well as environmental ones to help demonstrate the effectiveness of
measures in shorter timeframes (see table below).
Table 1: Monitoring at different scales to detect short and long term effects of diffuse pollution
mitigation measures.
Timeframe
1 year
Outcomes
Measuring
 Social science, attitudes and behaviour
 Uptake of measures
Predicting
 Initial conceptual modelling to predict effectiveness of measures
Demonstrating
 The development of approaches to integrated catchment research
 The efficiencies and effectiveness of working collaboratively
through research consortia
5 years
Measuring
 Reductions in pollutant delivery at small spatial scales (towards the
source/ mobilisation of the delivery continuum and at field /
farm scale)
 The effect of measures on economic and agronomic farm
performance
 Pollutant fluxes, flow-weighted mean concentrations, instantaneous
concentrations etc and variations at sub-catchment outlet and
how they relate to precipitation events
 Source apportionment changes linked to targeted mitigation
 Providing catchment attribute, practice and activity data to
underpin conceptual and predictive modelling
 Changes in ecosystem process rates
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10-20 years
Predicting
 Improving conceptual models of key catchment processes (in
specific areas of catchments where the investment and learning
is high)
 Improving certainty in detecting real impacts due to the
effectiveness of measures on pathways and receptors
 Improved catchment modelling capabilities and a greater
understanding of the uncertainty therein
 Ability to extrapolate information to other parts of the country
 Robust quantification of the real and marginal costs and benefits of
on-farm approaches to diffuse pollution mitigation.
Demonstrating
 A range of on-farm measures to bring changes in water
quality/ecosystem that policy-makers and industry have
confidence in.
 Cost and practicability of measures with an improved ability to
predict effectiveness
 A robust and transferable integrated toolkit for monitoring
freshwater systems to determine consequential changes in water
quality from changing land management practices.
 Communicating the issues to key stakeholders
 Clear, evidence-based messages on the relationship between land
management and the environment are developed.
Measuring
 Measuring positive changes in water quality at sub-catchment
outlets
 Measuring positive ecological changes (understanding receptors)
Predicting
 Understanding catchment processes and hysteresis (understanding
pathways)
Demonstrating
 Clear messages to farmers and their advisers on diffuse pollution, its
impacts and mitigation
 Clear guidance on best practice
 Successful ‘communities of practice’
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