The Aquifer Partnership - Brighton and Hove

The Aquifer Partnership (TAP) is a partnership established in England, United Kingdom between Brighton & Hove City Council, the South Downs National Park Authority, Southern Water and the UK Environment Agency. The partnership was first established in 2015 as Brighton Chalk Management Partnership (ChaMP) to protect groundwater in the Brighton Chalk Block (the region's primary source of water) from pollution, as well as increase resilience to climate change and the extreme weather events that can cause flooding and drought. The ChaMP was extended and renamed to TAP in 2020. The partnership's programme includes working with residents, farmers, landowners and schools across the towns in the Brighton, Hove and Lewes area to reduce pollution, including nitrates which can leach into the aquifer. Sources of nitrates can include intensive agriculture and run-off from roads. Other work includes carrying out research into using nature-based solutions to reduce pollution and developing sustainable drainage projects or ‘rainscapes’ to help manage water in better ways in the city. The partnership is currently set to operate until 2025.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Agreement-based or cooperative instrument›Public-community agreement

Challenges addressed

Soil quality
Water management (e.g. reuse)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Other, please specify

Biodiversity

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The project works in rural and urban areas. In rural areas, the partnership is working with farmers and landowners to trial new approaches that use nitrate efficiently and stop it from infiltrating into soils, surface and groundwater, including research into using winter cover crops and regenerative farming techniques to support the soil and reduce nitrate leaching. The project's work in the urban environment concentrates on stopping surface water pollution (for example from roads) on impacting the groundwater by developing a network of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), capable of remediating the pollutants by actions of bacteria in the roots and soil. The partnership is developing plans to install rain gardens across the city to improve biodiversity, remove pollution from major roads and reduce surface water flooding. TAP has also published a guide for the local inhabitants with tips on how they can help preserve groundwater quality, for example by installing rain gardens and permeable driveways, supporting the maintenance of local green verges, avoiding chemical fertilisers and pesticides in private gardens, using climate resilient and bee friendly plants, installing green roofs and tips to support soil health in private gardens.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Allotments, community gardens or agricultural areas

Green areas for water management

External building greens

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Effective

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Innovative

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Brighton and Hove City Council

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

In its first phase, the partnership was established in 2015 as Brighton Chalk Management Partnership (ChaMP), a collaboration between the South Downs National Park Authority, the Environment Agency, Southern Water, the University of Brighton and Brighton & Hove City Council, working together with Natural England and the Brighton and Lewes Downs UNESCO Biosphere (The Living Coast). ChaMP was set up to operate until March 2019 and extended to 2020. Following a period of consultation, partners agreed to continue and develop the partnership for five years to March 2025. The partnership was renamed into The Aquifer Partnership and the number of key members was reduced to four and now includes the Brighton & Hove City Council, South Downs National Park Authority, the Environment Agency and Southern Water.

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

Non-governmental actors are involved in the work of the partnership in variety of ways. The partnership is working closely with farmers, for example to understand the soil and crop nutrient requirements to reduce the risk of over application fertilisers or by working together to understand ways to reduce the seasonal peaks of nitrate in the groundwater. The partnership involves farmers in research activities and organises workshops for various rural businesses. The partnership is also working with stables and golf courses to encourage the best land management practices for the local groundwater. The partnership delivers groundwater protection workshops and field trips for planners and developers. The partnership collaborates with researchers to gather evidence and data to increase knowledge and understanding to address the causes of groundwater pollution. Schools are another key target group. In one of the schools in Brighton, the partnership worked with pupils who are involved in design and planting of the first rain garden in Brighton. The partnership is also organising classroom sessions for schools across the region. The partnership is also running awareness campaigns for the general public, providing concrete tips and activities that can be undertaken by individuals to protect groundwater quality.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Co-design of NBS, implemented by government

Implementation of NBS (e.g. with government funds)

Participation in research activities

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public national budget

Public regional budget

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

100 000 € 500 000€

Details about instrument financing:

Each of the four main partners contributes ca €29.000 per year (25,000 GBP) to be spent on the partnership's agreed programme of work to deliver agreed outcomes, broken down by rural and urban interventions, communication and research.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The partnership trialled a number of innovative farming methods and completed a number of studies including on the use of cover crops in winter to take up excess nitrates from the soil; on the impact of reduced nitrogen application on nitrogen use efficiency, nitrate leaching through soil and financial viability of farms. The partnership organised workshops for planners, developers, farmers and land managers. The partnership developed a number of sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) demonstration projects, including rain gardens on school sites co-designed by children. The partnership has managed to secure funding of over €2 million (1.79 million GBP) from National Highways on a large-scale SUDS installation (Wild Park Rainscape) to clean surface water from a section of highway crossing the region. The design will use a series of ponds, grassy channels (swales) and shallow basins to manage surface water, reduce flood risk and improve water quality in the aquifer.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The innovative Aquifer Partnership was the first groundwater protection project working specifically in the urban setting in the UK. According to the members of the partnership, the collaborative approach helps to achieve more together than each organisation would be able to achieve individually by pooling expertise. Avoiding gaps and duplication of effort making the partnership an effective way to work together. Working directly with the public has helped various actors understand the value of the underground water sources. For example, co-designing the rain garden has given pupils outdoor learning opportunities to look at the relationship with water and how the community can care for the environment together. The increased levels of awareness among local community support the long-term sustainability of the project and its objectives. The partnership's various activities were designed to help build climate change resilience into the city, promoting rainscapes in new developments, opportunistic schemes (e.g. integrated into planned road works) and retrofits, while building up capability, skills and confidence in rainscape implementation.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

Brighton and Hove City Council (2021), Aquifer Partnership appoints new chair. Available at: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2021/aquifer-partnership-appoints-new-chair

Brighton and Hove City Council (2020), Brighton ChaMP (Chalk Management Partnership) for Water 2020 onwards, Available at: https://democracy.brighton-hove.gov.uk/documents/s148286/Brighton%20ChaMP%20Chalk%20Management%20Partnership%20for%20Water%202020%20onwards.pdf

The Aquifer Partnership (2022), The Aquifer Partnership. Available at: https://wearetap.org.uk/

Southern Water (2021), Building a school rain garden with the Aquifer partnership, Available at: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/our-story/water-stories/building-a-school-rain-garden-with-the-aquifer-partnership

ChaMP (2017), Brighton ChaMP for Water, Available at: https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Brighton-ChaMP-for-Water.pdf

Brighton and Hove News (2022), Work on £1.8m park rainscape set to start next year. Available at: https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2022/10/10/work-on-1-8m-park-rainscape-set-to-start-next-year/

Further documents

Weblinks:

https://wearetap.org.uk/

Photos

@Gwyneth Williamson