Revival Partnership Project

1. General information

Location and description of the intervention

City or FUA

Doncaster

Region

Europe

Native title of the NBS intervention

Revival Partnership Project

Short description of the intervention

Revival is a partnership which is committed to delivering improvements for wildlife and people on the Lower Don catchment from the Don Gorge to Goole. It enables organisations over a whole host of different sectors to come together and work under one shared vision: create a committed partnership delivering improvements for wildlife and people on the Lower Don catchment. This intervention is thus a change in the governance of natural areas in and around Doncaster that leads to projects, rather than being a specific project itself. The River Don Revival project will continue to fight for the river’s future. Firstly, an action plan will layout the manual work necessary to improve the river and the catchment as a whole. In addition, the partnership intends to work with a scheme called the NW Water Rangers to encourage the public to engage in citizen science, collecting evidence of poor water quality. The partnership will also work closely with the South Follingsby Park development to implements Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, to create new habitats and to improve the river itself. Finally, the partnership hopes to appoint a dedicated member of staff to oversee all of the work taking place on the Don. (Ref 1, 2, 7).

Address

Doncaster
United Kingdom

Location

The NBS is a city-wide initiative, the GIS point marks the centre of the city

Type of area before implementation of the NBS

Other

Please specify “other type of area” before implementation of the NBS

River catchment area

Website of the intervention

https://www.theriverstrust.org/2019/09/12/river-don-revival/

Timeline of intervention

Start date of the intervention (planning process)

2012

Start date of intervention (implementation process)

2012

End date of the intervention

ongoing

Present stage of the intervention

Ongoing

2. Objectives of the intervention

Goals of the intervention

The ‘Revival’ vision is “a committed partnership delivering improvements for wildlife and people on the Lower Don catchment from the Don Gorge to Goole”. The objectives include improving physical access to green space, develop nature tourism, empower communities to make use of local natural resources, create and restore high-quality habitats, ecological and fishery improvement. (Ref 1)

Quantitative targets

2 measures to address barriers to fish movement; 3 flow deflector sites; 430 meter of phragmites planting; 10 km of enhanced drains; 6 schools take part in the 'Eels in Schools' education and release programme; record 1 invasive species; maintain a minimum of 4 mink rafts; 20 barn owl/raptor nest boxes; improve 3 ponds as recreation area; create 10 hectares of wet woodland (Ref 4)

Monitoring indicators defined

Number of flow deflectors, meters of phragmites planting, km of enhanced drains, number of schools that take part in the 'eels in Schools' education, number of invasive species recorded, number of mink rafts maintained, number of barn owl/raptor nest boxes, number of ponds improved, hectares of wet woodland created (Ref 4).

Sustainability challenge(s) addressed

Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)

Habitat and biodiversity restoration

Green space creation and/or management

Water management (SDG 6)

Flood protection

Improvements to water quality

Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)

Inclusive governance

What types of restoration goals are / were defined for the NBS intervention?

Species-focused

Ecosystem-focused

What activities are implemented to realize the restoration goals and targets?

Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems

Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)

Restore native species

Implementation activities

Create a partnership betweeen NGOs, the national Environment Agency, regional governments, commisions and organisations; naturalisation of over-engineered river bank of River Don; Improve river habitat to increase fish population; Purchase equipment to monitor fish populations; plant trees (Ref 1, 2).

Type of NBS project

Management and improved protection of rivers and other blue areas

Strategy, plan or policy development

Improved governance of green or blue areas

3. NBS domains, ES and scale

NBS domain and interventions

Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented

Blue infrastructure

Rivers/streams/canals/estuaries

In-land wetlands, peatlands, swamps, and moors

Vegetation Type

Trees

Please specify how many trees were planted

600

Amenities offered by the NBS

Educational and research amenities (nature protection centre, monitoring stations)

Services

Expected ecosystem services delivered

Provisioning services

Water (surface and ground water for drinking and non-drinking purposes)

Regulating services

Flood regulation

Water purification / filtration

Habitat and supporting services

Habitats for species

Cultural services

Intellectual interactions (scientific and / or educational)

Physical and experiential interactions with plants and animals

Please specify "other cultural service"

Educational purposes (Ref 4).

Scale

Spatial scale

Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level

Beneficiaries

Primary Beneficiaries

Citizens or community groups

4. Governance and financing

Governance

Governance arrangements

Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Non-government actors

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

Non-governmental organisation (NGO) / Civil society / Churches

Citizens or community groups

Social enterprise

Coalition with multiple of the above

Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative

It is a partnership between Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (NGO), that is main responsible for the communication between the other parties, which are: the Environment Agency, Doncaster Council, Don Catchment Rivers Trust, Yorkshire Water, Natural England, South Yorkshire Forest Partnership, Doncaster Naturalists, Canal & Rivers Trust, Forestry Commission, The River Stewardship Company and Network Rail. Their individual roles are not specified (Ref 1).

Key actors - initiating organization

National government

Local government/municipality

Non-government organisation/civil society

Citizens or community group

Private foundation/trust

Land owners

Public space owned by the city

Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)

National government

Local government/municipality

Non-government organisation/civil society

Citizens or community group

Private foundation/trust

Land owners

Public space owned by the city

Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used

Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)

Crowd-sourcing/Crowd-funding/Participatory budget

Taskforce groups

Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)

Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)

Co-management/Joint management

Policy drivers

NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy

Yes

Please specify the "Regional Directive/Strategy"

The project is to be part of Water Framework Directive delivery (Ref 4).

NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan

Unknown

NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan

Yes

Please specify the "local regulation/strategy/plan"

The Revival project is part of the Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy (Ref 4).

Mandatory or voluntary intervention

Voluntary (spontaneous)

Enablers

Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project

Yes

Please specify

The Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy (Ref 4).

Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

If there is a relevant strategy or plan, please specify the theme / type of the plan.

City specific green space strategy or plan

Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project

Yes

Please specify

The intervention itself is the reorganisation of partnerships through which nature based solutions can be implemented. They also build on the work of existing networks: Don Network, South Yorkshire Nature Partnership; Dearne Valley and Humberhead Level Nature Improvement Areas (Ref 1).

Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

Co-finance for NBS

Yes

Co-financing governance arrangements

Yes

Co-governance arrangement

An association

Was this co-governance arrangement already in place, or was it set up specifically for this NBS?

Set up for multiple NBS interventions, including this one

Financing

Total cost

€100,000 - €500,000

What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?

Unknown

What are the total amount of expected annual maintenance costs?

Unknown

What is the expected annual maintenance costs of the NBS or GI elements?

Unknown

Please specify cost savings

Unknown

Please specify total cost (EUR)

95,000 British Pounds have been raised collectively by all the partners (Ref 2)

Source(s) of funding

Other

Please specify other source of funding

All the partners that are part of the Revival partnership collectively raised the total sum. It is not specified on which specific types of budgets they relied. (Ref 2)

Type of fund(s) used

Unknown

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Business models

Urban offsetting model (biodiversity or water)

Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?

Public actor (e.g. municipality)

Private non-for-profit actor (e.g. NGO, foundation)

5. Innovation

Type of innovation

Social

Governance innovation

Novelty level of the innovation

Unknown

Please specify novelty level of the innovation

Unknown

Replicability/Transferability

The innovation is not referred to as being transferred to new initiative(s)

Please specify Replicability/Transferability

Unknown

6. Evaluation and learning

Impacts, benefits

Environmental impacts

Water management and blue areas

Improved water quality

Increased protection against flooding

Enhanced protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems

Green space and habitat

Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems

Reduced biodiversity loss

Increased number of species present

Description of environmental benefits

1. The partnership resulted in the development of numerous projects including some research studies. Numerous reports have demonstrated opportunities to restore the natural river channel, create new habitats, reduce flood risk and realise an array of benefits for the River Don. Several projects have been started including the maintenance of the river channel, development of sustainable urban drainage system, reservoir management, habitats and species monitoring and land management. As an impact, the partnership resulted in highways drainage improvements in the industrial area, improved water quality with reduced nitrogen and phosphorous percentage, tree maintenance, removal of sediment, salmon and otter conservation, removal of invasive plants and increase in the water flow and reduce the effect of flood
2. At the same time, water quality in the river is continuously being monitored and gathering data to focus on improvements in the most at-risk areas. (Ref 4, 7)

Economic impacts

Increase of green jobs (e.g. paid employment positions)

Reduce financial cost for urban management

Description of economic benefits

The partnership has created many projects which created new jobs and improved the catchment area. As a result of the partnership, it is expected that the financial cost for the river and the species management. (Ref 4, 7)

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Indicators

trees planted and maintained, species protected, protected areas from flood damages, increased water flow and new projects developed (Ref 2)

Environmental, social and economic impacts

Water management (SDG 6)

Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)

Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)

Analysis of specific impact categories

Job creation: The NBS created ...

Paid employment positions

Voluntary work opportunities

Negative impacts: Did the project cause any problems or concerns?

No information was found regarding negative impacts of the project

COVID-19 pandemic

Unknown as of October, 2020.

Methods of impact monitoring

Process of recording NBS impacts

Collection of monitoring data continuously throughout the project to aid evaluation

Collection of monitoring data at specific time intervals during the project to aid evaluation

Methods used to evaluate the impacts of NBS

Measurements of biophysical aspects of the NBS (e.g. temperature, water flow)

Observation (including virtual surveillance methods)

Where can this data be accessed? Please include a link to a report or web-page.

https://dcrt.org.uk/projects

Evidence for use of assessment

Presence of an assessment, evaluation and/or monitoring process

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Link to monitoring/evaluation reports

https://catchmentbasedapproach.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Don-Network-Plan…

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

Impact assessment mechanism

Name of any specific impact assessment tools

Unknown.

Use of GIS in mapping impacts

No evidence in public records

Citizen involvement

Citizens involvement in assessment/evaluation

Yes

Mode(s) of citizen involvement in evaluation/assessment

Questionnaire

Other

Please specify other modes of citizen involvement in evaluation/assessment

People have filled out a questionnaire (Ref 5) and were called upon to provide inspiration and wishes for the Revival partnership (Ref 3).

Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation

Unknown

Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment

Unknown

7. Sources

References

Web links relevant to the intervention

Wildlife 'Revival' on Lower Don.

We want your thoughts to help us shape our new Revival project

Local people want to see wildlife improvements in Lower Don catchment.

Our plan for River Don

Documents relevant to the intervention

Attachment	Size
Ref 4: Metropolitan Council of Doncaster. Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy (3.96 MB)	3.96 MB
Ref 1: Revival of the Lower River Don - A framework for Action (427.47 KB)	427.47 KB

List of references

Ref 1: Revival of the Lower River Don - A framework for Action
Ref 2: Sheffield and Rotherdam Wildlife Trust (n.d.) Waterways and Standing Water. Retrieved from https://www.wildsheffield.com/wp-content/upload%20s/2019/08/5.-WATERWAYS.pdf on 28th October, 2020.
Ref 3: Sheffield and Rotherdam Wildlife Trust (n.d.) Rotherham Rivers Project. Retrieved from https://www.wildsheffield.com/wildlife/a-living-landscape/rotherham-rivers-project/ on 28th October, 2020.
Ref 4: Metropolitan Council of Doncaster. Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy
Ref 5: Restorerivers.eu (2020) Case study:River Don Restoration project. Retrieved from https://restorerivers.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Case_study%3ARiver_Don_Restoration_project on 28th October, 2020.
Ref 6: The Don Network (n.d.). Our plan for River Don. Retrieved from http://www.dcrt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/6541-1+Don+Network+Report+lo+res.pdf on 27th October, 2020.
Ref 7: The River Trust (2019) News Section. The River Trust. Retrieved from https://www.theriverstrust.org/2019/09/12/river-don-revival/ on 27th October, 2020.
Ref 8: Don Catchment Rivers Trust (2013) Finishing for change. Retrieved from https://dcrt.org.uk/archives/1227 on 27th October, 2020.
Ref 9: Environment Agency (2010) Don Catchment Flood Management Plan 2010. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/289379/River_Don_Catchment_Flood_Management_Plan.pdf on 28th October, 2020.

Comments and notes

Public Images

Don Catchment Rivers Trust

https://dcrt.org.uk/archives/1227