The National Trust, in partnership with the Environment Agency, are managing an innovative project on the Holnicote Estate, near Porlock in North Somerset to demonstrate the benefits of using good rural land management to reduce flood risk.

The Holnicote Estate is managed by the National Trust and comprises about 5,000 hectares of land, from the uplands of Exmoor to the sea. There nearly 100 houses across three villages at risk from flooding that could benefit from changes in rural land management in the catchment providing a more sustainable flood attenuation function, whilst also providing a number of other additional benefits (such as environmental, recreational, heritage and landscape).

The project delivery team, comprising Maslen Environmental and Penny Anderson Associates, will work from source to sea across the estate, using land management techniques to manage local flood risk; controlling headwater drainage, creating new woodlands, slowing down water flows through steep valleys and retaining water on lowland flood meadows.

The project, due to run from 2009 until 2013, will include both monitoring (hydrology and ecology) and modelling to demonstrate the effect of land management change on flood dynamics and flood risk management. Researchers from Exeter University will also be working with the project team to investigate how land management change might affect surface water quality throughout the catchment.