Finchingfield Slow the Flow

Meteor are delighted to be involved in a ground breaking project taking place in Finchingfield, Essex. The primary aim of the project is to reduce flooding in the village of Finchingfield, through the introduction of a number of measures on the Spains Hall estate upstream.

The Estate, in partnership with the Environment Agency, Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust, Atkins and Essex Wildlife Trust have put together a Natural Flood Risk Management (NFRM) scheme which involves the establishment of features such as leaky dams and bunds to retain flood water in the original water meadows. A key feature of the project is also the re-introduction of a pair of Eurasian Beavers within an enclosure on the catchment, with the aim of understanding how they will adapt the environment to their needs and create flood defence features.

As part of the project Meteor are providing two key monitoring elements. Firstly two ESNET-P Water Quality Monitoring stations are located on the Finchingfield Brook and the tributary where the Beaver enclosure and NFRM features will be located. These stations monitor the water level, along with Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, Ammonium and Temperature. This will provide evidence of any lag being introduced into the catchment as a result of the NFRM measures, along with any reductions in levels of turbidity or ammonium which result.

Secondly Meteor are providing an MCE-LRC camera system to monitor the progress of the Beaver’s habitat. This provides high quality, real time images with high powered IR illumination for clear night vision. The system is solar powered and fully portable, so can be re-located to whichever location the beavers choose to inhabit.

For more information there is an excellent page on the Spains Hall website which describes the project, and with a link to the real time data from from the site.