WLMP

Bourne Valley WLMP

Research & Data:

WLMP? It stands for Water Level Management Plan.

The concept of Water Level Management Plans was introduced in 1991 by MAFF (now Defra) and requires that plans should be produced for areas where water levels are managed.

Priority is given to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) with the main requirement that "ideally, plans should be prepared for all areas which have a conservation interest where the control of water levels is important to the maintenance or rehabilitation of that interest"

The Defra WLMP database currently identifies 476 SSSIs as requiring plans, one of which is the Bourne Valley SSSI.

To produce the Bourne Valley WLMP the Partnership's Project Officer is working with:

English Nature
Local botanist & consulting scientist Robin M Walls
Environmental quality consultant Robert Aquilina

The pre-plan study has been funded by Defra.

The WLMP is in preparation and will be published here in as soon as it's available.

Spreadsheet Model of the Bourne Stream in the Bourne Valley SSSI

An in-depth study into the sources and hydrology of the Bourne Stream has been carried out for the WLMP by Robin Walls. One output of that is a spreadsheet model of the stream into which a flood pulse measured at the Branksome Wood Road gauging weir (October 2003) was input to test the dynamic response (excel file, 800kb).

The results are discussed in Appendix III of the WLMP.

The model is interactive; the effect of adding new information or changing the value of a feature (the width of a weir, for instance) can quickly and easily be seen in the graphic representation(s).

The model is not fully tested, not all assumptions are necessarily valid, and it is for illustrative purposes only; neither BSP nor RMW accepts responsibility for its use outside of the Partnership. Constructive comments and suggested improvements welcome!

In August 2005 Robert Aquilina carried out an ecological survey of the stream in the Bourne Valley SSSI.

He found that the biological assessment graded the Bourne Stream as High with a RIVPACS band B (Good). The environmental quality has improved over the last ten years compared with two previous surveys. Three Nationally Notable species of beetle were found in the valley.

The full survey report can be read here (file size 460kb).