Working together with nature to safeguard water
A landscape-scale project partnering with businesses, the public sector and farming communities to reduce flood risk, protect water supplies, benefit nature and restore rivers.
Flood Reduction
Water Supply
Water Quality
Biodiversity
Carbon
Economic
Community
The water environment is under increasing pressure from too much, too little, or too polluted water.
Water challenges are too connected to solve on their own. To fix them, we need to:
- Work together across the whole landscape
- Treat the environment, which people and businesses depend on, as one whole “system”
The system is failing, and the problems cannot be resolved by traditional approaches alone.
Nature-based, catchment solutions hosted and managed by farmers can play a critical role in addressing multiple environmental and societal challenges.
Water challenges are too connected to solve on their own. To fix them, we need to:
- Work together across the whole landscape
- Treat the environment, which people and businesses depend on, as one whole “system”
The system is failing, and the problems cannot be resolved by traditional approaches alone.
Nature-based, catchment solutions hosted and managed by farmers can play a critical role in addressing multiple environmental and societal challenges.
The Problems
- Increase in severe flood events
- Increase in droughts and vulnerability to low flows during dry summer months
- Uncertainty and changes to farm payments for farm businesses
- Poor water quality
- Declining habitat condition
- Unfavourable river conservation status
Our Mission
The Wye and Usk Foundation are creating an evidence-based, multi-buyer, multi-seller “market” (Resilient Rivers), to fund and support farmers to farm for water as well as food, and improve the resilience of the catchment, its infrastructure and rural community.
How will it work?
Our Resilient Rivers market will bring together organisations impacted by increased flood risk to fund upland farmers / landowners to deliver flood risk reduction and a variety of other environmental benefits.
The Solutions
By working with landowners, compaction can be reduced and more water allowed to “infiltrate” into soils, rather than flow over the landscape. This slows and stores water and reduces flood peaks, as well as reducing soil loss. Other techniques include installing buffer strips, leaky dams, attenuation ponds and improving soil health.
The Benefits
Mitigate impacts of climate change
Our nature-based approach helps landscapes better cope with climate change and builds long-term resilience.
Reducing flood risk
We model a reduction in flood peak of over 15% during severe storm events, helping protect downstream communities.
Increase summer river flows
By enhancing soil infiltration and groundwater recharge, we help maintain flows during dry summer months.
Improve water quality
Our interventions reduce sediment and nutrient runoff, supporting cleaner, healthier rivers.
Support our local farming and rural communities
We provide new income streams for farmers through land use that benefits people, nature, and the economy.
Support heathy soils and improved grass productivity
Healthier soils mean better infiltration, reduced compaction, and improved grass productivity for grazing systems.
Where is this happening?
Further Reading
Why is this investment needed in the Usk?
The Usk catchment has been hit with devastating impacts of two major floods in the past 4 years. Storm Dennis in 2020 and Storm Franklin in 2022. The economic cost of Dennis was around £100m. The floods of late 2024/early 2025 have illustrated how frequently these events are now happening.
The Usk is Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru’s key river for public supply. Its valley, a critical route into mid Wales, has over 14,000 homes at flood risk—11,000 in Newport. Flooding originates in the upper catchment above Brecon, where 83% of land is sheep-grazed. WUF has engaged 52% of upstream farmers and the MoD, covering 241 km² of the 400 km² upper catchment.
The upper Usk’s farmland is dominated by permeable ‘brown earth’ soils over the St Maughan’s aquifer, but these soils are highly impacted by agriculture. From 331 infiltration tests, we’ve shown how land use affects rain absorption and aquifer recharge. Our interventions can reduce 1-in-10-year floods by over 30% and boost aquifer recharge by 40%, enhancing catchment and ecological resilience to climate change.
The cost of the current cultural, economic and regulatory, framework, agriculture operates within is more than £50m p/a and is increasing.
To change this framework, WUF are creating an evidence-based, multi-buyer, multi-seller market, to enable the system change that will reduce societal costs, allow farmers to farm for water as well as food, and improve the resilience of the catchment, its infrastructure and rural community.
Why is this investment needed in the Monnow?
The Monnow catchment has been subject to an increasing frequency of damaging floods in recent years with property and infrastructure being affected on multiple occasions in the last five years, with several in the last 6 months. This increase can, in part, be attributed to climate change – the Met Office has documented a 13% increase in winter rainfall over last 5 years. However, this does not explain the dramatic increase in severity of flooding over the past few years; in the Monnow we are witnessing common rainfall events generating floods that we previously associated with serious storms. We are currently seeing a rainfall event with a return period of 6 months generate flows that were previously associated with an 8-year return-period rainfall events. The disparity between lower rainfall intensity and higher flood peaks can be attributed to the catchment no longer being in its natural state. The societal, financial and legislative pressures have created a system that exacerbating winter soil compaction. The combination of more intense rainfall and increasing soil compaction increases the proportion of precipitation draining as “overland flow” (water running over the surface of the ground), reducing the proportion that infiltrates through to ground water. The reduction in groundwater recharge reduces the catchment’s ability to mitigate droughts, whilst the increase in overland flow greatly increases the effects of flooding.
Increasing surface runoff transports soil with it, increasing the issue of sedimentation in watercourses throughout the upper catchment, in the Monnow river and on into the river Severn. The Monnow has historically been a hugely significant river for trout spawning. However, due to increased soil being deposited by flood water, spawning habitat has been degraded. Increasing frequency and severity of high flows has washed eggs away. Decreasing river levels in the summer cause increased river temperature. Together, these factors mean that in recent years the Wye and Usk Foundation’s electrofishing results have revealed a dramatic crash in trout numbers within the Monnow Catchment.
Resilient Rivers Monnow will deliver cost effective natural solutions to reduce flooding, reduce the risk of summer river low-flows and improve the ecology, habitat and water quality of the River Monnow catchment, while increasing economic activity in the headwaters of the River Monnow.
For farmers / landholders
Project guidance & opportunities:
WUF are committed to delivering a “just transition” which rewards landowners for making land use decisions that bring benefits to downstream communities and business. Our approach recognises that landowners are best placed to design solutions that deliver our joint aims, and your participation is at the heart of all that we do. The land use changes that landowners have developed with us so far, in order to “farm for water” include:
- Grazing management
- Government analysis and our extensive infiltration testing has shown strong evidence that winter rested fields / moving stock to low-risk fields over winter reduces compaction and increases the amount of water that can infiltration into soils
- Intercepting flow pathways:
- Buffer strips
- Bunded hedgerows
- Ponds, scrapes & wetlands
- Woodland creation
Farmer and land manager participation:
If you are a farmer or land manager interested in exploring ways that you could be paid to deliver natural flood management solutions that support a variety of environmental and social benefits, please contact us.
For businesses & the public sector
From flood risk management to biodiversity benefits, drought resilience, to engaged communities, if you want to reduce your risks and deliver your aims for nature and climate, our Resilient Rivers projects can deliver for you.
Resilient Rivers will reduce long-term flood risk and business insurance costs, as well as ensuring that local road and rail transport is protected from flooding: benefiting your employees and your local customers. It will help your businesses deliver corporate environment, sustainability, social and community strategies, and support improvements to local, well-loved rivers (which are designated as Special Areas of Conservation). Many businesses are reporting that involvement in nature projects is a valuable tool for recruiting and retaining staff and winning new work.
How can your business or organisation get involved?
Paying for land use change and natural solutions in UK initiatives is a cost-effective way of delivering your aims.
Our Resilient Rivers markets ensures that costs are fairly shared and used to deliver solutions at vastly improved cost/benefit rates. This “consortium” approach brings business together to deliver shared aims – spreading cost, reducing risk and sharing benefits.
The Resilient Rivers initiative can support you to deliver corporate, environment and sustainability and/or social and community strategies, while reducing long-term flood risk and safeguarding water for the future for your business, communities and customers.
Our initial product is quantified flood risk reduction calculated by external hydrological consultants who have developed a detailed hydrological model of the Monnow catchment (and will be engaged to model the Usk catchment). Other “ecosystem service” benefits from our approach can be quantified to support your investment business case:
- Groundwater recharge (drought resilience)
- Carbon reduction
- Soil and nutrient loss prevention
- Biodiversity improvements
- Social equity and community benefits
There my also be opportunities through this project for:
- Water usage offset (via Replenish – a water stewardship metric)
If you are a business or public sector organisation and are interested in finding out more about how you can benefit from Resilient Rivers please contact us.
Our Progress
📍 On-the-ground work with farmers
Our team of experienced catchment advisors are working with farmers and land managers on the ground to carry out baseline walkovers to identify opportunities to allow rainfall to sink into the soil rather than run over the top, gathering speed and causing flooding (and taking precious soil and nutrients with it).
🌱 Evidence-led interventions
- Undertaken a soil testing program in the catchments to provide evidence to the buyers of the potential changes to soil infiltration through different “interventions” which are being identified by farmers as feasible on their land.
- Developed a model to quantify beneficial impact of interventions on flooding.
📊 Farm assessment & payments process
- Developed a process for assessing farms to identify the potential services they can offer and quantifying the impact, which will in turn allow us to quantify payments once we have confirmed rates (which will be agreed by negotiation between farmer representatives and the buyer group).
- Engaged an external hydrologist to provide robust evidence to support the scheme and allow the quantification of impacts and payments.
💸 Unlocking more value
Explored further lines of income from other benefits of the interventions such as biodiversity net gain and carbon with the aim of drawing in more investment and boosting payments to farmers.
🤝 Engagement & support
With thanks for Powys County Council through Welsh Government Natural Flood Management Accelerator funding, we have been able to engage with over 100 farmers in the Nant Bran, Ysgir & Cilieni catchments of the River Usk – as well as Crai farmers through the CaSTCo (Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperation) project.
🧾 Strategic development
Development funding from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and UK Government NEIRF funding has allowed us to develop business plans and identify the multiple connected benefits that land change will bring.
Our Partners and Funders
Get in touch
Whether you’re a landowner, farmer, business, or public sector organisation, we’d love to hear from you.
