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Demonstration Test Catchments
Newsletter - Winter 2015/16
Welcome to the Winter 2015/16 edition of the DTC Newsletter highlighting some aspects of the
research, recent key activities, events and information on related projects with links for you to
follow up on more detailed information about individual items and topics of interest.
If we knew what we were doing it would not be called research, would it?
– Albert Einstein
Storm Desmond Causes Devastating Floods in River Eden Catchment
• Storm Desmond brought record-breaking rainfall
and associated run-off to the north-west of
England in general and the Eden catchment in
particular, during the weekend of 5/6 December.
The slow moving frontal rain fell onto saturated
ground with a gauge at Honister Pass recording
341.4mm of rainfall in 24 hrs on 5 December,
setting a new UK record (beating the previous one
of 316.4mm set in November 2009 at Seathwaite,
in Cumbria). A new 48-hour record was also set,
when 405mm was recorded at Thirlmere also in
Cumbria and there has been record rainfall
recorded in December for a number of places in Cumbria and Lancashire (as well as in Yorkshire
and N Wales). (http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/12/)
An estimated 5200 homes were flooded with Carlisle
at the bottom of the Eden being particularly badly
affected. Bridges and roads have been washed away,
railways blocked, farmers lost livestock and,
tragically, two people died in floodwaters.
The rain and floodwater has potentially moved a
large amount of nutrient from agricultural land into
the river system. At time of writing the EdenDTC
team were still assessing the health of their
monitoring kit and studying data but the impact of
Desmond should give further insights into the role of
extreme weather events (severe storms) in
mobilising nutrient flux from land to river, but it is
clear that a large load of nutrients and topsoil were
moved into the catchment. Simon Johnson (Director
of the Eden Rivers Trust (ERT)) said… “there could be
a real opportunity… to re-engage the public to drive
a better understanding of catchments, bust a few
myths and develop resilient community groups that can also still enjoy and value rivers.”
Storm Desmond over Cumbria
Unequal rainfall distribution in the first 3
weeks of December
Eden

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Addressing a question from the Environment Agency as to whether soil management had a role
to play in the severity of the flooding, Professor Phil Haygarth summarised his thoughts in 4
categories:
1. There is evidence at the plot and field scale that soil management, which promotes
structure and water retention, can slow water run-off.
2. The extent to which this knowledge can be confidently translated to the mitigation of
flooding events at the catchment scale is much less clear, catchments are complex.
3. Soil structural management in the uplands can contribute to reduced run-off but must be
part of a bigger and integrated solution.
4. It appears that the events in Cumbria during Storm Desmond were so severe that soil
issues probably would have been of marginal importance in this case.
Is there evidence of ‘biogeochemical stationarity’ in the River Wensum
catchment?
The Wensum DTC team has been examining the relationships between rainfall-runoff, catchment
connectivity, antecedent moisture conditions and fertiliser application with nitrate-N and total
phosphorus (TP) fluxes in the Blackwater study area over three hydrological years (2012 – 2014).
Using high-resolution data (30 min) generated from bankside monitoring kiosks, investigations
have uncovered a range of important meteorological and hydrogeochemical phenomena which
have enhanced our understanding of this intensive arable system. These are as follows:
• annual precipitation totals did not vary substantially between years, yet the timing of
rainfall did strongly influence runoff generation and subsequent nitrate-N and TP fluxes;
Figure 1: Crop types and fertiliser application in the Blackwater catchment during the three year monitoring
period. (a – c) crop types; (d-f) inorganic and organic nitrogen fertiliser application rate; (g - i) inorganic and
organic phosphorus fertiliser application rate. See paper for further details.

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• the greatest nitrate-N and TP fluxes occurred only when the shallow groundwater level
was within 0.6 m of the ground surface and runoff coefficients were greater than 0.1;
• the wet winter 2013 resulted in elevated shallow groundwater levels which led to more
frequent activation of sub-surface pathways and tile drain flows;
• across the three years, dry antecedent conditions had a temporary effect in elevating TP
loads;
• evidence of TP source exhaustion after consecutive storm events was detected and can
be attributed to the repeated depletion of temporarily connected critical source areas to
the river network via impermeable road surfaces;
• finally, and most importantly, fertiliser application varied considerably (up to 41%) across
the three years due to differences in crop rotation between farms. However,
proportional reductions in annual riverine nitrate-N and TP loadings were not observed at
the sub-catchment outlet. Nitrate loadings were slightly higher during fertiliser
application, but there was little relationship between P fertiliser application and riverine
TP load. These results indicate that this intensive arable catchment may be in a state of
‘biogeochemical stationarity’, whereby legacy stores of nutrients are buffering the
stream against annual changes in fertiliser nutrient inputs.
Further details on this research can be found in a recently published article in Science of the Total
Environment: Outram FN, Cooper RJ, Sünnenberg G, Hiscock KM, Lovett AA. 2015. Antecedent
conditions, hydrological connectivity and anthropogenic inputs: Factors affecting nitrate and
phosphorus transfers to agricultural headwater streams. Science of the Total Environment.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.12.025.
Contact: Richard Cooper (richard.j.cooper@uea.ac.uk)
DTC Data and the Data Archive
The Demonstration Test Catchment Archive Project finished at the end of January 2015. The
outcome of the project was the Agricultural and Environmental Data Archive (AEDA), which has
been online for nearly a year and can be accessed at www.environmentdata.org.
Various users have been adding data since that time, not only from the DTC consortia and the
Defra Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Platform, but also from the Freshwater Biological Association
who built and house the archive, and other contributors such as Syngenta, the Environment
Agency and The Atlantic Salmon Trust. There are also some new contributors from the Defra
Sustainable Intensification Platform and some historical Greenhouse Gas data.
Adding data to the archive is only the first step in making it available to the public. Once the data
has been added in the proper format it can be published. Publication involves submitting the
data for a series of automated checks by the archive software and also human review by the
archive staff. If all is well it will be published and made available to the public, a Digital Object
Identifier (DOI) is created for the dataset and it becomes a scholarly work which can be cited in
scientific publications. You can see examples of some published DTC data at:
http://www.environmentdata.org/clist/dtcwensum.
In the eleven months since the archive was made available several improvements have been
made that should make it easier for people to add data to the archive. The DOI creation
functionality has been added and the quality of the published data in the archive has been
enhanced by making it possible to achieve certification from the Open Data Institute (ODI). More

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and more data will be added to the archive as time goes on and the technical capabilities of the
system will be improved on a continuous basis.
Contact: Mike Haft (mhaft@fba.org.uk).
The Use of Remote Sensing Techniques in Understanding Diffuse Pollution
The DTC teams, in the Eden catchment particularly, have been trialling a variety of remote
sensing techniques to see if they can add value in understanding the catchment system. In the
following few articles some of this work is summarised.
Real Time Camera Work
A set of custom-made real time web cameras were installed at each of the EdenDTC catchment
outlets as part of the first phase of the DTC project. These cameras captured Video Graphics
Array (VGA) low-resolution images (640 x 680 pixels) at 10 minute intervals, which were
transmitted to the web-server via the mobile phone data network. The images were displayed on
the EdenDTC website and archived for future analysis. The objectives for this installation were:
• To allow the field team to see the current conditions at the sites to assist with
maintenance; and
• To allow stakeholders to see the sites and compare the monitoring results to the out
visual record.
The live images from the web-cams were popular on the website. For example, the camera at the
Morland outlet was viewed 245 times in 2013, while the water chemistry data was viewed 320
times, indicating that the users of the website were finding value in these images. The cameras
also captured some exemplar storm events and stream responses (Fig 2).
There were problems with the reliability of the cameras, requiring frequent attention to keep
them running. There were also issues with a lack of 3G mobile data signal at the Thackthwaite
Beck site. Ultimately, the performance of the cameras was not sufficient to justify the continued
time cost of maintaining the system; (the camera supplier has since been bought out by Meteor
Communications, who have updated and refined the cameras into a new product).
Figure 2: Storm flow response captured at Thackthwaite Beck with the real time web cameras

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Conclusions
• The real-time cameras provided useful contextual information to both the field team and
to website users;
• The events captured by the cameras have supported presentations on the project;
• The quality and level of maintenance required for the cameras meant that they were on
trial for part of the project;
• Future projects could consider installing new versions of this technology if the quality can
be improved and maintenance required can be reduced.
Monitoring Cattle with Cameras – Exploring the temporal dynamics between cattle in-stream
presence and suspended solids in a headwater catchment
Cattle in-stream activity is potentially an important contributor to water pollution from
agriculture. In order to address the uncertainty about the extent to which cattle impact on
sediment transfer processes within the fluvial channel, a comparison of high-resolution
monitoring data of cattle activity within the streambed against high-resolution water quality data
collected over a period of several months was conducted. Bushnell Trophy XLT 119455 motion
sensor cameras, with infrared night-vision LEDs, were used to capture in-stream activity of cattle,
with a time-delay of 10 seconds between each shutter response triggered by the motion sensors.
in an unfenced reach over a four-month period. Results were compared against high-resolution
SSC data.
Over the days that cattle grazed the field, 58% of the instances when suspended solids
concentrations (SSC) crossed the 25 mg l-1
Freshwater Fish Directive guideline threshold can be
attributed to cattle presence in the stream. Flow was the main driver of total sediments
transported over the study period, and no relationship was found between SSC and the absolute
number of cattle feet in the water. Hysteresis analysis indicated a ‘first-flush’ of local sediments
rapidly mobilised during the non-cattle related SSC events, a result of cattle proximity to channel
margins. Results demonstrate a temporal lag between cattle in-stream presence and a critical
amount of their contribution to sediment load, and that monitoring only instantaneously with
cattle activity may lead to underestimation of their pollution impact.
The work highlights that cattle have an observable impact on water pollution, although a
temporal lag between cattle in-stream presence and a critical amount of their contribution to
sediment load was demonstrated. This study helps demonstrate the loss of environmental
information that can result from low resolution monitoring programmes, and is available in full at
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2014/em/c3em00686g?page=search.
Monitoring changes in diffuse pollution source risk with time-lapse photography
There are many factors within the landscape that can affect diffuse pollution source risks, which
vary over the year. Examples include snow cover dynamics driving overland flow not directly
connected to precipitation on that day, and changes in solar receipt resulting from cloud cover
and land cover changes ensuing from agricultural practices. An approach that was trialled within
the first phase of DTC was the use of a time-lapse camera to create a visual record on the
landscape, which could then be processed to give a continuous record of such factors. It is hoped
that this extra information may provide useful context and background information for the
interpretation of the in-stream monitoring data.

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A single camera was installed in the Dacre sub-catchment of the Eden DTC. The location was
selected due to the suitability of the topography for the approach, and local issues with snow
melt that are most relevant at this site. The camera location and a typical image are shown in Fig
3. The camera installed was a Canon 5D mk I DSLR with a 24mm f2.8 lens set to f5.0, with a fixed
ISO of 200 in aperture priority mode. This setup gave a horizontal angle of view of 73.7°. The
camera was triggered to take an image every 10 minutes and has been installed since Jan 2014.
Converting Images to Information
Images were processed with the Python Image Library and SciPy to extract information on the
changing characteristics of the landscape. The approach taken for cloud cover and snow cover
followed the same steps:
1. Define the area of interest within the image for analysis. For the clear skies, this is an area
extracted from the sky, while for the snow cover this area was defined as the local
foreground field.
2. A Gaussian blur filter was applied to the image with a high radius (200) to give a
consistent colour value within the extracted area of interest image.
3. The red, green and blue components of the colour were extracted for analysis.
a. For ‘clear skies’, the index was defined as blue / ((green + red) / 2) and hence the
lower values represent cloudy days and higher values represent blue sky days
b. For the ‘snowiness’, the index was defined as blue / green with values towards
one representing snow cover
The changes in the overall scene were assessed by comparing the statistical differences between
pairs of images. Two approaches were tested, the first compared the current day to the previous
day and the second approach compared each day to the averaged scene from the whole year.
The differences between the images were defined as the ‘Manhattan’ difference, whereby the
mean movement in brightness levels per pixel is calculated after the images have been converted
to greyscale and normalised.
Figure 3: The location of the time-lapse camera and a typical image acquired from the site (24/06/14). The red
triangle in the map shows the camera direction and angle of view of the images

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Initial Results
Fig 4 shows the initial results for the 2014 calendar year for the clear skies and snowiness indices,
with example images (Fig 5). These initial results are based on the midday images from each day.
From the results, it can be seen that the snowiness index correctly identify days with snow cover
when the index value exceeds 0.87. There is a strong seasonal trend in the snowiness index
12/02/14
Clear Skies: 0.67
Snowiness: 0.96
12/05/14
Clear Skies: 0.82
Snowiness: 0.69
26/08/14
Clear Skies: 0.82
Snowiness: 0.53
12/12/14
Clear Skies: 0.79
Snowiness: 0.96
values with the lowest values in the summer. The ‘blue skies’ index shows the high level of cloud
cover through the year, with relatively few days being cloud free (8.5% of days have an index
value greater than 0.75). The example image in Fig 5 from 12/05/14 shows issues with
condensation within the waterproof housing of the camera install.
This condensation reduces the image quality for fine detail, but it is still possible to extract
information on the sky status. Fig 6 shows the changes over time for the daily differences when
compared to the previous day and to the mean image.
The results in Fig 6 show that the difference based indices are capable of identifying the days of
the year were the landscape or climate differ from the ‘normal’ conditions. The approach
successfully identified the increased snow cover in February 2014, the occurrence of a change in
the weather conditions from cloud to clear skies in April 2014 and the reverse in August, and
finally the occurrence of snowfall in December 2014.
Figure 4: Changes in the clear skies and snowiness index over the 2014 calendar year
Figure 5: Changes in the clear skies and snowiness index over the 2014 calendar year

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11/02/14
14/04/14
09/08/14
11/12/14
12/02/14
From Previous: 35.3
From Average: 59.3
15/04/14
From Previous: 44.6
From Average: 46.2
10/08/14
From Previous: 32.7
From Average: 30.8
12/12/14
From Previous: 52.4
From Average: 14.8
Figure 6: Changes over time for daily differences when compared to the previous day and to the mean image
Conclusions
• Time-lapse photography of a catchment and landscape has the capability to add
significant contextual information to complement and support the in-stream water
chemistry datasets;
• The approach generates significant amounts of data, and hence tools are needed to
identify the important times and associated images;
• The presented indices are capable of identifying properties of the environment such as
cloud cover or snow accumulation/melt;
• It is possible to identify the timing of large changes in the landscape, either compared to
the previous day or to the annual average conditions.
Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Diffuse Pollution Understanding
Part of the original conceptual model of the generation of diffuse pollution within the landscape
was that a key part of the process was driven by interaction of the rainfall intensity and the

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status of the land surface. Land surface characteristics change significantly on intra- and inter-
annual timescales and hence, to understand the catchment response to a storm event,
knowledge of the current status of the landscape is needed. To monitor these changes, various
remote sensing approaches were assessed. Both satellite based remote sensing and aerial
photography were discounted due to prohibitive costs and potential issues with cloud cover.
Therefore, a spatially targeted plan using a UAV was developed as a way to get some information
on the landscape state.
Example true colour image Land cover classified image. Red are
bare areas and blue are vegetated
areas. Image shows 6.4% bare,
erodible soil.
Changes in the ground vegetation
cover
The equipment sourced was a Microdrones MD4-200 quadcopter UAV1
, which offered
programmable flight routes using GPS and a ground station showing telemetry from the craft,
including battery voltage, position and a video feed. This is the same UAV that was used by the
Environment Agency and other UK public sector organisations at the time. The MD4-200 is
capable of carrying 200g payload of a small RGB digital camera.
Proof of concept results - The first image in Fig 7 is a true colour image of a spring sown barley
field at Sewborwens Farm near Penrith; the second is a classified image which shows vegetation
versus soil cover; and the final image show the change in vegetation cover over time for this site.
Lessons learnt
• Within phase 1 of EdenDTC, there was insufficient person time to implement the planned
monitoring scheme without impacting on other measurements;
• Dedicated time and resource is required to acquire high quality images and to process
them into useful information;
• With the MD4-200, there is a narrow wind speed window for effective and safe operation.
The craft is sensitive to wind speed gusts, which are not always recorded in weather data;
• Repair times can be long and can create issues with application;
• People (stakeholders and public) are interested in the technology and it provides an
effective engagement tool.
Next Steps
Within DTC phase 1 the operationalisation of the spatial monitoring was not possible with the
UAV due to lack of sufficient person time and technological limitations. Within DTC phase 2 we
are planning to use UAV equipment from Durham University to monitor a set of key fields with
1
http://www.microdrones.com/en/products/md4-200/at-a-glance/
Figure 7: Example image processing for a spring sown barley field within the EdenDTC monitored area

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high erosion risk and effective pathways (strong connectivity) to the river channels. The new
equipment (DJI S1000 with Zenmuse gimbal, carrying a 24mp APS-C RGB camera) is capable of
flying in far higher wind speeds and can capture higher resolution and higher precision images.
These improved images will enable detailed terrain models and cover maps for the hotspot fields
to be created. Examples will be shown in future project updates.
Farmer-Led Monitoring in the Wensum DTC
As part of the knowledge exchange activities of the Wensum DTC, several small trials with hand-
held monitoring equipment were conducted. Several Hanna HI 9829 probes were initially
purchased, which can measure nitrate, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and water temperature, but
these were not sufficiently reliable in validation tests using samples that were also processed by
the analytical laboratory at UEA.
Several farmers attending the Wensum DTC/NFU meeting in November 2011 offered to
participate in undertaking monitoring of field drains on their own farms. Since the Hanna probes
did not prove effective in spring 2012 we supplied three farmers with nitrate test strips so that
they could assess variations in water quality from field drains under different crops. These strips
typically cost about £10 for a tube of 50 strips, but have limited sensitivity with colour changes
that can be matched to indicator levels of (for example) 0, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250 and 500 mg l-1
NO3. Three farmers used the strips to take measurements on three or four fields every fortnight
or so for three months (March to May 2012). Between them, they collected 65 data points on 14
dates from 11 locations. Table 1 shows the range of readings recorded from drains on fields with
a variety of different crops.
Minimum
(mg l-1
NO3)
Maximum
(mg l-1
NO3)
Oilseed rape 0 5
Winter wheat 2 20
Sugar beet 20 80
Field beans 20 50
Linseed 5 20
Herbs 10 20
Pasture 5 5
The results were sufficiently reliable to highlight differences between crops (e.g. concentrations
<10 mg l-1
NO3 from fields of oilseed rape where the crop was actively taking up nitrogen
fertiliser, and values in the range 20-80 mg l-1
NO3 where sugar beet had been planted).
However, it was not possible to identify any consistent changes following rainfall events and all
three farmers noted that there was a degree of subjectivity in matching the colour changes to
the shade scale on the side of the tubes.
Based on this experience it was decided that we needed equipment with greater sensitivity and
that could provide a readable concentration (rather than requiring comparison with colour
shades). It took some time to identify a possible solution, but in late 2012 the DTC purchased
five Lovibond MD 600 Photometers (costing £815 each, including VAT) from Tintometer Ltd
(http://www.lovibond.com/) and have been pleased with their subsequent performance.
Table 1: Nitrate test strip
measurements from three farms
in the Wensum (Apr – May 2012)

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The photometers can be set up to analyse quite a wide range of water quality parameters,
although so far only phosphate (PO4) and nitrate (mg l-1
N) concentrations have been analysed.
The phosphate test involves crushing two tablets in a water sample and leaving them to dissolve
for 10 minutes before taking a reading. A set of 250 phosphate tablets costs about £50. The
nitrate test is more expensive (£150 for 25 tests) and involves tubes of reagents with a high
concentration of sulphuric acid. Completed risk assessment forms are required for both analyses
and it has been useful to purchase additional plastics boxes, trays, test tube stands etc. to store
and manage the equipment and reagents (see Fig 8). To date there have not been any problems
with safety issues.
The nitrate test has an advertised range of
1-30 mg l-1
N. Repeated analyses of the
same water sample from a field drain have
typically generated variations of 1-2 mg l-1
N
around the mean value. For phosphate
there is an advertised range of 0.05-4 mg l-1
PO4 and experience shows that it is quite
possible to get results varying by 0.10 or
0.15 mg l-1
from repeat analyses on the
same water sample. The issue with the
phosphate tests is to ensure that the tablets
are completely crushed and dissolved
before putting the sample in the
photometer. Beyond these caveats regarding precision, the equipment proved to be reliable and
straightforward to explain to potential users.
Over winter 2013-14 several of the photometers were loaned to the Catchment Sensitive
Farming team in the Wissey catchment who are collaborating with farmers recruited through
Frontier Agriculture to test their use. Another set of equipment was used by a project officer
from the Norfolk Rivers Trust. Experiences reported back to date are that the equipment is
certainly capable of identifying differences in field drain nutrient levels between crops (e.g.
oilseed rape and wheat) and reductions in concentrations between late November and February.
On a practical level there have been comments that the photometers are certainly an
improvement on test strips or equipment from other suppliers, but issues have been
encountered in getting all the phosphate tablets to dissolve and the view has been expressed
that many farmers would require a training session and on-farm support to get consistently
reliable results. Working with local Catchment Sensitive Farming officers, the Wensum DTC
hopes to develop such training and gather further insights on experience during the next two
years.
Defra Workshop 30th
November: “Experiences of engaging with farmers”
Simon West (Head of Water Quality and Agriculture at Defra) organised a workshop in London in
November, inviting several DTC researchers to present their findings and experience on changing
farmers’ behaviour. The workshop was attended by staff from different policy areas who deal
with agricultural issues such as GM policy, animal identification and movements, agricultural
economics, animal health and welfare, soils, biosecurity, food and farming evidence, agri-
environmental schemes and health and safety.
Figure 8:
Lovibond MD
600 Photometer

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At the beginning of the workshop Prof. Andrew Lovett from the University of East Anglia
introduced the design and concept of the DTC platform. Will Cleasby from the Eden DTC then
described numerous examples of stakeholder engagement achieved through his work with the
Eden Rivers Trust. PhD researcher Emilie Vrain led the main session, presenting her PhD results
on factors influencing farmer uptake of water pollution mitigation measures and the role of farm
advice. The research from her thesis was presented to: 1) provide an exemplar of experience and
benefits of engaging farmers and farm advisors about water pollution, and 2) highlight qualitative
methods which could be translated to aid understanding of how best to influence farmer
behaviour in other topic areas, especially those which are highly contested. Alex Inman, a
catchment advisor working on the Hampshire DTC provided some reflections at the end of the
first session to leave the audience with food for thought. Informative two-way dialogue was
achieved throughout the presentations with all workshop attendees.
Two break out groups considered how the DTCs’ experience might be transferrable to their policy
and delivery areas. They were also asked to contemplate how their experience might be built into
the water quality and agricultural policy and delivery area. Next steps were then discussed as to
how different policy areas could work more closely together. One attendee stated ‘it [the
workshop] was very useful for bringing together policy areas and therefore messages, identifying
who we can link efforts with.’ It was agreed more events should be held in the future to allow
common sharing of knowledge between departments with a focus on influencing farmer
behaviour.
New Upstream Thinking programme to protect rivers
A partnership of South West Water (SWW), the Devon
Wildlife Trust, the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the
Westcountry Rivers Trust and the Exmoor National Park
Authority is building on work begun in 2008 to change
land management practices to protect rivers with a new
five-year programme. Supported by the National Farmers
Union, the Environment Agency, Natural England and the
Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, the programme is
part of SWW's long-term business plan to reduce its
environmental footprint and manage the impact of
diffuse pollution on customers' bills. The programme has two main elements: advice and grants
for farmers and the restoration of peatland in partnership with landowners.
The latest £11.8 million programme focuses on 11
catchments across Devon and Cornwall in 2015-20.
The target for the programme is 750 farms and
1,300ha of moorland and other semi-natural land
under revised management. Upstream Thinking
advisers will be working on the Exe, the Dart, the
Otter and the Yeo in Devon plus groundwater
sources in East Devon and the catchment around
Fernworthy Reservoir, while in Cornwall they will
be focusing on the Cober, the Tamar, the Falmouth
reservoirs and Drift reservoir.

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Grants are targeted at farms with land connected to rivers above water abstraction points. The
aim is to reduce the amount of unwanted substances in river water, which in turn helps to
control the cost of chemicals and energy needed to turn raw water into high quality tap water.
Grants can help to fund improvements to slurry storage, fencing to keep livestock out of rivers,
providing alternative water sources for livestock, better pesticide management including
investment in new equipment, such as weed wipers which deliver targeted doses of herbicide.
Farmers match the funding and often invest more besides, as well as being able to access further
sources of funding. Farmers who took part in the programme in 2010-2015 saved an average of
£20,000 on things like reduced fertiliser costs. Since 2008, Upstream Thinking advisors have
made 1,700 visits to farms and allocated 180 capital grants totalling £2.2million.
The moors of the South West provide over 40 per cent of the region’s drinking water, and
peatland restoration is a crucial element of the Upstream Thinking programme. The Exmoor
Mires Partnership has investigated and restored over 2,000 hectares of moorland on Exmoor and
Dartmoor, and plans to restore a further 1,000 hectares by 2020.
Scientific research carried out on the moor by the University of Exeter has shown that restored
bogs release a third less water during storms and 30% less dissolved organic carbon, which
discolours the water. Research by the Environment Agency suggests the work is helping to
maintain river levels during drier summer months.
Contact: Dr David Smith SWW Programme Manager (dmsmith@southwestwater.co.uk)
DTC Phase 1 Report available shortly - some Conclusions
Phase 1 of DTC has reached a number of conclusions concerning the dominant sources in each of
the research catchments, the timing of nutrient export from land to water, and the range of
nutrient chemistries mobilised and transported to streams in each of the catchments. However,
universal truths have not emerged from this analysis and it is clear that care must be taken to
ensure that the findings from one programme are not assumed to provide a perfect solution in
another circumstance without prior testing of those solutions across multiple land management
and geoclimatic conditions.
The DTC monitoring has shown that storm events are highly important in driving the flux of
diffuse pollution in catchments where there is a high proportion of rapid runoff in preferential
flow pathways (surface runoff, near-surface quick-flow and drain flow in drained landscapes like
the Wensum catchment). However, it is the mid flow events that dominate nutrient and
sediment delivery in catchments driven by subsurface hydrological function. Similarly, nitrate is
the dominant form of nitrogen delivered to water bodies in permeable catchments, based on the
evidence collected here, but it is a minority component of the TN loading in livestock farming
systems where the high stocking densities and abundance of manure production leads to
enrichment of waters with both particulate and dissolved organic nutrient fractions which will
stimulate both algal productivity and microbial metabolism in-stream. A monitoring programme
that focused solely on nitrate in a livestock farming catchment would be unlikely to be
sensitive to current management or to targeted on-farm mitigation efforts in the catchment.
Another point which has emerged is that there are significant uncertainties associated with any
monitoring strategy to detect nutrient and sediment flux behaviours in catchments. Sensors
provide on-site high frequency observations, but there can be technological problems to

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overcome with their use, if robust and reliable findings are to be generated. Simply relying on the
sensors without testing the accuracy and precision of the observations within an uncertainty
framework will constrain the user to imprecise and uncertain observations, data streams with
significant gaps and a limited range of determinands which might not be those best suited to
answering the question posed. Laboratory based analyses have their place, as quality control can
ensure higher quality data, for a wider range of determinands, albeit at a lower temporal
resolution. A combination of monitoring approaches is likely to be needed to generate robust
evidence streams for catchment mitigation efforts at any site.
In synthesising these nutrient and sediment flux behaviours for different landscape typologies
across the DTC platform, careful consideration also needs to be given to the appropriate
statistical techniques that are applied (see Lloyd et al. 2014). This ensures core findings regarding
the efficacy of mitigation strategies allow for the quality and uncertainty of different
measurement strategies (such as identified above); the natural variability in time and space of
catchment systems and related climatic factors; the duration of the evidence base pre and post
mitigation in light of inherent natural variabilities; and the different QA procedures and
monitoring strategies between DTC components.
Finally, the contrast between the responses of different catchments with varying soils and
geology to differing degrees of rainfall has been shown to be critical in determining pollutant
loads, and properly evidencing the selection of mitigation measures in any catchment, as is the
proportion of groundwater that contributes to river flow. Consequently the importance of
identifying and managing run-off pathways during storm events and subsurface pathways year
round is a key finding of DTC. The manner in which these behaviours impact on the ecosystem
function and health of the receiving water bodies are discussed further in the full report.
Soil moisture monitoring in the Wensum DTC
Ten sets of soil moisture probes were first installed in January 2013 in the Blackwater
subcatchment of the R. Wensum for the purpose of determining soil conditions, for example
infiltration behaviour and field capacity conditions, in the nine mitigation measures fields at Salle.
The Adcon GPRS telemetry system enables soil moisture at intervals of 10 cm to a depth of 90 cm
to be recorded at 15-minute intervals using Adcon SM1 capacitance-based measurement probes.
Temperature is also measured at three depths (15, 45 and 75 cm). Profiles of soil moisture
development over time can be used to calculate water drainage and evapotranspiration rates
and also downward fluxes of dissolved solutes such as nitrate where porous pot data exist.
An example of the type of soil moisture data collected is shown in Fig 9 for probe 50413 installed
in Dunkirk field at Manor Farm, Salle, in mini-catchment A. The data are for the period February
to early July 2013. The green line represents soil moisture at 30 cm depth and shows a number
of peaks in response to rainfall events. The peaks in February and March reach maximum, or
field capacity, values for the clay loam soil at this location of about 56% moisture content.
Following the winter, there is a gradual drying trend at 30 cm depth that becomes more
pronounced from mid-April, and especially following the late May peak in soil moisture content.
The soil moisture content at greater depth remains saturated for longer with the record at 60 cm
depth (dark blue line) only responding to drying at the start of June. The record at 90 cm depth
shows no response to drying by the start of July (light blue line). The data recorded on 3 July give
soil moisture contents of 31.9%, 54.4% and 59.0% at depths of 30 cm, 60 cm and 90 cm,

15. 15
respectively. The red line shows the temperature recorded at 75 cm depth and displays a gradual
warming from about 4o
C in February to a value of 13.0o
C on 3 July 2013.
Soil moisture conditions matter to farmers when deciding when to undertake field operations.
Wet weather delays drilling at the start of the autumn and in the spring. After a wet spell there is
always the temptation to get on the land and drill before it is really suitable, which can risk
inferior yields compared with waiting for better soil conditions. As an example, data at Manor
Farm, Salle, demonstrate the impact of leaving the soil just another day (Figure 10) or preferably
two days before wheeled or tracked vehicles run over it. The figure shows rapid drying of the soil
at 30-50 cm depth between 5
February and 6-7 February 2013, despite little change in the
moisture status of the shallower layers. As farm equipment has become heavier, this type of
information has added significance in attempting to avoid compaction in the deeper soil layers.
Contact: Kevin Hiscock (k.hiscock@uea.ac.uk)
Figure 10: Soil moisture
status (expressed as a scale
frequency unit or percent
volume) at Manor Farm,
Salle, 3-8 February 2013.
Figure 9: Record of soil moisture content at 30
cm (green line), 60 cm (dark blue line) and 90
cm (light blue line) depth at Manor Farm, Salle,
from February to early July 2013. The red line
represents soil temperature at 75 cm depth.
The soil moisture data range from 32-59% and
the temperature data range from 4-13
o
C.

16. 16
Last Post – from Bob Harris
This is the last DTC newsletter that I shall be putting together, the task passing to the Wensum
DTC Consortium for 2016 (contact: Andrew Lovett). I’ve really enjoyed my 6+ years working with
Defra, the DTC Consortia and the wider related research and stakeholder groups. The early days
were exciting with the emergence of new political will to develop ‘catchment thinking’ and
address the challenges of more integrated or holistic approaches to scientific research and
environmental management. However, the supported concept of a long-term research platform
to build knowledge and test practical measures in a robust scientific way was always going to be
challenging, and so it’s turned out, compounded now by these recent times of economic
constraint. Unfortunately as we learn more about the complexities of undertaking research at
the catchment scale (especially the challenges of scaling up from plot, field and farm where the
experiments inevitably have to be undertaken, to whole catchments and landscapes) the more
we realise that the answers to both policy and operational questions cannot be answered
quickly.
Storm Desmond has also recently demonstrated that the longer- and shorter-term climatic
changes, be they induced (climate change related) or natural (El Nino and N Atlantic Oscillation
related), may well swamp the relatively small water quality changes in our rivers and
groundwater that farm-scale measures can bring. So, many uncertainties remain not the least the
feeling that small-scale on-farm measures will be insufficient to address the challenges facing
water quality and the subsequent stresses on freshwater ecosystems – we may not be able ‘to
have our cake and eat it too’ through a continuation of with a modified business-as-usual
approach. Larger land use change may be necessary to halt the decline in our freshwater
biodiversity… If this is a priority of society. Whatever the approach and the solutions we need to
have the research capability to investigate the questions posed whether by policy-makers,
catchment-managers or land managers. Without knowledge, and the ability to use it intelligently
in more integrated ways, we will continue to fumble in the dark!
And a Happy New Year to all