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Rising waters | Rooted solutions

Setting priorities for 2025 and reflecting on Ousewem’s progress

The Ousewem delivery team stand in a group and smile.

2025 is pivotal in our commitment to building climate resilience. We extend our gratitude to all who have supported our journey in delivering innovative nature-based solutions to to reduce flood risk.

As we step into 2025, the Ousewem team would like to extend our gratitude to all partners, communities, and stakeholders who have supported our journey in delivering innovative, nature-based solutions (NbS) to reduce flood risk. This year marks a pivotal point in our commitment to building climate resilience across the Swale, Ure, Nidd, and Ouse (SUNO) catchments.

Looking back: a year of achievements

In 2024, Ousewem, led by City of York Council in close collaboration with North Yorkshire Council alongside our delivery partners JBA, Natural England, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and the University of York, made significant strides in the work being conducted under the Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP). Key highlights include:

  • innovative modelling and tools: Trialling and refining advanced NFM delivery frameworks
  • pilot projects: Successful implementation of over 1km of hedge planting, 0.5 hectares of woodland, 22 leaky barriers, 15 scrapes
  • community engagement: Collaborating with landowners to co-create flood management strategies

Rachel Flood, our project manager from JBA Consulting, shared:

A lot has been achieved already, and we’re enjoying steering the project through its next phases. The commitment of the team and partners has been truly inspiring.

2025: Priorities and next steps

This year, Ousewem is focused on building on our past successes with clear priorities.

Scaling up Natural Flood Management (NFM) interventions

A map of the Ousewem focus areas.

We're exploring, developing and delivering projects in our expanded focus areas including Arkengarthdale, Masham, Bellerby, and Bishop Monkton. This follows the previous phase of focus catchments, which targeted communities in Appersett, Gayle, Hawes, and Hunton, where further projects continue to be delivered. These initiatives will demonstrate the tangible benefits of nature-based solutions in real-world settings.

Enhanced monitoring and data utilisation

Continued monitoring will provide insights into the long-term benefits of NFM. This data will inform both policy and practice, ensuring interventions remain effective. Specific monitoring priorities include, soil characteristics, changes in flow and demonstrating effectiveness to landowners.

Engaging landowners and communities

We aim to deepen relationships with stakeholders, ensuring their active participation in projects. Planned activities include:

  • continued farm visits and targeted landowner engagement sessions
  • expansion of our flood resilience campaign, using interactive technology to deepen communities’ understanding of how water is impacting our local area

Sharing innovations nationally and influencing national policy

Methodologies and outputs from Ousewem will be fed back to FCIP to inform future flood resilience work, enabling other projects to build on the learnings of Ousewem.

By contributing findings from our work, Ousewem will help shape future flood risk management strategy, sharing our journey in our innovative video series.

Mary Baldwin, assistant project manager and NFM specialist, added:

Ousewem offers a fantastic opportunity to build climate resilience through nature-based solutions. The knowledge and creativity of our team and partners will drive us forward in 2025.

Your role in 2025

We invite all stakeholders, from local communities to national organisations, to join us in shaping a more resilient future. Whether you’re interested in hosting an NFM project on your land, attending engagement events, or sharing best practice, there’s a role for everyone in Ousewem’s mission.

Stay informed by subscribing to our quarterly newsletter, where we’ll share updates, insights, and opportunities to get involved.

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Published: 17th January 2025