Medway Management Catchment
Operational catchments
There are 6 operational catchments in this management catchment.
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Protected Areas
Catchment Partnerships Pages
To view the catchment partnership pages switch to the river basin management plan
About
The Medway Catchment is one of the largest catchments in Southern England, covering 930sq miles. From its source at Turners Hill in West Sussex. Flowing from the High Weald, it passes through the regions iconic rural heartland as well as large urban areas such as Tonbridge and the Medway Towns. At Maidstone, the river becomes a tidal estuary, cutting through the chalk of the Kent Downs, before finally joining the Medway Swale Estuary at Rochester, 90 miles from its source. The catchment has an extensive network of tributaries including the Eden, Teise and Beult. Nearly three quarters of the Medway catchment is protected by landscape designations, with the River Beult classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest The estuary is one of the most important natural wetlands in northern Europe. The catchment has a varied topography and diverse underlying soils and geology, creating high gradient watercourses in the Upper Medway and Teise and very low gradient watercourses in the Beult and Middle Medway.
