Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership

Catchment partnership vision

Our vision is for all rivers and water habitats in our catchment to be nature-rich, resilient and enjoyed by current and future generations. The Partnership aims to:

  • Enhance people's enjoyment and connection with the water environment
  • Improve water quality
  • Restore biodiversity and ecological connectivity
  • Adapt and build resilience to a changing climate

Related websites

Find out more about the activities and ambitions of this catchment partnership and how you can get involved to help improve the water environment in the catchment.

Catchment challenges

Current challenges identified by partnership

  • Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

    Water quality is impacted by high levels of nutrients and sediment entering the rivers carried by agricultural run-off

  • Physical modifications

    The catchment is heavily urbanised with many historic physical modifications impacting on fish passage and habitat quality

  • Pollution from waste water

    Water quality is impacted by phosphorus and other contaminants found in treated discharge and also from untreated discharges such as septic tanks

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change

    Pressures on ecosystem services and infrastructure will continue to intensify, we need to embed more resilient measures in all sectors

  • Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy

    The Bristol Avon is a heavily urbanised catchment, we need to connect nature through wildlife corridors in rural and urbans areas

  • Connecting communities with nature

    Positive and sustained connections with nature has proven to be key for peoples mental and physical health and wellbeing

  • Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance

    There is a need to work with farmers to improve nutrient retention and sustainable soil management whilst adapting to a changing climate

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    This will help to make recreational use of the waterways safer, and enhance the water quality for nature

  • Removing plastics/litter from the water environment

    We need both individual and societal behaviour change to reduce plastics entering our rivers and water cycle

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Changes to the natural flow and water levels

  • Pollution from towns, cities and transport

  • Physical modifications

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Pollution from Agriculture and Rural Areas
  • Physical Modifications

Emerging challenges

  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels
  • Physical Modifications
  • Pollution from waste water

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Since 2016, the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership Fund (CPF) has supported the completion of 29 partnership projects, granting over £180,000 and unlocking a further £260,000 through match funding. Many of the partners who are members of the Catchment Partnership Steering Group contribute to the CPF, demonstrating good buy-in and recognition for cross boundary partnership working. The Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership has supported the development of a Catchment Delivery Framework. Partnership projects are achieving a wide range of benefits at a catchment scale, including:

  • fish barrier assessments and improvements
  • working with farmers to develop management plans and install nature based solutions
  • restoration of riparian and wetland habitats to re-connect nature corridors for biodiversity.The partnership has undertaken a broad range of feasibility work to understand where to implement multi-benefit outcomes and nature-based solutions. This increase in understanding has put us in a much stronger position to secure funding for delivery of catchment wide solutions and has enabled the partnership to adopt a more strategic approach to support the development and delivery of partnership programmes of work at a sub-catchment scale. Community engagement and citizen science projects have been successfully completed by partners, including the Bristol Avon WaterBlitz, RiverFly monitoring and ‘Only Rain Down the Drain’. The partnership has supported the development of the Nature Recovery Network. Partners have also worked with Wessex Water to resolve sewer misconnections and have promoted natural measures to support sustainable urban drainage solutions.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

Partnership development plans

The Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership will continue to develop our Catchment Delivery Framework to support the delivery of more integrated and partnership-led projects at a sub-catchment scale. This will enable long-term benefits for the water environment and local communities. We would like to see further development of evidence-led programmes of work, which align with wider funding streams and other plans, such as Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Environmental Land Management Schemes, Local Plans and local business schemes. Alongside this, we would like to see enhanced and safer community access to rivers, that allows people to enjoy rivers in a safe and sustainable way, taking advantage of the associated mental and physical health and wellbeing benefits that blue spaces provide. We would like to support a strong network of autonomous community groups that are empowered to look after and improve their local streams and rivers.

Partnership priority actions and measures for 2022 to 2027

  • Confident

    Investigate and reduce diffuse pollution from agricultural sources to help improve water quality

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Environment Land Management Scheme (future full-scale roll-out)
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Confident

    Restore natural process, slow the flow and improve floodplain connectivity delivering multiple benefits

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage regulated flows
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Confident

    Develop and deliver the Bristol Avon Fish Recovery Plan to increase fish species abundance and distribution and remove barriers to migration

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    Other Public funding
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Confident

    Improve in-stream and riparian habitat using river restoration techniques to increase biodiversity

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Confident

    Deliver targeted advice to local businesses and relevant stakeholders to reduce urban pollution and run-off

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage urban diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Other Public funding
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Confident

    Enhance the quality of public engagement with the water environment to provide wider recreational and health benefits

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage urban diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Secure investment opportunities and embed partnership projects within wider work programmes to increase funding

    Reason for measure
    Feasibility study to build commitment to deliver
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Lack of investment opportunities and competitive landscape for securing funding
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Increase uptake of volunteers collecting citizens science data to improve understanding and inform partnership actions

    Reason for measure
    Feasibility study to build commitment to deliver
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Barriers to delivery
    This is resource intensive and funding is difficult
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Communities value their local river by improving understanding and awareness of challenges to inspire behavioural change

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage urban diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Barriers to delivery
    This is resource intensive and funding is difficult
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Improve understanding of environmental challenges and the value of natural capital assets though monitoring and data

    Reason for measure
    Feasibility study to build commitment to deliver
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Difficulty in funding long-term monitoring and data collection to evidence success and failures
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Removal of invasive non-native species in a targeted approach via partnership projects

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage invasive non-native species
    Delivery mechanism
    None identified
    Barriers to delivery
    Lack of legal drivers and appetite for funding this at present
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Less certain

    Develop and implement innovative projects to deliver nature recovery and natural capital improvements

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    Nature Recovery Network
    Barriers to delivery
    Competitive funding landscape
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Wider water environment

    Implement Nature-Based Solutions to slow the flow of water through the catchment and help alleviate low flows during drought

    Reason for measure
    Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change
    Delivery mechanism
    Flood and Coastal Innovation and Resilience Fund
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Wider water environment

    Enhance and re-connect aquatic habitats, restoring naturally functioning ecosystems to aid restoration of biodiversity

    Reason for measure
    Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

  • Wider water environment

    Support and enable local communities to connect and deliver positive change for their local rivers, streams and coastline

    Reason for measure
    Connecting communities with nature
    Delivery mechanism
    Voluntary initiatives
    Location
    Avon Bristol and Somerset North Streams

Catchment Partnership contributors

Partners involved in the creation of this page and the actions of the partnership: