Habitat Creation Opportunities for Landward Coastal Re-alignment: Essex Case Studies

Relative sea-level fluctuations during the Holocene period have combined with medieval to present saline floodplain embanking to reduce the inter-tidal saltmarsh area in Essex from 40 000 ha to 4400 ha. The present loss by erosion is estimated at 2%/annum for the country, and the reduction in these areas is not only detrimental to related habitats but has caused an increasing requirement for flood-defence financial investment.
Recent initiatives by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Environment Agency and English Nature have created mechanisms and opportunities to develop sustainable flood-control structures where coastal re-alignment has been the preferred option.
The Orplands frontage covers 2 km of sea wall which have been deliberately breached to allow 40 ha of rare saltmarsh to re-establish. At Abbotts Hall, an arable field of 20 ha has been converted to its former saltmarsh by creek re-establishment and tidal inundation by reversal of existing sluices. These two schemes have (a) regenerated habitats for halophytic and semi-halophytic plants, marine and brackish invertebrates, and (b) provided roost, feed and breeding areas for birds and nursery areas for marine fish fry. Apart from flood control and habitat creation, particular features were incorporated to provide niche locations for targeted types of wildlife.     

Mothproofing Agents in UK Wool Textile Effluents

Mothproofing is an essential part of the manufacture of wool and wool-blend carpets and until now has usually been combined with another textile wet process, such as dyeing, to save cost.
Environmental quality standards for mothproofing agents in surface waters have recently been introduced. Compliance with these standards will require a reduction of more than 90% in the mothproofing agent content of industrial effluents in parts of the UK where mothproofing activity is most concentrated. In order to achieve such a reduction, it is proprosed that the carpet industry should install new methods of applying mothproofing agents, aimed at source reduction, rather than by adopting end-of-pipe measures.
Two new low-pollution mothproofing technologies are described in detail, and a summary is given of other possibilities.     

ADAPTING LOW-FLOW FREQUENCY ANALYSIS FOR USE WITH SHORT-PERIOD RECORDS

Low-flow frequency analysis techniques are robust only where the flow record is relatively long and the flow regime is known to be stationary over time. If applied to short-period flow records. low-flow frequency analysis can give poor or misleading results. This paper examines the effectiveness of data-transfer methods for improving the characterisation of low-flow frequency relationships for gauged sites with flow records of less than fifteen years.
Two transfer methods were considered. In each case the sequence of annual minimum flows from an analogue catchment was used to provide extra information about the sequence of flows at the site of interest. Transposing the standardised probability distribution function of annual minima between analogue sites worked where their flow records were highly correlated. However, better results were obtained where recurrence intervals for observations at the subject site were estimated from recurrence intervals for the same years in the analogue record.     

Requirements for Quality System Certification to BS 5750 with Reference to the Water Industry

Quality assurance for the water industry and its suppliers is being seen to be of ever-increasing importance as a means of meeting the demands of customers and giving confidence to regulators. The creation of the Water Industry Certification Scheme demonstrates the industry's increased level of commitment to quality assurance.
This paper considers the requirements and benefits of certification of quality systems with particular reference to the BS 5750/EN 29000/ISO 9000 series of standards. The requirements for certification in the water industry are discussed in terms of corporate policy, what is stated in the standard, and how the requirements of some elements of the standard might be interpreted by a certification body.     

Substrate Removal by In-Sewer Oxygenation

This paper describes a study which was carried out to investigate the degree of in-sewer treatment which could be achieved by suspended heterotrophs (normally present in domestic sewage), under aerobic conditions and under different retention periods and sewage strengths.     

The Microbiological Quality of Private Water Supplies

This paper provides a detailed assessment of the microbiological quality of a selection of private water supplies. Samples were taken from 91 supplies and analyzed for total coliforms, faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci. The microbiological quality of the samples was generally poor, with almost 50% of the supplies failing to meet the required standards on at least one occasion. Given the high level of sanitary microbiological failures, there is the possibility that harmful microorganisms could be present and a significant risk to health cannot be discounted.     

Naming of parts: a presentation of facial surface anatomical terms

The increasing use of facial surface anatomy terms by professional groups prompts an illustrated collection together with their common variants.     

The Lower Colne Improvement Scheme: Environmental Costs and Benefits

ABSTRACT The Lower Colne improvement scheme, on a river system to the west of London, was the first in the Thames region to give equal importance to environmental and engineering aspects in a feasibility study which was carried out in the early 1980s. This resulted in a scheme proposal comprising sixty elements of discrete work, rather than a continuous new channel or embankments, which reduced the impact on the environment. Many of these separate elements comprise environmental mitigation and enhancement features. This paper focuses on (a) examples of different types of scheme, (b) the environmental advantages and disadvantages, and (c) the costs of incorporating such features into flood-defence works.     

Strategic Resource Development Options in England and Wales

This paper describes the options which had to be considered for new water resources in the development of the † National Rivers Authority's water resource strategy for England and Wales. The options included interregional transfers, strategic reservoirs, and a range of unconventional schemes including aquifer recharge, effluent re-use, groundwater abstraction where levels are rising, desalination, and transfer by sea. The main options are described and comparative costs are presented.     

Fenay Beck Flood-Alleviation Scheme

The paper describes flood detention and channel improvement schemes which have been designed to alleviate the flooding of domestic and industrial properties to a 50-year standard of protection. Landscape architects were incorporated into the design teams to cover environmental aspects.
The flood-detention dam would have been constructed mainly of colliery waste, and the design of the concrete horseshoe spillway and stilling basin was checked using a 1 : 40 physical model. River regulation would be by an automatic vertical gate activated by downstream water levels.
Following planning refusal, a channel-improvement scheme was adopted, which is presently under construction. Reduction in valley storage increased downstream flows, necessitating the enlargement of an old brick and concrete culvert within the ICI works to ensure that there were no detrimental effects within their boundary. An increased benefit/cost ratio of 3.46, as compared with 2.55 obtained for the detention scheme, was partly due to the application of new standards.