38 - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield : Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services

Introduction

The Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.

What is Natural Capital?

Natural capital means “the elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions” (Natural Capital Committee, 2017).

It is helpful to consider natural capital in the form of a logic chain that represents the links between ecosystem assets, services, benefits and value to people. The figure below displays that logic chain. The quantity and quality of ecosystem assets (woodland, bogs, etc) support different types of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or water filtration. These ecosystem services then provide different benefits to society, providing value for people. The figure also shows how management interventions, as well as pressures and drivers of change, influence this chain. Other capital inputs are also often needed for people to obtain the benefits from ecosystem services (a simple example is the processing of trees to produce wood products).

As an example, an area of woodland (ecosystem asset) may reduce air pollution created by traffic on a nearby road. This woodland is therefore improving air quality (ecosystem service) in the local area which results in cleaner air and improved health in the adjacent residential street (benefit). This cleaner air has a value because we know it impacts the health and wellbeing of communities.

Sometimes for ease of understanding, economic framing is used to give these benefits a monetary value. The figure below shows how natural capital assets support the provision of ecosystem services, benefits and value. The roots of the tree show how aspects of asset quality are critical to the provision of ecosystem services. The roots also show that geodiversity underpins the ecosystem assets and therefore the ecosystem services and benefits they can provide. It is important to remember that this diagram, and natural capital frameworks more generally, are a simplification of how nature works in practice.

Natural Capital within this NCA

In 2018, Natural England published ‘Natural Capital Indicators: for defining and measuring change in natural capital’ (Lusardi et al., 2018). This report identified key properties of the natural environment vital for the long-term sustainability of benefits, which can act as indicators of change.

These indicators are designed to inform our understanding of the state of our natural assets. The indicators highlight the importance of our natural assets for delivering which ecosystem service and the benefits they provide for society. The indicators and datasets identified in Natural England’s Natural Capital Indicators Project provide the foundation for the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.

Natural England’s Natural Capital Atlas Profiles provide an “off the shelf” natural capital evidence base for each county or city region. They have a wide variety of uses with more information in the How to Start Using Your Natural Capital Atlas.

The Natural Capital indicators are presented on the map below by broad asset theme, displaying the natural capital within the NCA.

It is noted that not all indicators listed within the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles are included within the map as data is not yet available to measure them. Refer to the “Indicator Gaps and Limitations” of the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles for further information.

Natural Capital Atlas Profiles

The following Natural Capital Atlas Profiles cover counties within this NCA:
 

• 8: Derbyshire
• 30: Nottinghamshire
• 32: Sheffield City Region
• 42: West Yorkshire

Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)

Food provision: The centre of the NCA remains fairly rural with 44 per cent of the area made up of Grade 3 agricultural It is a mixed farming area, predominantly producing cereals, with a variety of crops being common including oilseed, but it also supplies fattened livestock and some dairy produce.

Water availability: Several major rivers cross the area, including the Don, Aire, Calder, Dearne, Rother and There is generally water available from surface waterbodies throughout the NCA. However, the NCA does not overlie any major aquifer; the north of the area around Bradford and Leeds overlies a minor Millstone Grit aquifer which has water available, while the middle stretch overlies a minor Coal Measures aquifer which also has water available for further abstraction. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).

Biomass energy: The existing woodland cover in this NCA (15,411 ha or 9 per cent of the area) offers some potential for provision of biomass by bringing unmanaged woodland under management and as a by-product of commercial timber production. There is generally a medium potential yield for miscanthus in the NCA, with a high potential yield around Rotherham and Leeds. There is also a medium potential yield for short rotation coppice, with a low potential yield around (Opportunities and optimum sitings for energy crops, Natural England website, accessed December 2010) Barnsley’s communal biomass heating system is the UK’s largest working example of a process using wood arising from local woodland management to heat community housing. (Working towards carbon emissions reduction in Yorkshire , Forestry Commission, Barnsley Biomass)

Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)

Climate regulation: The majority of the soils have low carbon However, the carbon content is likely to be higher under woodland (9 per cent of the area), which will also continue to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and under the 1,200 ha of lowland meadow, semi-natural grassland, heathland and wetland in the NCA.

Regulating soil erosion: 64 per cent of the soils in the NCA are at low risk of Just less than 25 per cent of the area has light soils (freely draining, slightly acid loamy soils and freely draining, lime-rich soils) which have an enhanced risk of soil erosion on moderately or steeply sloping land where cultivated or bare soil is exposed. This is exacerbated where organic matter levels are low after continuous arable cultivation and where soils are compacted. These soils also have the potential for wind erosion on some coarse textured cultivated variants. Restored soils derived from mineral workings and coal mining and open cast spoil are often compacted and subject to erosion from rainfall which cannot infiltrate the soil. Poaching is a risk where stocking levels are too high on wet ground. Equally, many of the slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage are prone to capping and slaking, leading to increased risk of erosion, especially when they are compacted by machinery or livestock if accessed when wet. This increases the risk of soil erosion by surface water run-off, especially on steeper slopes

Regulating soil quality: The slowly permeable, seasonally wet loamy and clayey soils that cover 58 per cent of the NCA, are easily damaged when These soils may have limited potential for increasing organic matter levels by management interventions, making the timing of agricultural practices and stocking management more important in maintaining soil quality.

Regulating water quality: For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Regulating water flow: Fluvial flood risk is substantial throughout much of the In Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield and Chesterfield, the top three or four flood peak events since monitoring began have occurred since 2000, indicating the significance of recent flood events. In many locations flood risk is located in urban areas where development has taken place within the flood plain and in city centres where high-value developments sit on the front of heavily modified waterways. Where possible, re-naturalisation of the waterways can help to slow water flow and alleviate flooding downstream. In many places large flood storage options in rural areas are being developed to help to protect homes and urban businesses. Examples include the extensive washlands north of Castleford which are designed to reduce the threat of flooding in the town, as well as to protect arable land further downstream.

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)

Sense of place/inspiration: A sense of place has been created by the exploitation over many centuries of coal deposits, together with resources of stone, iron and soft water, which has resulted in a complex intermingling of an earlier rural landscape with modern commerce, industrial sites and structures, and abandoned industrial areas clothed over low hills and escarpments and broad The landscape is heavily influenced by these areas of industry and by the towns and cities of Leeds, Wakefield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bradford. The historical industries within these towns and cities still provide an important sense of place and identity for the local communities, such as connections with the wool industry in Leeds and steel production in Sheffield. The NCA also contains a number of large country houses, parks and estates while the main cities and towns have striking centres dominated by fine 19th-century civic buildings constructed with sandstone. These features provide opportunities to engage the population and to promote a greater understanding of the cultural history and greater engagement with the landscape around them. The landscape has provided inspiration for a number of cultural works, notably D H Lawrence, who was born and lived in Eastwood and used the area as an inspiration for a number of his works.

Sense of history: There is a long history of settlement within the NCA dating back to evidence of Mesolithic and Neolithic camps with river valleys used as travel ways throughout the Much of the evidence of activity by earlier generations has, however, been lost to the widespread urbanisation that took place from the 18th century onwards as a result of large-scale industrialisation and the rapid increase in population. One notable exception is Codnor Castle, the remains of a medieval castle. The legacy of industrial development is still very apparent in the landscape today in the mining villages and where equipment is still visible, such as some pit heads and brickwork towers. It is the evidence from this era that provides the clearest sense of history within the NCA. The wealth produced by industrialisation is also apparent in the grand municipal buildings and large number of country houses and estates. There are many opportunities to increase understanding of the history of the area and its links with local culture and pride, including the management of woodlands and increased opportunities for recreation provided by the parks, gardens and estates.

Recreation: The NCA offers a network of rights of way totalling 2,920 km at a density of just over 7 km per km2, including the Trans Pennine Trail and Ebor Way long-distance routes. There is only a small area of open access land covering 508 ha or just 0.3 per cent of the NCA, but there are areas of open space resulting from the restoration of past mineral workings. The large number of Registered Parks and Gardens are also important recreational assets for local communities, with a number of country houses and estates drawing in visitors from further afield as well. Most green spaces within the NCA experience high levels of usage because of their importance as a source of recreation for surrounding large urban populations and the opportunities for people to connect to the natural environment, such as along the Erewash Valley Trail.

Biodiversity: Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority habitats make up a total of 3 per cent of the area (low in comparison with the national average), and comprise wet woodland and lowland mixed deciduous Other BAP priority habitats include lowland meadows, undetermined grassland, heathland and flood plain grazing marsh. There is only one internationally designated site within the NCA: the Denby Grange Colliery Ponds Special Area of Conservation (19 ha) in Wakefield, designated for its high counts of great crested newts. Within the wider landscape there is a patchwork of semi-natural habitats that are either remnants of previous extent or are now being restored. There are lots of opportunities within the landscape to buffer and link up these patches of habitats to reduce fragmentation and increase the permeability of the area. New developments provide opportunities to raise design quality by incorporating green infrastructure and habitat creation as part of master planning, and can have a large positive or negative effect on the overall ecological network and landscape character of the area.

Geodiversity: There are eight geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the NCA, which are often the result of human activity, for example railway cuttings, building stone quarries and Nationally and locally designated sites provide opportunities for education at all levels and scientific research, and to make clear links between the underlying geology and human history and development. The East Pennine Coalfield is the European reference area for the stratification of the Late Carboniferous period, making the geological exposures in this NCA important.