National Character Area 6
Solway Basin - Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services
Introduction
The Solway Basin 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 Solway Basin NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.
Note: The natural capital in this NCA is mapped below. This displays more recent national and publicly available data sets as used within Natural England’s 2020 Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.
The predominant ecosystem services in this NCA are also summarised below. The text contained in this section is based on the previous NCA profiles in 2014, and so is not entirely current. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the North Northumberland Coastal Plain NCA is contained in the Analysis: Ecosystem Services page 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:
- 7: Cumbria
Note that numbers and figures in the body of the text are based on the 2014 profiles, unless otherwise stated.
Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)
Food provision: Pastoral systems for dairy, beef and sheep are supported by the relatively high rainfall, mild climate and long growing season. The majority of the NCA is made up of Grade 3 agricultural soils, with lower grades (4 and 5) associated with areas of wet peaty soils in valley bottoms or on peat bogs. The salt marshes of the Solway estuary are generally grazed with cattle during the summer months and sheep from the uplands during the winter. Summer grazing on the marshes by livestock releases inland grasslands to be managed for silage production. In the coastal zone, traditional fisheries play a variable role in the rural economy.
Water availability: Water from sub-surface aquifers is growing in importance for both agriculture and some businesses. Water is abstracted from catchments upstream of the NCA for a variety of purposes, including industrial use, public water supply, farming, private water supply, hydropower and bottling. On the Solway Plain a number of farms and other water users, such as golf courses, abstract water from underground aquifers in drift deposits which generally have a high recharge potential. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).
Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)
Climate regulation: The landscape stores a large amount of carbon, predominantly within lowland raised bogs and associated and surrounding fenland peat but also in the woodlands of the east and south. The large areas of salt marsh also act as carbon stores through retaining organic matter and carboniferous material. It is thought that this is one of the most important lowland carbon stores in England with the potential to lock in more carbon with changes in land management.
Regulating coastal flooding and erosion: The dune system on the Solway coast and the salt marshes of the inner Solway act as natural sea defences in absorbing the sea’s energy and protecting inland areas. This dynamic system helps to trap sediments, increasing the level and extent of sand dunes and salt marshes which provide enhanced protection as they increase in height or expand seawards. For information regarding current shoreline management within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Shoreline management plans).
Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)
Sense of place/inspiration: The dynamic coastal zone of the Solway Firth with its network of ever-changing tidal habitats, flocks of wintering birds moved by the tide, and expansive views to Criffel and the other hills of southern Scotland and the northern reaches of the Irish Sea is both unique and inspiring.
Sense of history: Amid the predominantly rural landscape is a network of sites which lend a strong sense of history to the landscape, including Hadrian’s Wall, the cathedral city of Carlisle, the monastic sites of Holme Cultram and Lanercost, the Victorian town of Silloth and a suite of Second World War airfields.
Tranquillity: Tranquillity is a significant feature of this NCA with 71 per cent of its land undisturbed. The margins of the Solway Firth are particularly noted for their tranquillity.
Recreation: The NCA offers a network of rights of way totalling 747 km at a density of 0.76 km per sq km. Open access land covers 4,063 ha or 4.1 per cent of the NCA, including a number of marshes along the Solway coast, a large proportion of the sand dune coast and the lowland raised bogs. Hadrian’s Wall Path and cycle way and the Cumbria Coastal Way are long-distance routes which cross the area. This has also been one of the first areas in the county to receive formal coastal access provision.
Biodiversity: Priority habitats within the NCA include coastal and flood plain grazing marsh, salt marsh, lowland raised bog and coastal sand dunes as well as a number of other habitats. The NCA contains five Special Areas of Conservation, one Special Protection Area, one Ramsar site and five National Nature Reserves, and 8,000 ha are nationally designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). There are also large extents of priority habitat outside the designated sites. The area supports nationally and regionally important populations of many species. Many such as natterjack toads, breeding and wintering waders, wintering wildfowl and coastal plants are associated with the designated site series. However, others such as farmland birds are associated with the wider landscape.
Geodiversity: The glacially derived landform and post-glacial geology of the area are important, with coastal features and terrestrial peats providing significant information about past climatic environmental fluctuations. There are five SSSI notified for their geological interest in this NCA and 13 local sites of geological importance.
