National Character Area 69
Trent Valley Washlands - Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services
Introduction
The Trent Valley Washlands 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 Trent Valley Washlands 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:
- 8: Derbyshire
- 22: Leicestershire and Rutland
- 30: Nottinghamshire
- 35: Staffordshire
- 38: Warwickshire
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: While land in agricultural use adds up to around a third of the total area and loss of agricultural land to built development and sand and gravel extraction has been significant, food provision is still an important ecosystem service, with the area’s generally fertile and versatile soils having supported a diversity of farming over a long period of time. Modern agricultural improvements, particularly to benefit arable crop production, have, however, impacted on other ecosystem services and the natural elements that underpin food provision.
Water availability: The rivers, watercourses and waterbodies are important water sources for the area, providing large amounts of water for public consumption (both inside and outside the NCA), energy generation, agriculture, industry and recreation as well as supporting wetland habitats and biodiversity. The Sherwood Sandstone aquifer partly extends under the area and is used by the brewing industry in Burton-upon-Trent. 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)
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: The Washlands get their name from their natural flood plain function which regulates the flow of the rivers downstream by temporary inundation of surrounding land, enabling in-situ storage and infiltration of excess water. Riparian vegetation, hedgerows and semi-natural flood plain habitats help to attenuate the flood flows.
Natural washland function is constrained in many places by a range of engineered solutions to flood risk, including levees, deepened channels and flood walls. While these reduce the risk of flooding locally they also reduce levels of in-situ storage and infiltration, increasing flows and potentially causing greater risk of flooding downstream. A key challenge for the area is how to maximise the Washlands’ important function in the regulation of water flow while addressing flood risk to land and property within the area.
Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)
Sense of history: Sense of history is engrained in this landscape through ancient earthworks, geodiversity and the ancient remains found in gravel workings, early Christian sites, Swarkestone Causeway, Tamworth Castle and the scattered historic houses and parkland, and also by historic settlement and the older buildings of the villages with their traditional vernacular architecture and historical sandstone churches, the towers and spires of which often form landmarks. In some pastoral areas, especially beside the rivers, a sense of permanence and history is lent by the mature hedgerows, old willow pollards, permanent pasture with palaeo-channels and ridge and furrow, and the relative tranquillity. A sense of industrial history is provided by the canal architecture throughout the area and the 19th-century brick and slate houses and brick and stone public buildings of the main settlements.
Despite this rich past, in many places the sense of history and place is challenged by an evolving contemporary landscape of major roads, active and former sand and gravel workings, modern commercial agriculture, indistinctive prominent commercial, industrial and distribution developments and dominant electricity pylons.
Recreation: The Washlands are a location of easy access for large numbers of people. The watercourses, flood plains and some of the large number of waterbodies created from sand and gravel extraction provide a major recreational resource, offering a range of opportunities including boating, watersports, fishing, walking, and informal recreation and experiencing wildlife. The canal towpaths provide extensive walking, cycling and informal recreation opportunities. Cycling opportunities are also provided by National Cycle Network routes and the network of minor roads. The National Forest and various partnership initiatives seek landscape and biodiversity enhancements and promote recreation and access in the area. Visitor attractions include Drayton Manor theme park, the National Memorial Arboretum and the recreational provisions of the urban centres.
The area’s local green spaces (country parks and Local Nature Reserves) offer people a number of opportunities to get involved in order to increase their understanding and enjoyment of the natural environment, while also valuing the contribution it makes to their health and wellbeing.
Biodiversity: The most extensive priority habitat is flood plain grazing marsh, covering 11 per cent of the area. This, along with the rivers, their riparian zones and other wetland habitats, provides the main biodiversity resource; however, many natural river processes and habitats have been lost.
The 3 km, 2.7 ha stretch of the River Mease within the Washlands is of international importance for biodiversity, the whole river being designated a Special Area of Conservation. It supports populations of spined loach and bullhead fish, as well as white-clawed crayfish and otter.
The farmed environment includes ditches, hedgerows, copses and field margins dispersed through the landscape and providing ecological links and habitats for farmland species. Agricultural intensification coupled with urban development and the widespread transport infrastructure means that semi- natural habitats are scarce and fragmented, especially outside the flood plains.
Gravel extraction has also led to the loss and fragmentation of semi-natural habitats such as riparian scrub and meadows; however, through high-quality restoration schemes it has enabled new wetland habitat sites to be created which were once more widespread in the Washlands.
Geodiversity: While the landform of the Washlands expresses the link to the underlying geology at its borders where the land rises, it is the landforms and deposits associated with river and glacial activity that are the key geological features. These glacial, interglacial and post-glacial deposits contain remains of past fauna and flora and enable research into the past climatic and environmental conditions of the region and the geographic evolution of the Trent Valley as well as potentially providing insights into the impacts of future climate change.
Sand and gravel extraction for the construction industry continues, especially within the Trent Valley with reserves among the greatest in the country. The large number of open water lagoons is a legacy of the demand for this resource.
Sherwood Sandstone hewn from bedrock geology in places on the edge of the NCA features widely as a building material in the churches and more substantial buildings. In the Soar Valley limestone and igneous building stone from bordering areas add geodiversity interest.
