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River Condition Assessments

What is a River Condition Assessment?

A River Condition Assessment often forms part of the BNG calculation where a development site includes a watercourse.

A River Condition Assessment (RCA) helps to determine the health, quality, and functionality of river ecosystems.

It typically involves surveying watercourse-related features which characterise the local river channel and its margins within the red line boundary.

It usually includes a desk-based assessment that identifies the river type and translates the preliminary condition score into a final river condition class.

It also covers other factors such as biodiversity, channel structure, indicator species, land use, and water flow and quality.

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Our Approach.

At Ecology by Design, we are highly experienced at conducting RCAs. Although the field survey element can be conducted at any time of year, they are best completed between May and September when aquatic vegetation is clearly visible and water levels are at their lowest.

Reporting.

An RCA normally incorporates 2 elements, a desk study and a field survey. Our report would include the desk-based research which generates the river condition class metric to input into BNG calculations. Recommendations could also be included such as removing culverts, restoring natural alignments (re-wiggling), enhancing the riparian zone and removal of encroachment features for example. We can identify how your site will achieve the 10% required on-site or via biodiversity offsetting.

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