Aerial view of new ponds in a field.

Historic Floodplains

Restoring Historic Floodplains could be the biggest conservation change in England and Wales of the next 50 years. Our vision for floodplains will be revolutionary for freshwater biodiversity – and will provide multiple benefits for people.

A major opportunity for freshwater

Most floodplains are severely damaged by centuries of drainage and pollution. Focused on land inside the one in 100-year floodplain, restored Historic Floodplains will benefit people and freshwater nature from city to countryside, from rewilded wet forests to rich riverine grasslands. Sometimes farmed, sometimes set-aside for wildlife, new habitats created on floodplains should, as far as possible, be protected from pollution from the river channel.

Extending over about 16,000 km, the 1:100 flood zone occupies about 11% of the land area of England and Wales. The Historic Floodplain is approximately 15% urbanised and 85% green space, making it a major opportunity area for freshwater biodiversity
protection and restoration.

Historic Floodplains are a part of every Important Freshwater Landscape and are a dominant feature of five: Yorkshire Lowlands, Cambridgeshire Fens, Thames Estuary, Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, and the Avon and Somerset Levels.

Download the Freshwater Network brochure
Aerial view of field with tractor lines, river and ponds.
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- Creating green hay to restore historic floodplain at National Trust Coleshill on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border.

Restoring Historic Floodplains

Many Historic Floodplains have been identified as Wetland Opportunity Areas where we can:

  • Create routes for species to disperse between Important Freshwater Areas and, at national level, between Important Freshwater Landscapes.
  • Work from the top of catchments down, changing land use in the floodplain to restore the river and stream environment.
  • Create new small freshwater and wetland habitats on floodplains not connected directly to polluted running waters, providing clean water refuges for the many pollution-sensitive freshwater species.
Map of England and Wales with historic floodplain marked in green.
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- Historic Floodplains in England and Wales.

Our work in Historic Floodplains

Discover more about our work to restore Historic Floodplains and build the Freshwater Network.

Aerial view of valley with a river
Ock and Thame Farmers: Freshwaters and Floodplain Restoration

We’re delivering landscape recovery and building the Freshwater Network across two lowland catchments.

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River Irfon Catchment project

People and wildlife are benefiting from our project in the Irfon catchment in mid-Wales. We’re working with local communities and landowners to protect one of the best remaining freshwater landscapes in Britain.

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Group of people standing in a field.
Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire Freshwater Network

A focus on the role of smaller, peat-dominated wetlands, floodplains, wet grasslands and small waters in sequestering carbon in the landscape.

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Explore the Freshwater Network

The Freshwater Network

The Freshwater Network is a national network of wilder, wetter, cleaner, more connected habitats to stop and reverse the decline in freshwater biodiversity.

The Freshwater Network
Plants growing in shallow water
Important Freshwater Landscapes

The Freshwater Network will restore historic freshwater hotspots inside the one in 100-year floodplain by building networks of high-quality freshwater sites for wildlife.

 

Important Freshwater Landscapes
Group of people walking down a hill through a field, with a large pond behind.
Water Friendly Landscapes

Here, habitats will be created and restored to provide pathways for species to move across the landscape, adding further links outside of Important Freshwater Landscapes and Historic Floodplains.

Water Friendly Landscapes