Reference: 13/WR/25/5 ISBN: 1 84057 687 1 Published Date: 01/07/2013 The aim of this study was to provide water companies with an evidence base of the success of measures that could be used to complement, or as an alernative to, abstraction reduction. The specific objectives were; to collate evidence for alternative, or complementary measures to abstraction reduction or increased compensation flow releases for use in future water resources investigatons and options appraisals; to assess and critically review the technical success of alternative approaches in enhancing ecological quality; to provide an evidence base of potential alternative options to simply reducing abstraction. Case studies for the measures were selected from a combination of approaches. To illustrate the case study examples sourced, an 'effectiveness review tool' was developed in Excel. This 'user firendly' tool was designed as a 'stand-alone' method to enable the user to find more information about the individual measures and details of the various case studies. A review was also undertaken of available hydro-ecological tools and approaches that can be used to assess the ecological effectiveness of measures. Finally, consideration was given to how this evidence could be improved through the provision of guidance on the design and implementation of pilot studies. |