Assessing the relationship between

agricultural groundwater abstraction

and ecological impacts in the Cam and

Ely Ouse catchment

Francisco Aguilar, Thomas Barden, Benjamin Jeannot,

Susan Lynch and Rebecca Perkins

Contact email address: elyouseabstraction@gmail.com

www.cranfield.ac.uk

Context

Water Framework Directive (WFD) puts pressure on countries to improve ecological status.

Over abstraction may detrimentally affect the ecological status.

Environment Agency may impose abstracting conditions to renew all time-limited licences.

Rivers and towns in the Cam and Ely Ouse catchment

Objectives

Understand where abstraction occurs in relation to catchment characteristics.

Investigate the ecological vulnerability to abstraction.

Assess if abstraction timing affects the ecological status.

How we are going to do this

Mapping the abstraction points, ecologically significant sites and assessment points.

Data analysis of abstraction quantities compared to current licence conditions.

Groundwater and water balance modelling.

With your help

Key questions for us to answer

Do time-limited abstractions affect the aims of the WFD?

Are only time-limited groundwater abstraction licences responsible?

What other factors could be hindering good ecological status?

The Team

Benjamin

Thomas Francisco Susan Rebecca

MSc in Environmental Water Management

MSc in Integrated Landscape Ecology

Water available

No water available

Over-licensed

Over-abstracted

Reference: Hess, T.M., Knox, J.W., Kay, M.G., and Weatherhead, E.K. (2010). Managing the Water Footprint of Irrigated Food Production in England and Wales. In Hester, R.E. and Harrison, R.M. (Eds) Issues in Environmental Science and Technology 31: Sustainable Water. pp.85. ISBN: 9781849730198

Figure from Hess et al. (2010)

Water resource availability by crop sector. Data from 2008 for England and Wales

Potatoes Field Vegetables Soft Fruit

100%

50%

0%