Financial lead and senior analyst Sally Ashby explains how evidence, investment and partnerships can support flood resilience at catchment scale, drawing on lessons from Ousewem's project at Hauxwell, as Graham Walker found out.
What can a pioneering flood management project on one Yorkshire farm teach us about planning, funding and delivering flood resilience across entire river catchments?
The answer could help Yorkshire and other regions prepare for future flooding, informing investment decisions and practical measures on a much bigger scale.
That challenge is being explored through Ousewem, a Defra-funded flood resilience project led by City of York Council.
Working with partners across York and North Yorkshire, it is examining how natural flood management, scientific modelling and collaboration with landowners can help reduce flood risk and guide future investment.
At Hauxwell Estate and Dalton Farms, near Leyburn, a pioneering natural flood management project provides a practical example of how working with nature could contribute to longer-term resilience.
But the wider challenge is moving beyond individual projects towards coordinated investment and delivery across entire catchments.
For Sally Ashby, Ousewem's financial strategy lead and a senior analyst at Skipton-headquartered JBA Consulting, Hauxwell demonstrates why evidence and finance must work together.
"What it's taught us is that with the right investment and the right partners, you can deliver interventions at scale that have much more significant impact," said Sally.
"We know how to deliver these interventions in the places that matter.
"But now we need to build the financial architecture for money to flow and that's about supporting the governance structure and building demand, helping businesses understand why resilience matters and where investment could make the greatest contribution."
Sally is helping investors, public authorities and businesses in sectors including farming, insurance and utilities, understand how evidence can support future investment in flood resilience and water quality
Hauxwell Estate and Dalton Farms, in the upper Brompton Beck catchment, have embraced natural flood management alongside farming, woodland creation and habitat restoration.
Working with Ousewem’s delivery partner, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, the estate has restored sections of Brompton Beck, reconnecting the watercourse with its floodplain and creating wetlands and ponds designed to hold water in the landscape longer.
The interventions are designed to influence downstream flows while supporting biodiversity and sustainable land management.
Farm and Conservation Manager Kevin Birch believes the approach offers benefits for the estate's future. "The biggest aim for any farm manager is to try to work with nature, not against it," he said.
"We're very focused on increasing habitats and making the estate as resilient as possible, not just for wildlife but for the future of farming and the wider landscape."
For Sally, projects like Hauxwell also help build evidence for future funding decisions.
Modelling and monitoring can help organisations assess potential benefits, suitable locations and where investment could contribute most.
The financial consequences of climate change make those decisions increasingly pressing.
"The costs and damages are only going to increase," Sally said.
"So we have to invest to reduce those costs at the very least."
Attracting future investment will depend on credible evidence of measurable benefits, including potential reductions in flood damage and improvements to water quality and biodiversity.
Businesses and other investors need to understand what their money could achieve before committing funding.
"They need proof of outcomes. These are going to be outcomes-based investments," she explains.
"They need not just flood risk reduction outcomes, but the cost avoided outcomes, water quality improvement outcomes, and biodiversity and ecosystem improvement outcomes."
Ousewem is exploring how modelling and practical evidence can identify organisations that could benefit financially from resilience measures.
Potential future investors and partners include farming, insurance, utilities, food and beverage and infrastructure businesses, alongside public authorities and landowners.
But catchment-scale delivery also depends on relationships with those managing the land.
"Finance will only flow at the speed of trust. So we have to have trust with our farmers," Sally adds.
Those relationships matter when flood measures must coexist with productive agriculture and support rural businesses.
Kevin shares that long-term ambition.
"We want to remain a productive farming estate, but we also need additional income streams," he said.
"The biggest aim for any estate manager is to pass the estate on in better condition than they found it."
For Sally, practical experience and trusted partnerships can help encourage further investment.
"Farmers trust other farmers. If they see it working and the farmers are happy, then that's the best advert we could have,” she said.
Sally believes bringing public and private investment together, backed by evidence from projects like Hauxwell, could help Ousewem develop an approach to flood resilience that can be applied across wider catchments, in Yorkshire and beyond.
Hauxwell shows what can be achieved on one Yorkshire estate. Ousewem is using those lessons to help identify where similar projects could make the biggest difference, bringing together farmers, businesses and public authorities to plan the work and explore how it could be funded.
The challenge now is to turn lessons learned on individual farms into greater flood resilience across entire river catchments.
Watch Ousewem film series: From catchment modelling to land management and community resilience, check out these films which bring Ousewem’s work to life across the landscapes of York and North Yorkshire - click here.
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