Eddleston Water Project — Whole-Catchment Natural Flood Management Trial in the Scottish Borders

The Eddleston Water, a tributary of the Tweed above Peebles, began as a scoping study in 2009 and became Scotland's best-instrumented natural flood management (NFM) test bed, run by Tweed Forum with the University of Dundee and funded by the Scottish Government, EU Interreg and SEPA.
Across 24 farms the project reports over 327,000 native trees planted, about 209 ha of riparian woodland, 25 km of fencing, around 40 leaky/temporary storage ponds (~30,000 m2), 136 high-flow restrictors, and roughly 3 km of re-meandered channel with flood embankments removed.
Monitoring reports high-flow log structures delaying peaks by up to 7 hours in headwater catchments up to 25 km2, and a ~30% reduction in the 2-year-return-period flood peak in the upper catchment; soil infiltration under mature broadleaf woodland is 5-8 times that under grazed pasture. New meanders also add habitat and spawning sites.
Caveats are stated openly: NFM works best in small catchments and for lower-level floods and will not stop major floods; ponds alone have a small effect on total runoff; and re-meandering alone gives limited attenuation, so benefits depend on combining measures. Figures differ slightly between project summaries. The site was named a UNESCO Ecohydrology Demonstration Site in 2023. No wildfire or carbon accounting is reported.

Read the full analysis: https://tweedforum.org/our-work/projects/the-eddleston-water-project/eddleston-water-project-progress-to-date/