Wetland restoration in St. Aidan’s Nature Reserve

A converted opencast coal mine provides a buffer zone for flooding and habitats for diverse species.

Nature-based Intervention:

The Environment Agency, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Leeds City Council have converted a former opencast coal mine into a 400 hectare wetland nature reserve. This 7.5 million cubic metre capacity flood plain reportedly reduces flood risk to local communities while providing habitat for diverse species including lapwing, curlew, and bitterns.

Overview of context and outcomes:

The floodplain-like protection system is preferable to structural barriers as it reduces flooding of communities overall rather than simply displacing flooding to another area. A long-retired dragline, once the largest in the world helping to extract millions of tonnes of coal from the area, now attracts tourists as it has become a large nestbox, home to nesting kestrels, owls, stock doves, and carrion crows.