Water and Art - Wading in Deeper: November 2015

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Autumn Notes - London and the South

River Thames, Central London 07/11/15

My sketch on the South Bank last March

The weather forecast had been revised for the better since Friday, the rain in the morning / Friday night clearing by early afternoon. Still uncannily mild 17-18^oC in London. A fast ebbing tide beneath Hungerford Bridge as I sat eating my sandwiches, pleasantly surprised to do so in the dry, and minus the chilly Thames wind I’d usually expect at this time of year. The Thames vibe improved as the afternoon went on.

Thames vibe improved with weather. Unlike in the summer, now the huge tourist groups have gone, pleasantly busy instead of oppressive along the South Bank between Hungerford Bridge and Bankside. Children in wellies splashing in puddles. I dread to think what will happen when they start on the Garden Bridge, early next year, carrying on regardless. A piece in the Guardian about the silly, Orwellian restrictions, thirty of them (6th November online).

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge-mobile-phone-signals-tracking-london

I haven't seen anyone flying kites from Thames bridges, but essentially, Big Biz will be watching you to make sure your face fits. Subsequently article about the high cost of it too:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/14/work-on-london-garden-bridge-to-begin-despite-30m-shortfall-private-money

More than anything else, it's the disruption during the construction along what's already probably the busiest stretch of river in England I dread. The noise, cramming, restricted access, generally very oppressive. What effect will this have on the vibrant South Bank - National Theatre, Royal Festival Hall, bars, eateries etc while it's all going on? As the tide ebbed and people began wandering along the shore, I wondered if I ought to get down there again while I still could.

Just as we left Bankside, around 3pm, the sky began clearing. The sun broke through. The colours came out along the Thames. Tide now well out, people wandering along the Thames shore, two brass band quartets playing on the more sandy bits beneath the South Bank. November, but al fresco lattes outside the Royal Festival Hall, with low sun on the South Bank architecture.

Interesting ITV programme about canal trip in SE England, broadcast circa 1^st November

Missed when broadcast, but picked up and recorded by my mother. A journey - as much as possible inland in a 60ft narrowboat - from London to the English Channel via the Thames, Wey Navigation, restored / navigable stretches of the Wey and Arun canal and the lower Arun to Littlehampton. As well as visiting places I know well, it came across as a heart warming tale of two older people enjoying life while they still could, in a boat. Timothy West is an experienced canal hand, in his early 80s. Prunella Scales is now 83 and I understand she has dementia but for much of the way she was pretty lucid and agile physically for her age. Scenery wise, there was more in Surrey / along the Wey than West Sussex. They passed through many long loved places I know, particularly along the Wey. They joined the Wey and Arun canal just south Guildford, near Shalford. Timothy at the tiller, both negotiating the locks. The Wey and Arun Canal is still very patchy, though improved since the 1980s. It’s in water and navigable to narrowboats just south of Shalford, and a short stretch at Loxwood which we visited in 2003. The Wey & Arun Canal Trust are now trying to restore a section a bit further south. A visit to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on the Wey at Guildford, a detour from the water to Abinger Hammer, visiting the house where Prunella Scales was born. There was nothing of the Arun above Arundel, so not clear how they got from Loxwood to Arundel. Because of the strong tidal currents, they did the last stretch in a passenger motorboat with a regular skipper. I recognised the boat as the one which does public trips from Arundel quay, just downstream of the bridge in the summer.

Costing The Earth BBC Radio 4 podcasts - November 2015

50 years of coastal change - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06j1xzd

Featured John Whittow who, aided by geography undergrads invariably trudging through mud / getting soaked, mapped the UK coastline for the National Trust in the mid-1960s. Amid the post-war building boom, worries about the coast becoming urbanised through industrial and property development, including , caravan parks. The issue of caravan parks - views vs more affordable holidays controversial, but particularly along prominent, picturesque stretches of SW England, they could perhaps do more to blend them in, paint them green maybe?

They quoted GM Trevelyan, 1930s historian, on open spaces including the coastline: “ultimate injury” through development. “Happiness and the soul’s health is at stake. Without natural beauty people will perish in the spiritual sense. True for all time, developers please take note for the benefit of everyone as far as possible.

River Quality - focus on River Itchen near Alresford

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06mfs7m

This pretty much confirmed what last year's report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on chalk streams said about the Itchen and chalk streams more generally.

The Environment Agency's claims that river quality (in England and Wales, for Scotland it's SEPA) is now the best it has been for the past twenty years seems to be at odds with the experiences of local river-goers, such as the Salmon & Trout UK along the Itchen near Alresford. Chalk streams throughout southern England have suffered diminishing flows during the past 60 years or so through water abstraction (certainly the Kennet and Salisbury Avon). Some encouraging news from Southern Water about what they have been engineering/ been planning to do around Soton / the lower Itchen to reduce the amount of water taken out of the Itchen and make present levels of abstraction as efficient as possible. They now have plans for a pipeline to divert water from the Test to the Itchen. Southern Water say they would only use it during “droughts as bad as 1976”. There have been at least two other major, prolonged droughts impacting on chalk streams since then (late 1980s- early 1990s), 2011 – early 2012. It also assumes that in such situations the Test would have water to spare, too.

The main emphasis of this programme was on pollution. The situation along the Itchen sounds worse than I'd expect for a prized chalk stream and a protected site. The WWF report says much the same.

During the past 20-30 years, there have been great strides in tackling the big pollution culprits: industrial pollution and large discharges of raw, untreated sewage. In northern England river water quality has improved dramatically since the 1980s. Most notably the Aire, the Mersey and the Tyne which used to be some of Britain's dirtiest rivers. The River Tyne is now said to be the best salmon river in England. The problems now are the cumulative effect of smaller scale sources: particularly of nitrate (N) and phosphate (P) pollution from agricultural run-off, use of fertilisers and smaller scale but significant discharges of inadequately treated sewage, eg from septic tanks. These nutrients promote the growth of algae, especially when the double whammy of abstraction and drought has diminished the flow. This blocks out much of the light, meaning aquatic plants such as the water crowsfoot which should be abundant in chalk streams like the Itchen, die. The decomposing bacteria then starve the water of oxygen, so nothing can thrive, fish stocks included. They also say silt run-off into the Itchen and its tributaries such as the Alre at Alresford after heavy rain can prevent salmon from spawning.

Salmon & Trout UK said the diversity of plant life in the Itchen had diminished - describing it as more or less a lifeless desert. Though the water still looked clear, it was still more turbid than it should be (due to suspended silt / sediment) and pretty much devoid of plant life. Fish stocks have been declining, too. There should be water crowsfoot – the vivid green weed seen waving gently with the current in healthy chalk streams. Used to see plenty of it all around the Winchester area. They didn’t mention this, but now the dominant plant life in chalk streams and clear running waters seems to be the species with the long, straight spindly weeds. I don’t know the name of that, but there was lots of it in the Stour around Canterbury when I was there last year, and also in the Lavant when that’s running. Both are classed by the WWF as chalk streams, as well as the classic ones such as the Test and Itchen. At Canterbury, I overheard a boat tour commentary saying that kind of weed is down to fertiliser use and impedes navigation. It’s a pain to weed out.

The Great Stour, Canterbury, August 2014

Research on the Thames at Wallingford by CEH indicates that, though phosphate levels in the Thames and its tributaries has declined by 90% during the past 20 years, algal growth is still rife. I can vouch for that from what I’ve seen along the north branch of the Wey. That is classed as a chalkstream as well, but I’ve never thought it has looked healthy or attractive through Farnham. The only time I’d say not is when the river is running fairly high (as in spring 2008 and last February). Then, it’s invariably turbid because of the increased suspended sediment in the faster current. CEH’s findings suggest that to make a real difference, phosphate levels would have to be reduced further to a third of their present level. Planting more trees along riverbanks to create dappled light rather than the strong relentless sunhine algae like would help, too. It would also give shade to sun sensitive river ramblers.

In 2000, as part of the EU Water Framework Directive, there was a target to improve water quality so that all Britain’s rivers could be classified as Good. Recall the ratings are Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Bad. I don’t know the quantitative criteria which decides these but they include nitrate and phosphate levels, biological oxygen demand and presumably biodiversity of aquatic flora and fauna. The target date was this year and we’ve missed them by miles. In England, just 17% of rivers are now classed as Good, 43% in Wales, 50% in Scotland. The government will soon publish new “River Basin Management Plans”, intended to improve thins.

What isn't helping is the Environment Agency's diminishing, strained resources. All things outdoor and environmental have taken a particularly big hit during government spending reviews during the 2010s. This means they unable to do as much as they’d need or like when it comes to monitoring and things which might improve water quality, such as working with farmers and landowners to reduce / better manage agricultural run off and improve sewage treatment.

World Wildlife Fund – State of Britain’s Chalk Streams report, published November 2014

http://www.wwf.org.uk/about_wwf/press_centre/?unewsid=7378

This from John Vidal in The Guardian, 2011

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/aug/30/rivers-spin-environment-agency

Even if EA funding was to improve, the combo of population growth and climate change would put extra pressure on rivers through increase demand for water and greater likelihood of drought. Already we seem to be seeing binary / either full-on-full- off rainfall patterns increasingly regularly.

The Scouring of the River Lavant

22^nd November – on our way up to the Trundle, South Downs near Chichester, on Sunday morning, we saw that, not only was the stream still dry, but it also now more closely resembled a flood relief channel or reservoir outlet than a rural downland chalk stream. Last week (18^th November), I’d seen people working here, including a guy in orange hi-vis standing in the streambed. I could tell from the far side of the village green, then it was still dry. They had a digger, though I thought it was all heavy duty gardening, clearing leaves and cutting back trees, rather the stream itself. Through East Lavant, the channel and banks are now completely scoured of anything natural, beyond autumn leaves which have fallen during the past few days.

As noted previously, this is a winterbourne. The water table in the chalk is obviously too low for it to run at the moment. Given what I’ve said elsewhere about autumnal drought, I’m not surprised if recharge is a bit late last year. Hopefully rain during November help.

Recent features in The Guardian etc on Rivers / Water / Weather – UK

Why are river names so repetitive?

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/22/why-river-names-repetitive-avon-don-derwent

Grim Long Read about drought and other pressures on Britain’s rivers, focusing on the Sussex Ouse

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/08/are-we-killing-our-rivers

WWF claim UK government failing to protect rivers from farm pollution

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/27/government-accused-of-failing-to-protect-waterways-from-farm-pollution

Britain 'must abandon Churchillian rhetoric' in face of rising seas

http://gu.com/p/4e59v?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Drive

River Wey, Woodbridge Meadow Guildford

Revisited 20th November, en route to the Farnham area. Woodbridge Meadow is to the north of the town centre and Dapdune Wharf. In recent years, the area has seen a makeover by local tree sculptors. Now a giant buried in the grass, two feet and a hand sticking in the air. Nearer the road, a nose and lips. A couple of troll-like face carvings in growing trees. Recently, too, the adding of a flinty structure with seating and wooden seed sculptures. These are some of my photos.

Figures sillouetted in shadows under railway bridge

Autumn notes from the Severn and Wye

10th - 17th October 2015 - a week in the Wye Valley area near Monmouth. Long time favourite landmarks along the Wye - Symonds Yat and the valley between Tintern and Llandogo revisited. We also went walking in the Brecon Beacons / Black Mountains - the Llanthony Priory area and Pen y Fan. We were very lucky to have settled weather, though after so much brightness on the south coast in September, the cloudier weather and shortening days hit me for the first time this year. My sketches from the week will be on my Water and Art blog shortly. The autumn colours - particularly strong this year - were just beginning, adding colour to the cloudier, mistier days, especially on our first day, at Symonds Yat.

We also visited family in the area. En route to one lot on the Thursday, we stopped at Upton-on-Severn. The Map Shop there has most extensive stock of any map shop outside London (Stanfords). Strolling along the Severn afterwards, we chanced upon a Severn swimmer, accompanied by a few paddle boarders, and a barge laden with bicycles, packs and camping gear bringing up the rear. A tall man with a big dog came across the meadow to the river bank and told us all about it: the swimmer was Kev Brady, swimming the 220 mile length of the Severn source-to-sea, in aid of the Superheroes Foundation. This is the charity he co-founded in Gloucester to raise money to enable children to have treatment abroad which is not available in the UK. Previously, he has canoed solo along the Mississippi River, during the intensely cold winter hitting much of the US 2013 /14.

Link to Kev Brady's Facebook page and blogs from his journey:

https://www.facebook.com/kevbradyadventures/?fref=ts

He started the challenge on 23rd September, at the Source of the Severn, on Plynlimon in the Welsh hills. Strictly the first bit, as far as Welshpool (day 4), was brisk walking, the Severn here being just a fledgling river, not deep enough for swimming. He finished at Severn Beach a month later, in the evening darkness on 23rd October, after passing under the two Severn motorway crossings. By the end he'd raised £18,000 for his charity, smashing his targets which had been progressively revised upwards as the swim progressed. Along the way he had endured bitterly cold water and "river belly", most severely just before he got to Upton. There were concerns too, from the Severn Area Rescue Service and others as to how he'd fare in the Severn estuary, especially the most dangerous stretch, The Noose above Sharpness. I've seen for myself how strong the tidal currents are there. This is why no one had attempted to swim the entire length of the river, with the estuary until now. Thankfully, he hit the estuary during a period of neap tides which would have been moderate. Even so, he had to time his swims carefully according to the tides, so not be dragged back upstream. This was why he had to swim in the dark towards the end.

For most of the way, however, lack of current was more of a problem than too much of a good flow. According to the Environment Agency and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, the flow along the Severn, was Exceptionally Low - red dots on the River Flow maps in their monthly hydrological reports for the UK / England for October. At Bewdley, the mean monthly flow was just under a quarter of the longterm average for October in a record going back to 1921. The Wye (Redbrook) was little better at 29%. The flows subsequently recovered, at least in the short term with rainfall during the first half of November, but I wasn't surprised. Both rivers looked low when we'd seen them. At Tintern (16th October) there were the usual strong tidal currents along the Wye. We'd caught the tide on the turn while we were looking around Stella Books whose shop window looks out onto the Wye at Tintern Parva, views towards the Abbey. Further upriver at Brockweir, another ominous Careful-Where-You-Park sign. The tide was now ebbing and still running fast at the bridge here, but above it towards Llandogo on the opposite bank, it was barely noticeable. When I'd been here in 2004, when the fluvial (pluvial) flow coming downstream was much higher and healthier, the currents here had been very strong. Now it was very languid, the water looking dark, almost inky black in places, the shortening autumn days particularly noticeable in incised valleys such as this one.

Letterpressing at Red Hot Press - done with the Severn especially in mind, at the end of October

The prevailing weather during our week away had been dry "courtesy" of a blocking anticyclone stretching all across northern Europe. The jet stream was splitting in two, with the northern track to the north of the British Isles, and a southern one bringing storms and flash flooding to the normally drier Mediterranean area. During summer autumn the jet stream has moved around. Rainfall around the UK during the summer and autumn has been geographically variable, the south apparently doing better than the Severn basin which according to the EA / rainfall data from the Met. Office, has had below average rainfall for the past twelve months. The predominant weather over the UK and NW Europe has been very very mild. Though we didn't have quite Halloween heatwave we'd had last year, highs in London were still exceeding 15C in London through to the middle of November. In France, the highs were in the low 20s celcius, worthy of September, according to Meteo France. It went on like this until the weather pattern shifted temporarily, allowing cold air to plunge down from the north, bringing an Offensive Hivernale, as Meteo France called it. Here a strong, biting north wind on Saturday 21st November. Even that, though was shortlived, with milder weather returning again during the middle of the following week.

Early, warm, usually dry springs and certainly warm, late invariably dry autumns seem to have become more and more the norm during about the past twenty years. I blame global warming, or rather global heating as I prefer to call it. Global warming sounds too cushy in view of the potentially far reaching impacts global, human induced climate change will / is already having on weather patterns / rainfall, increasing incidence of extreme weather, including flood and drought. Taken together with the projected UK population increase of nearly 10 million in the next 25 years (Office of National Statistics, 29th October) and water demand rising accordingly, the prospects for our rivers is worrying. The Severn is a source of public water supply and already has to be augmented artificially in its middle reaches from groundwater and reservoir discharges during the summer.

The low water levels on the Severn reminded me of another notably dry autumn, in 2003. Then, the Severn reached its lowest October flow at Bewdley since 1947. This year's has probably come close, too. 2003 was also notable for the European heatwave in the summer, with thousands dying in France in August. The UK got off relatively lightly but a serious hydrological deficit built from February onwards. Around the time I saw the low levels along the Severn at Bewdley (October), I had a postcard from folk holidaying in Germany - The Rhine is very low, our cruise is not possible. They told me there had been a riot on board when the holiday reps aboard broke the news. Well, it's happened again. I was shocked to read (The Guardian online app 12th November) that the Rhine has again been running very low, even lower than in 2003 and possibly 1976. Reveling in the Loire ("Severn's Big Sister", as I've noticed quite a few parallels) running so abundantly in May, I switched off to weather news from Europe over the summer, not wanting a flow-by-flow account of falling water levels. As summer in the UK was not unrelentingly hot and dry (August wet again), too, I was more surprised this year. However, on all the weather charts I've seen, the track of the north Atlantic low pressures (guided by the jet stream) has been missing much of continental Europe. Invariably, too, there have been anticyclones in the area which would prevent convectively generated rainfall (ie thunderstorms). It was much hotter there in continental Europe during the summer, and for longer (highs at or near 40C in Paris in north central France in early July). The bad news is that this kind of drought is in line with climate change predictions for northern and central Europe. Rivers like the Rhine, running off the Alps, owe much of their flow to the melting winter snow pack and glaciers. Both of which are diminishing.

Links

Environment Agency - Monthly and Weekly reports on water resources, including river flows, in

England and Wales: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/water-situation-reports-for-england

River and Sea Levels - http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/river-and-sea-levels/

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Monthly Hydrological Summaries

http://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/monthly-hydrological-summary-uk

Flood Warnings

http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood/31618.aspx

Met. Office

Met. Office News

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news

Met Office News blog, with rainfall data