The philosophy behind the proactive ... approach is to intervene in the environment
to improve water quality, reduce flood risk and diffuse pollution, recycle waste and introduce
renewable energy generation into farming. The proactive ... approach thus includes:
proactive ... Farm Integrated Runoff Management
proactive ... diffuse pollution management
proactive ... flood management at source
proactive ... waste recycling on farms
proactive ... renewable energy
proactive ... decision support tools
proactive ... demonstration sites
proactive ... modelling
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BBC films and home made films of our projects are available on
Youtube.com/Proactivefarms
Farm Integrated Runoff Management Plans
Reduction of diffuse pollution from farms and flood storage at source, can be integrated by
introducing features such as temporary storage ponds, buffer strips and
phosphorus stripping zones in the landscape. We are working in partnership with the EA and
local Catchment Sensitive Farming Officers to make this concept practical and workable on UK farms.
Demonstration sites are currently under
development to prove the effectiveness of such features on working farms.
Decision Support Matrices are used together with
FIRM plans
to communicate the results of research to farmers and land use managers/planners,
for example the
Nutrient Export Risk Matrix (NERM).
Diffuse Pollution Management
Reduction of diffuse pollution from farms can be achieved by
introducing features such as temporary storage ponds, buffer strips and
phosphorus stripping zones in the landscape.
Demonstration sites are currently under
development to prove the effectiveness of such features on working farms.
Decision Support Matrices have been developed
to communicate the results of research to farmers and land use managers/planners,
in particular the
Nutrient Export Risk Matrix (NERM).
Flood Management
The risk of flooding at all scales can be reduced by
introducing features such as temporary storage ponds, bunds and buffer strips at
the field scale on farms. Such features are currently being tested at a
number of Demonstration Sites. The
Floods and Agriculture Risk Matrix (FARM)
is a Decision Support Matrix designed to help assess the risk of flooding
from farm land and to explore options for reducing flood risk.
Waste Recycling
All the mitigation features created at the farm are either made from recycled material
or are designed to trap waste that can be put back to land.
Examples of waste include
the reuse of ochre, which is used to trap phosphorus that is lost
from the land. Phoshorus rich ochre can be put back to land as a fertiliser
econoplast is a recycled plastic material (i.e. made from those plastics that
cannot usually be recycled). It can be used for draining land and for constructing
flow control barriers.
willow, sedge and reused oak have all been sourced locally and are used to construct
the wetlands.
Examples of trapping waste include
sediment traps such as ponds and the channel sedimentation zones at Nafferton Farm.
phosphorus traps either attached to sediment or locked up by the ochre.
wetlands lower N loss and capture carbon.
Renewable Energy
Whitfield Hall Village Community Energy Scheme
In partnership with the local community we have set up a combined energy system that uses
micro-hydro power and a ground source heat pump to supply heating and electricity to the
community hall ... as seen on TV
Upper Eden micro-hydro power scheme
A thirty metre head and four hundred metres of pipe generate a constant 1.25 KW of power
that is connected to the grid. Most of the time the electricity metre is running backwards.
as seen on TV. See also
The Great Debate:
Energy Generation in the New Millennium
Sykeside Farm geo-energy scheme
This includes an 8KW geo-thermal heat pump running from the aquifer and an 8KW
ground source heat pump. Together they provide heating for new holiday homes.
Micro-wind turbine and Photo-voltaic array at Nafferton Farm
A wind turbine complemented by a photo voltaic cell array are used to provide energy
to the green lab at Nafferton Farm.
These two energy sources can run the lab for long period, and only occasionally
has the equipment failed due to energy needs. The role of energy/ carbon on farms
is relevant and often we have to demonstrate the technologies and cost to farmers
in order to persuade them that it might a long term benefit to se such technologies.
When the sun is shining (which is not always in Northumberland) we can create 1- 1.5 KW.
When the wind is blowing (which is most of the time) we can create 2KW of power.
More ...
Decision Support Tools
Decision support tools developed to date to support the proactive ...
approach include visualisation tools such as
TopManage, models such as TOPCAT,
and the Decision Support Matrix (DSM).
Demonstration Sites
A range of proactive interventions such as small scale renewable energy
generation, temporary storage of water and phosphorus stripping are currently
being tested in the field on working farms to demonstrate the effectiveness of the
proactive ... approach. The principle sites at present are
Nafferton Farm near Newcastle upon Tyne and
Bollington Hall Farm near Stansted.
More ...
Modelling
A number of models have been used to underpin the proactive ...
approach including TOPCAT and
TopManage.
Proactive ... People
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