PO14 - Prevention of biodiversity loss

Filter strips are uniformly graded, gently sloping, vegetated strips of land that provide opportunities for slow conveyance and (commonly) infiltration. They are designed to accept runoff as overland sheet flow from upstream development and often lie between a hard-surfaced area and a receiving stream, surface water collection, treatment or disposal system. 

Filter strips are generally planted with grass or other dense vegetation...

Dams and other transversal barriers are obstacles crossing the river section and causing discontinuities for sediment and fauna. Removing them consists in destroying all the obstacles, restoring the slope and the longitudinal profile of the river, therefore allowing re-establishment of fluvial dynamics, as well as sedimentary and ecological...

Swales are broad, shallow, linear vegetated channels which can store or convey surface water (reducing the rate and volume of runoff) and remove pollutants. They can be used as conveyance features to pass the runoff to the next stage of the SuDS treatment train and can be designed to promote infiltration where soil and groundwater conditions...

Streambed (or riverbed) represents the bottom of the river, including each bank. In the past, riverbeds have been artificially modified with concrete or big boulders, altering flows and reducing habitat for wildlife and vegetation diversity. The changes were aimed at preventing flood or supporting changes of agricultural practices for example. This has led to more...

Riverbanks hold a key position in the functionality of floodplains as they constitute the gradual transition between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, due to technical constructions, the majority of riverbanks in temperate regions are far from their ecological potential.

Green roofs are multi-layered systems that cover the roof of a building with vegetation and/or green landscaping over a drainage layer. There are two types of green roof: 

• Extensive green roofs cover...

According to the Convention on Wetlands (1971), a wetland is an area of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres. 

Wetlands play a crucial role in regulating the global climate and are natural biofilters for pollutant removal, nutrient...

Strip cropping is a farming method used when a slope is too steep or too long, or otherwise, when one does not have an alternative method of preventing soil erosion. It alternates strips of closely sown crops which cover fully the soil when growing such as hay, wheat, or other small grains with strips of row crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton, or sugar beets. This technique helps to stop soil...

Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is an agricultural system which confines all machinery loads to the least possible area of permanent traffic lanes. Current farming systems allow machines  to randomly traverses the field, compacting around 75% of the area within one season and at least the whole area by the second season. Soils don’t recover quickly, taking as much as a few years. A proper CTF system on the other hand can reduce...

Traditional terraces consist of nearly level platforms built along contour lines of slopes, mostly sustained by stone walls, used for farming on hilly terrain. By reducing the effective slope of land, terracing can reduce erosion and surface run-off by slowing rainwater to a non-erosive velocity. This also increases the degree if...