Scoping the options for Catchment Management for Northern Ireland Water

The Challenge

Diffuse water pollution and insensitive land management can pollute surface and ground water supplies with nutrients, pesticides and microbial pathogens, and increase colour, turbidity and suspended solids in abstracted water. For Northern Ireland Water, this raises treatment capital and operating costs and the quantity of effluent and waste produced, as well as its carbon footprint. 

Where these risks have been identified in drinking water catchments, Northern Ireland Water wanted to scope the potential for catchment management schemes to improve raw water quality and quantity and reduce the risk of future deterioration due to catchment pressures.

The Solution

Working in partnership with RPS Group, WRc was commissioned by Norther Ireland Water to strategically lead investigations and produce catchment reports for multiple drinking water catchments, scoping the potential for interventions to improve raw water quality. WRc guided the identification of ecosystem goods and services and the analysis of raw water quality data in each of the catchments, conducting trend analysis and statistical modelling 10 years into the future to predict future trends in colour.