Smarter Water Catchments
In England and Wales, catchment management has historically focussed on one issue at a time. Yet, river catchments often face multiple issues that can be quite complex.
We believe greater benefits can be achieved by addressing multiple challenges at once. This means looking at the environment as a whole system and using natural processes. It also means developing larger opportunities to deliver greater benefits.
The Smarter Water Catchments (SWC) programme follows this partnership approach.
A Smarter Water Catchment is when all key stakeholders near their local river work together constructively. They manage the water environment as one connected system. They aim to understand all the threats to improving river health and work to resolve these challenges.
This way of working was tested in three catchments from 2020 to 2025, with an investment of £9 million.
Smarter Water Catchments 2025-30
We're continuing to support the Chess and Crane catchments between 2025 and 2030. We're also looking to onboard new SWCs between April 2026 and March 2030. This will be through our River Health and Community Fund.
We aim to co-create opportunities that improve the catchment and meet environmental targets. By using a partnership-led, catchment-based approach, our goal is healthier river catchments. Healthier catchments can better support nature and local communities.
The SWC funding focuses on co-creating and collaboration to drive environmental progress. We'll work together to co-design catchment projects and create valuable catchment insights.
Our Smarter Water Catchments initiatives
We’ve trialled SWC in three catchments, working in partnership to deliver the plans.
- River Chess Smarter Water Catchment Plan
- River Crane Smarter Water Catchment Plan
- River Evenlode Smarter Water Catchment Plan
- Smarter Water Catchments - our approach (2018)
Updates on our plans
