Here at CSX, we are delighted to have in-house environmental professionals that are qualified to conduct BNG MoRPh River Condition Assessments. This type of assessment being important when water courses are present or within 10 metres in sites involved in Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) projects.
The MoPRH river condition assessment is a two-stage process, broken down into a field survey and a river type survey.
Field survey
The MoRPh field survey involves the assessors visiting the site, and is used to characterise and record the physical structure of an area of river and its margins. This is achieved by evaluating over 30 condition indicators across five adjacent sites downstream from a reference point within the river. This is known as MoRPh5. This data is then entered into the MoRPH cartographer app and produces a preliminary condition score.
River Type survey
Back in the office a desk-based survey is then carried out to identify the hydro-geomorphological river type. This is achieved by identifying and assessing a rivers reach through factors such as sinuosity and valley gradient. Sinuosity being the degree of meandering of a riverbed, an indices calculated as the length along the river divided by the straight-line distance along the river valley.
The river type is then combined with the preliminary condition score to produce a final condition classification. Theses condition classifications are as follows:
Poor, Fairly poor, Moderate, Fairly good, Good
The final stage of the process for BNG purposes is to then input the final condition class into Defra’s biodiversity metric to finalise a watercourse baseline value.
Following a baseline assessment this accreditation also aids to mould potential enhancement strategies to create an uplift in watercourse units. For example, a watercourse with a final condition class of poor can have strategies implemented to improve the condition to good. Ensuring that for BNG MoRPH river condition assessments can be a vital element of restoring watercourses as well as vegetation habitats.