Natural Flood Management in Wales: A Guide

Flooding is one of the most visible climate risks in Wales and beyond. Natural Flood Management, often shortened to NFM, is a practical way to reduce that risk by restoring how water naturally moves through a landscape.

It complements, not replaces, traditional hard defences like walls and culverts. Most importantly, it can deliver wider wins for wildlife, water quality, farms, and communities.

Below is a plain language guide to what NFM is, how it works, what the evidence says, and how communities in Wales can get involved.

Natural Flood Management means protecting, restoring, or mimicking natural features so that rainwater is held back higher in the catchment, soaks into the ground, and moves more slowly into rivers. Typical measures include planting trees and hedgerows, creating or reconnecting wetlands and floodplains, putting large woody material back into streams to form leaky barriers, improving soil health, and rewiggling straightened rivers so they store more water safely. These actions slow the flow, shave the top off flood peaks, and can reduce the depth and speed of floodwaters downstream.

In Wales, NFM is now a core part of policy. The Welsh Government’s flood and coastal strategy encourages more natural schemes and better information so communities can make informed decisions. Funding guidance also now requires that NFM is considered in all flood risk business cases.

There is a strong and growing evidence base that NFM can reduce flood risk when the right measures are placed in the right parts of a catchment.

• Catchment studies in Wales: The Pontbren project in mid Wales showed that tree belts and shelterbelts on upland farms improved soils, increased infiltration, and reduced surface runoff compared with grazed grassland. This is one reason strategic tree planting is so often recommended upstream of flood-prone communities.
• Independent reviews: The Environment Agency’s updated Working with Natural Processes evidence directory summarises hundreds of studies and concludes that NFM can reduce peak flows, especially for small to medium flood events, while delivering many co-benefits. Natural Resources Wales highlights this update in its latest annual reporting.
• Well known case studies in England: Projects like Slowing the Flow at Pickering used leaky barriers, new woodlands, and moorland restoration to hold back water and have become a model many communities look to when exploring NFM.

The takeaway is simple: NFM works best as a network of measures spread across the catchment, designed to complement existing defences and emergency response plans.

Beyond flood risk reduction, well designed NFM brings everyday wins:

• Amenity and access: Paths, boardwalks, and community wetlands can turn previously wet corners into valued local nature spots.
• Better water quality: Wetlands, buffer strips, and floodplains trap sediment and nutrients before they reach rivers.
• Wildlife and habitats: Reconnected floodplains, new hedgerows, and native woodlands create shelter and food for birds, insects, fish, and mammals.
• Soil health and farm resilience: Healthier soils absorb more water, reducing erosion and helping crops during dry spells. Pontbren showed measurable improvements tied to tree planting and improved grazing management.
• Carbon and climate benefits: Woodlands, wetlands, and peat restoration lock up carbon while providing shade and cooler water for fish during heatwaves.
• Keeping soils and nutrients on the land: By reducing surface flows and erosion, farmers keep one of their most valuable assets, soil, from being lost downstream.

Here are common measures you might see in Welsh catchments, from headwaters to towns:

• Small ponds and scrapes that temporarily store rainfall
• Moorland restoration to re-wet peat and slow overland flow
• Contour-aligned tree belts and hedgerows that intercept runoff
• Log features that create miniature step-pools in streams
  

Evidence shows these features slow and store water close to where rain falls.

• Riparian buffers and new woodlands that stabilise banks and shade streams
• Regenerative soil practices that increases organic matter and infiltration
• Field corner wetlands and offline ponds fed by grips and ditches

Wales has practical examples of these measures improving infiltration and reducing peak flows at farm scale.

• Reconnecting rivers to floodplains so high flows spill safely into meadows
• Making space for water in parks and playing fields that can store stormwater
• Debris dams or flow deflectors in upstream parks that take the sting out of flashy flows

These measures can lower flood peaks and increase warning time downstream.

If you are a community group, farmer, or landowner, these documents are useful starting points when exploring support.

• National direction: The National Strategy for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management sets the overall approach, including a focus on nature-based solutions and wide wellbeing benefits.
• Delivery and plans: Natural Resources Wales works with local authorities through Flood Risk Management Plans for 2023 to 2029. These plans signpost where measures like NFM may be most effective.
• Funding: The Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Programme sets out how capital funding is allocated, and Welsh Government guidance now explicitly supports NFM in business cases, while the NFM accelerator fund and Sustainable Farming Scheme are now providing additional funding mechanisms to support uptake of NFM across Wales.

• Map opportunities together: Walk the catchment with your local authority, NRW, a Rivers Trust, or a Wildlife Trust to spot places for small ponds, tree belts, or floodplain reconnection. The UK evidence directory and NRW’s data portals are helpful references.
• Start small, think network: Many low cost features add up. A cluster of farm ponds, hedgerow gaps replanted, and a few leaky barriers in a side stream can meaningfully slow flows.
• Plan for co-benefits: Choose measures that also help with shade for livestock, pollinators, or footpaths for local residents. This builds long term support.
• Link to funding windows: Keep an eye on Flood and Costal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) funding rounds and local grants that support tree planting, peat and wetland restoration, or community green space.

In short:  Natural Flood Management is about working with the land and water we already have. The science shows that distributed, nature-based measures can make a real difference to frequent flood events, while improving farms, wildlife, and places to live.

In Wales, policy and funding are aligned to support this approach, and community partnerships are the best way to put it into practice.