Only two more weeks to submit your abstract! 

The Environment Agency and the River Restoration Centre have launched a prize to highlight the importance of a catchment based approach to river restoration and protection.

The England River Prize will be judged by a panel of expertsand will be presented in 2014 at the RRC annual conference to be held in Sheffield on the 7th May. The winner will be supported to apply for the IRF European Riverprize in 2015.

Applications close on...

Digging up trees and digging more drains isn't preventing floods.

In his latest Guardian article, George Monbiot investigates a 'major research programme, which produced the following astonishing results: water sinks into the soil under trees at 67 times the rate at which it sinks into the soil under grass. The roots of the trees provide channels down which the water flows, deep into the ground. The soil there becomes a sponge, a reservoir which sucks up water and then releases it slowly.'

REstoring rivers FOR effective catchment Management (REFORM) is a 4-yr large integrated research project, involving 25 partners (including the Environment Agency) from 14 countries. The overall aim of REFORM is to provide a framework for improving the success of hydromorphological restoration measures to reach, in a cost-effective manner, target ecological status or potential of rivers as required by the EU Water Framework Directive.

RESTORE's Rivers by Design guide to river restoration for land-use professionals has had a few minor changes, including an update to the table showing the benefits of river restoration in the planning and development process.

The guide shows the crucial role planners, architects and developers the crucial role they can play in river restoratation. The document explains the contexty and need for river restoration and provides guidance on planing projects to make sure sustainable development is achieved.