Natural Flood Management (NFM) (e.g. restoring watercourses, riparian tree planting, washland and wetland creation) is a core component of flood risk management strategies in Scotland. However little is known of its potential impact on the farming and land management communities, individual farm businesses, or the socioeconomic impacts and perceptions of its potential wide-spread introduction. To support policy implementation, information is required on land managers’ willingness to implement NFM, and to be able to relate willingness to generic farm characteristics (farming systems, land use types, geographical location), different types and locations of NFM measures, and to farm economics.
The main objectives of the project are to undertake:
- A large scale survey of farmers’ attitudes to NFM and to the use of potential policy instruments to promote its uptake and delivery; and
- Farm-scale economic analyses of the impact of NFM measures under different scenarios.