Introduction

Purpose

This plan aims to maintain and improve the ecological status of the rivers, lochs, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwater areas in the north-east of Scotland. It is a local action plan which supplements the River basin management plan for the Scotland river basin district, and will help to deliver Water Framework Directive requirements. It focuses on local actions for the north-east of Scotland and highlights the opportunities for partnership working to ensure that we all benefit from improvements to the water environment.

What area does this plan cover?

The north-east Scotland advisory group area covers all of the land that drains into the rivers Spey, Deveron, Ugie, Ythan, Don and Dee, plus wetlands, lochs, estuaries and adjacent coastal waters. The plan also considers groundwater, which lies beneath the land surface and is an important source of drinking water.

The area (shown on Map 1) includes the agricultural areas of Buchan, much of the Cairngorms National Park, and major settlements such as Aberdeen, Peterhead, Inverurie and Fraserburgh.

A high quality water environment is vitally important for many of the iconic industries and landscapes of north-east Scotland. These include the internationally famous Speyside distilling industry, renowned salmon fishing destinations such as the Dee, Spey and Deveron, and a tourism industry based on mountains and high quality bathing beaches. The area is also internationally important for species including freshwater pearl mussels, salmon, otters and a range of upland and wading birds.

The plan for the north-east needs to consider these and other important social and economic uses linked to the water environment. These include agriculture, commercial forestry, sporting estates, hydro-power schemes and major commercial ports for the offshore energy and fishing industries.

How to use the north-east area management plan

This plan is for the North-east Area Advisory Group and

  • anyone who manages or uses the water environment;
  • anyone who manages activities on land that interacts with the water environment;
  • anyone who wants to know more about how our water environment is being protected.

This plan is to co-ordinate the delivery of the river basin management plan for the Scotland river basin district within the north-east advisory group area. You may find it helpful to see how the aims and objectives of this area management plan will contribute to what we are trying to achieve on a larger, national scale: the Scotland river basin district plan also includes a number of chapters that explain the different parts of the river basin planning process. Detailed information for individual water bodies (whether they are part of the coast, groundwater, rivers, lochs or estuaries) is held in the web-based interactive map available on the SEPA website.

Map 1: North-east Scotland Advisory Group Area (showing main catchments)

Map 1: North-east Scotland Advisory Group Area (showing main catchments) (click for larger image)

This plan has three key components:

  1. Area management plan summary (this document) is an overview of the north-east advisory group area including classification, objectives, key measures and an outline of the work plan for the North-east Area Advisory Group for the next year.
  2. Catchment profiles will provide information on classification, pressures, measures and objectives for each catchment. Catchment profiles will be produced between May and November 2010 and will be developed and kept as live documents during this first river basin planning cycle.
  3. Action plan with information about how the Area Advisory Group will work together to deliver the area plan, and a record of where new actions are being developed. This will also be kept as a live document during the first river basin planning cycle.

This plan has been produced in partnership with the organisations that are part of the North-east Area Advisory Group. This group is responsible for sharing the information contained in the plan with a wider range of stakeholders, to encourage them to implement the actions required in the north-east advisory group area. SEPA’s role in the development of the plan has been to provide information, particularly with regard to classification, and to co-ordinate information and input from others. In this document ‘we’ refers to all those involved in the production of this report – not just SEPA.

A wider forum has also been established. The forum is open to the public and offers an opportunity for a wider group of stakeholders to be involved in planning developments. There have been a small number of forum events in north-east Scotland, and we hope that this engagement approach can be developed and improved in the future.