Introduction to the Tay area management plan

Purpose

The purpose of this management plan is to maintain and improve the quality of the rivers, lochs, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwaters in the area (shown on Map 1). It will supplement the river basin management plan for Scotland river basin district, and will help to deliver Water Framework Directive requirements. The river basin planning process has to link with, and reflect the requirements of, other plans and processes – including flood management and climate change. The Tay area management plan focuses on local actions and highlights the opportunities for partnership working to ensure that we all benefit from improvements to the water environment.

Delivering improvements will require actions from many partners. The Area Advisory Group will ensure the appropriate networks and stakeholders are involved in this process. The group will also oversee the development of new actions and monitor progress. How this will work is outlined in the ‘putting the plan into action’ section.

The work of the Tay Area Advisory Group can be found on SEPA’s website.

The plan has been produced in partnership with members of the Tay Area Advisory Group. The group expect river basin planning to maintain the water quality of the area and improve the natural function of water habitats, as well as encouraging more native plants and animals to live in natural habitats along water edges. This plan will run from 2009–2015, when it will be reviewed, and the next six year cycle of planning will then begin.

Ecological status is divided into five classes – high, good, moderate, poor and bad – from those water bodies in a near natural condition, to those whose ecological quality been severely damaged. Water bodies which have been significantly altered for human uses (eg for hydropower generation) are known as heavily modified. These are classified in the same manner as the others, although it is important to note that this refers to their ecological potential, rather than their current status, and is a measure of the extent to which their ecological quality has been maximised, given the limits imposed by the physical modifications. The same assessment also applies to entirely artificial water bodies such as canals.

In 2008, 170 (48%) water bodies in the Tay Area Advisory Group area were classified as being at good or high ecological status. This plan aims to prevent deterioration in all water bodies and secure continuous improvement in the ecological status of water bodies that are currently less than good. The improvement targets, up to 2027, are set out in Table 2.

Table 2: Overview of planned improvements in the Tay advisory group area, 2008–2027

 

2008

2015

2021

2027

Number and % of surface water bodies at good or high ecological status/potential

153

50%

172

56%

194

63%

295

95%

Number and % of groundwaters at good status

17

37%

34

74%

37

80%

43

93%

Number and % of all water bodies at good or high ecological status/potential

170

48%

206

58%

231

65%

338

95%

What area does this plan cover?

The Tay area (shown on Map 1) covers an area of approximately 9,000km2, with a diverse landscape. It stretches from the Montrose Basin in the east, to Rannoch Moor in the west; from the Grampians in the north, to lowland Perthshire and Fife in the south. It contains notable areas of interest, including the eastern expanses of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, the south-eastern extremes of the Cairngorms National Park, and the length of Britain’s largest flowing river, the Tay.

The classification process assesses the current condition of all water bodies over a certain size (rivers with a catchment area of more than 10km2 and lochs which have a surface area greater than 0.5 km2) and all estuaries and coastal water bodies regardless of size. These are referred to as baseline water bodies. River and lochs which are below the baseline are not classified, although their improvement is still encouraged. Actions that partners are taking to protect or improve any aspect of the water environment are of interest to the Area Advisory Group

The catchments in the Tay area are:

Tay

River North Esk

Earn Coastal

Eden

North Fife Coastal

Kincardine and Angus Coastal

River Earn

Perth Coastal

Dundee Coastal

Dighty

River South Esk

Lunan


 Map 1: Tay advisory group area (showing main river catchments)

Map 1: Tay advisory group area (showing main river catchments) (click for larger image)

How to use the Tay area management plan

This plan is for the Tay 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 Scotland river basin district within the Tay area. You may find it helpful to see how the aims and objectives of this plan will contribute to what we are trying to achieve on a larger, national scale. The river basin management plan for Scotland river basin district also includes a number of chapters that explain the different parts of the river basin planning process.

This plan has three key components which are all available on the SEPA website:

  1. Area management plan summary (this document) is an overview of the Tay catchment area – including classification, objectives, key measures and an outline of the work plan for the advisory group for the next year.
  2. Catchment profiles provide information on classification, pressures, measures and objectives for each catchment. Catchment profiles will be produced during 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 advisory group will work together to deliver the district plan and a record of where new actions are being developed. This will also be kept relevant as a live document during the first river basin planning cycle.

The environmental quality and natural characteristics of surface waters and groundwater vary widely. To reflect this variation SEPA has subdivided the water environment into water bodies. 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.

The organisations that are part of the Tay Area Advisory Group helped to draft this plan. 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 where required in the Tay 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. This forum is open to the public and provides an opportunity for a wider group of stakeholders to be involved in river basin planning developments. There have been a number of forum events in Tay (in partnership with Tay Estuary Forum), and we hope that this engagement approach can be developed and improved in the future.