Water in Eastern England is recognised to be a precious resource for our communities, agriculture, industry, our regional economy and the natural environment.
With a growing population, thriving economic sectors, climate change and the increased importance of environmental protection, there is a need to ensure a pathway to sustainable abstraction for the region.
To define and safeguard water needs and ensure we meet future demands, environmental destination provides an outline of the long-term ambition. Introduced through the Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources, this long-term strategy informs where and by how much changes might be needed to ensure a resilient water-dependent environment
Environmental destination definition
Environmental destination quantifies the predicted changes needed in current and future abstraction to meet environmental requirements.
“The environmental destination for water resources identifies where and by how much, water abstraction needs to change to achieve and maintain a healthy water environment, both now and in the future” defines the Environment Agency.
The environmental destination does not outline the pace or ways in which the outcomes will be achieved. WRE, working with members and stakeholders through the regional planning process are looking to develop these options.
The Environment Agency have published their principles for environmental destination, which look to understand the long-term environmental requirements for water resources, to account for a changing climate, to plan for the full range of environmental requirements, using the best available evidence and considering local priorities to inform the pace of delivery. To learn more about these principles, please click here.
Environmental requirements
Environmental destination looks ahead to legislative and Government commitments that aim to protect our water habitats, both now and in the future.
The environmental destination scenarios bring together a range of targets and legal requirements, for example:
- Water Framework Directive (WFD) Regulations – aims to prevent deterioration and achieve good status in all waterbodies by 2050.
Habitats Directive Regulations – outlines measures for ecological improvements for Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas. - Environment Act – establishes legally binding targets for the water environment and includes measures to enable sustainable abstraction. These, along with a range of wider legislative and policy commitments (e.g. chalk stream), form the basis of the environmental destination calculations.
- The Environment Agency have taken a range of predicted climate change scenarios for 2050 and 2080 and analysed these to look at the effect on our water environment. For example, the effect of drought river flows in the summer or an increased pattern of flooding in the winter. Using these climate change predictions will allow for abstractors and all sectors to plan into the future.
For detailed background information about how the Environment Agency have used environmental flow targets to identify where changes to abstraction may be required, have estimated future natural flows, used the planning scenarios and growth assumptions and provided the results on a regional basis, please refer to the Environmental Destination Technical Report in Appendix C of the National Framework for Water Resources.
Environmental destination ambition
The ambition of environmental destination is to achieve environmental flows that allow for the restoration of degraded freshwater ecosystems and a resilient water environment in the future. The aim is to achieve this whilst allowing abstractors and water users to have access to water for businesses and our communities.
Using a series of scenarios, environmental destination defines the outcome of legislative, policy and government commitments to achieve an improvement in the current abstraction pressures and future requirements, for example from climate change.
It also calculates ‘the gap’ to meet these long-term outcomes and how much abstraction might need to change for rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries across the East to enable environmentally sustainable abstraction.
The scenarios used by the Environment Agency are outlined in the table below:
Water resource planning
To safeguard a sustainable supply of water, Water Resources East is committed to working with abstractors, stakeholders, businesses and organisations across the region to plan, outline and implement options to meet the ambitions of environmental destination.
The first step in this process was the development of the WRE Regional Plan, published in 2023, which recommended major investment in measures that reduce demand, meet current and future demand and introduce new infrastructure options over the next 25 years.
This 2023 Regional Plan outlined a need of 311 – 897Ml/d of water to be returned to the environment by 2050 to support environmental outcomes in the region. WRE agreed with the regulators to plan for a resilient environment. However, the long-term WRE view was that the preferred environmental outcome met all levels of environmental protection.
This information was then used to inform each of the water companies individual Water Resources Management Plans (WRMP24) and local sector planning, for example strategic planning for the energy sector or agricultural sector with Water Abstractor Groups.
Environmental destination investigations and engagement
Through the running of the scenarios and discussions to-date, it was recognised that further investigations are required to provide further detail behind these scenarios. This will help to better understand future drivers and ecological requirements and provide more certainty to the scenarios, to enable greater multi-sector planning of future resources.
Water companies in the region are also supporting these investigations through their Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) work.
These investigations and engagement will be carried out with water users and stakeholders across the region.
Environment Agency data
To assist with understanding of the current and future picture of abstraction by sector, the Environment Agency have published a summary for each CAMS management catchment, for example the Cam and Ely Ouse catchment. This looks at predicted abstraction reductions required to meet current and future needs, split by sector:
Modelled abstraction reduction data has also been provided at a waterbody level, looking at current and future risks. This data is available to download:
Both datasets provide an indication of the needs in the catchment to assist with planning.
Technical investigations
Detailed analysis has been commissioned by WRE to better understand and inform the abstraction changes required to meet environmental enhancements.
These Early Start Investigations, are being carried out by WSP, APEM and HR Wallingford on behalf of WRE and are based on the first stages of the UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) Environmental Destination Framework.
The Framework summary and final report can be found on the UKWIR website.
These investigations seek to do a number of activities including those outlined below:
Stage 1: Understand relationships
- Collate climate change flow analysis for WRE region and review of the Environment Agency groundwater modelled 12 climate chang scenarios within pilot catchments (Cam and Ely Ouse and East Suffolk)
- Characterise abstraction pressure (match freshwater macroinvertebrate sites to regional groundwater models)
- Summarise current ecological status
- Assess the options for characterising water quality and morphology pressures
- Develop a typology system for pooled hydro-ecological modelling
- Review understanding of the contribution that abstraction makes to observed impacts
- Use groundwater and river flow model data to assess non-compliance within water bodies
- Calculate chalk headwater abstraction pressures
- Prioritise water bodies influenced by abstraction (river waterbodies, wetlands and estuaries)
- Review the understanding of the contribution that abstraction makes to observed impacts
Stage 2: Project forwards
- Collate eFLaG flow analysis for WRE region and review of the NEAC groundwater modelled 12 eFLaG climate scenarios within pilot catchments (Cam and Ely Ouse and East Suffolk)
- Review available hydrological and water resource models
Stage 3: Prioritise actions - Complete an initial prioritisation of water bodies, outline opportunities for quick wins and future actions
Stage 3: Prioritise actions
- Complete an initial prioritisation of water bodies, outline opportunities for quick wins and future actions
A detailed analysis of the project activities can be found below:
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Catchment characterisation
Wider work has also been completed to characterise the WRE catchments across the region, which will assist with understanding and prioritisation of activities. This report is available here. This document details a GIS-based approach for characterising and prioritising fluvial catchments and estuaries in the WRE region, focusing on sustainability, sensitive features, and water quality. Stakeholder opinions and further investigations will be crucial in refining the prioritisation, and further detailed analysis will be completed as more data becomes available.
Nature based solutions
WRE are also trialling the opportunity to improve water resources and the water environment through the use of nature based solutions. More information on the trials underway in the Cam and Wensum catchments are available here. WRE are also undertaking a regional scale study to identify opportunities for improving water resources through NbS. More information on this is available here.
Catchment engagement
To refine understanding, pressures, priorities and opportunities, WRE will be working with local stakeholders in catchments across the region to better understand water use and future plans in local areas.
WRE, working with stakeholders, will be able to share the current understanding and knowledge of environmental destination requirements and outcomes for rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries across the region. Local and regional water users and organisations will also be able to feed into the current understanding and evidence base with information to create a robust picture of the current and future pressures, under a range of different scenarios.
WRE will then be pleased to work with abstractors, businesses, communities and wider stakeholders to develop a plan with options that will enable meeting the environmental destination outcome.
WRE is working to pilot this activity through summer 2025, with a planned series of workshops across the region from October 2025 – March 2026.
Environmental Destination Timeline
This diagram shows the outline timeline for Environmental Destination in the Water Resources East region.
Getting involved
Would you like to get involved? If so, we would welcome you getting in touch.
Perhaps you have an idea to store water or use water more efficiently? Do you know of future growth plans in your business or area that are likely to require more water? Do you have a water-dependent business or work in a catchment in the East? Are you involved in the ecology of your local river and are interested in improvements? Would you be interested in co-hosting a catchment planning workshop?
Please contact: Teresa Meadows, WRE Stakeholder Lead
07701 213767
Key links
National Framework for Water Resources 2025
