The Warwickshire Avon management catchment stretches from the river’s source east of Rugby to where it meets the River Severn near Tewkesbury. The area is mainly rural, with arable farming, livestock grazing, horticulture and market gardening around Evesham. Towns including Coventry, Redditch, Rugby, Stratford‑upon‑Avon, Tewkesbury and Warwick add important cultural and economic value to the area. The river and its surroundings support a wide range of protected habitats and species.

Water resources play a significant strategic and environmental role within the catchment. The River Avon supplies Draycote Reservoir, and the region’s aquifers provide an important source of drinking water. Water is also abstracted for agriculture, industry and other uses. The catchment contains numerous surface waterbodies and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), showing its rich environmental importance. Rivers, wetlands and riverbanks also offer recreational space and support local wellbeing.

For our Environmental Destination (ED) programme, we are focusing on a specific “area of interest” within the catchment, relevant to water company abstractions. Our focus is those surface water bodies where the public water supply companies actively abstract water or where their groundwater abstraction impacts on flow to surface waterbodies. The area of interest includes the waterbodies which overlie the Permo-Triassic sandstone, coal measures and limestone groundwater bodies. It also includes the waterbodies surrounding the River Avon.

Please note the correct WFD management catchment name for this catchment is ‘Avon Warwickshire’, we are referring to it as the Warwickshire Avon as this is how it is commonly referred to and this is the name used for the catchment by the Environment Agency.