Our investigation covers parts of the Worcestershire Middle Severn Water Framework Directive Management Catchment. A large and diverse area that includes the Salwarpe River, Severn River Worcestershire, Shropshire West, Stour River and its tributaries, Stour Upper Worcestershire Rivers and Lakes, Telford South, and the Worfe Operational Catchments.

Geographically, this catchment stretches from southern Telford through Shropshire and into Worcestershire. It takes in key towns such as Bridgnorth, Kidderminster, Stourport, Bromsgrove and Droitwich, as well as the regional hub of Worcester. The landscape is highly varied, ranging from upland fringe and mixed farming areas to more intensively managed agricultural land, horticulture, orchards, and densely populated urban environments. The area also features the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, and several smaller canal arms, all maintained by the Canal & River Trust.

Environmental sensitivity is a defining characteristic of this catchment. It is home to important Groundwater Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems, including the Wyre Forest SSSI and Feckenham Forest SSSI. The River Severn runs north to south through the catchment, providing opportunities for navigation, fishing, canoeing, paddleboarding and wild swimming, while supporting extensive ecological networks. Despite its environmental value, the area faces ongoing challenges related to water quality, land‑use pressures, ecological decline and variable river flows.

For our Environmental Destination (ED) programme, we are focusing on a specific “area of interest” within the catchment, relevant to our abstractions. Our focus is those surface water bodies where we actively abstract water or where our groundwater abstraction impacts on flow to surface waterbodies. This limits the investigation to 29 out of the 44 SWBs across the extent of the management catchment.