The Festival of Natural Flood Management (NFM) is a free virtual conference running throughout May 2025, offering 2-3 webinars per week.
These sessions cover NFM approaches, delivery, research, and funding opportunities at local, regional, and national levels.
NFM uses natural processes to mitigate flood risks by restoring catchments, rivers, floodplains, and coasts. Techniques include tree planting, reconnecting floodplains, leaky barriers, ecosystem restoration, and improved soil management. It enhances biodiversity, water quality, carbon capture, and community engagement, complementing traditional flood management strategies.
Organised by the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) NFM Working Group, the festival features experts and stakeholders sharing insights, lessons learned, and case studies to promote mainstreaming NFM approaches. Collaborators include the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Thames RFCC, Environment Agency, Lead Local Flood Authorities and more
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Webinar sessions are available to all, but some webinars will be aimed more towards certain audiences including LLFAs, NFM researchers, practitioners, landowners and community representatives. All sessions, with the permission of the presenters, will be recorded and shared afterwards to enable attendees to re-watch or catch up if you have missed a session.
The main aim of the Festival of NFM is to hear from a whole host of stakeholders and experts in the field on their approaches, delivery, lessons learned and case studies, and to promote the mainstreaming of NFM as an approach to delivering flood protection benefits.
You can view the programme here.
[Image credit: Timbobaggins / shutterstock.com]