![](https://afallen.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Hafren-survey-map.jpg)
Case study: Severn Estuary Partnership and Natural England
Lead Partner: David Clubb
How to mitigate recreational disturbance in the Severn Estuary?
Client: Severn Estuary Partnership and Natural England
Sector: Public sector
![The Natural England logo; white words on a green background](https://afallen.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Natural-England.png)
![](https://afallen.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Severn-Estuary-Partnership.png)
Introduction
The Severn Estuary Partnership wanted support with researching attitudes to recreational disturbance in the Severn Estuary after receiving funding from Natural England.
The brief
The brief was to determine how best to effect behaviour changes amongst recreational users of the Severn Estuary to aid waterbird conservation.
The solution
We used desktop research to understand the most appropriate questions to ask visitors to the Severn Estuary, based on experiences in estuaries and protected sites elsewhere in the UK.
We created a set of survey questions which were tested in person, and then we launched them – with the support of a number of statutory partners – receiving more than 250 responses. We mapped the location of survey respondents by postcode, showing a good range of responses in and around the Severn Estuary area. You can see the live map here.
We analysed the responses and used the data to suggest a number of recommendations for reducing the impact from recreational use of the Severn Estuary