KS3/GCSE Geography: River monitoring and 're-wiggling' on the River Ribble

Paul visits the River Ribble in Lancashire to assess the habitats living in the water.

The River Ribble is one of the UK’s longest rivers and flows for a journey of 72 miles (116 kilometres) from its source at Gayle Beck, near Ribblehead, to its estuary near Lytham.

The Ribble travels through the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, including part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and through major settlements such as Settle, Clitheroe and Preston, before reaching the Irish Sea.

It is negatively affected by pollution, and by hazards associated with climate change such as flooding. This clip shows how monitoring biodiversity can help assess river health, and also discusses how ‘re-wiggling’, or putting the meanders back into rivers, can alleviate increased flood risk.

This video is part of UK rivers case studies, a series of clips taken from Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers – available on BBC iPlayer.

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Teacher Notes

Before watching the film:

  • Using digital mapping software such as Digimaps, Arc GIS, or Google Maps, ask students to locate the River Ribble in England and identify where it rises, where its mouth is and which counties it flows through.
  • Ask students for any other additional information that the map might reveal, such as the names of large settlements that the River Ribble passes through, or type of landscape terrain. Ask students if anyone has heard of the river or even visited it.
  • Recap some of the impacts of climate change affecting rivers in the UK, such as the increased incidence of extreme weather events, and identify some of the impacts on people’s everyday lives, eg through flooding.

During the film:

  • You may wish to stop at relevant points during this short film to pose questions and check understanding or wait until the end. Useful questions might include:
    • Checking vocabulary eg: What is a ‘beck’? What is a ‘tributary’? What is a river ‘catchment’?
  • Noting how useful monitoring and recording species diversity is when considering river health and the amount of pollution in it, eg:
    • Why are the volunteers monitoring and recording the diversity of aquatic life found in the beck?
    • What does it mean for a species to be ‘intolerant to pollution’?
    • What aquatic wildlife were found and what does this say about the health of this tributary?
  • Considering why people in the past straightened sections of rivers, eg:
    • Why is it many waterways had sections straightened? (In the past this was to maximise land use, increase water flow to mills, and carry sewage away from settlements as quickly as possible).
  • Can you explain why straightening sections of rivers causes problems? (Straightening rivers increases water flow so that in periods of heavy rain, flooding becomes more likely further downstream).
  • Why are people now ‘re-wiggling’ rivers? (To slow the rate of flow and reduce flood risk, provide additional river length and more habitat space, and to attract aquatic wildlife such as eels and salmon).

Following on from the film:

  • Freeze frame a view of the landscape on the screen and ask pupils to create an annotated sketch map. This is a useful skill to practice before going ‘out in the field’.
  • Ask students to research more information about the project to re-wiggle the Ribble tributary and create an annotated sketch map explaining what is happening and why. (Or identify a project to re-wiggle a stretch of waterway in your own local area).
  • Check incidences of flooding on the Ribble, creating graphs and maps to show alert areas, river height over time and rainfall recorded over a period using the government flood alert website.
  • Plan for fieldwork at a water course near you. This might be measuring biodiversity in a local stream, or investigating part of a local waterway with a view to making recommendations as to how actions might mitigate against flooding hazards.

Curriculum Notes

All these short clips build on students’ understanding of human and environmental interactions and provide opportunities to practice geographical skills such as enquiry, mapping and fieldwork.

At KS3, students can learn more about how human and physical processes interact to influence, and change landscapes, environments and the climate.

At KS4, the film supports understanding about fluvial environments, flooding hazards and climate change, environmental management and fieldwork investigation.

The film might also be used for example, to contribute to case studies about human interactions on fluvial environments (CCEA), and about environmental challenges (WJEC).

This clip could be used to support the delivery of geography to KS3 and KS4 students.

Specifically, this topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS4/GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 in Scotland.

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Further clips from Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers

A look at the background to the privatisation of ten regional water authorities in 1989.

Water industry privatisation

Paul visits the River Wharfe in Ilkley, West Yorkshire to see how it is affected by pollution from sewage.

River Wharfe and wastewater systems in the UK

Paul visits Lake Windermere to hear how tourists may be contributing to pollution levels.

Lake Windermere eutrophication

Paul visits the River Tamar in Devon to hear about a project that aims to let nature restore ecosystems.

Beavers and rewilding in the UK

Paul visits the River Clyde in Glasgow to hear about pharmaceutical pollution and its consequences.

Pharmaceutical pollution in the River Clyde

Paul learns about how microplastic pollution affects the River Tame in Greater Manchester.

River Tame microplastic pollution

Paul visits Hampshire to look at a very rare habitat – England contains 85% of all chalk streams in the world.

River Test and UK chalk streams

Paul visits the construction site of a 'super sewer' in London.

River Thames Tideway project

Paul looks at how agricultural pollution is affecting the River Wye.

Intensive chicken farming and the River Wye
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