The Morland Catchment, Cumbria
The Morland catchment is a sub-catchment in the upland reaches of the River Eden covering an area of 12.7 square kilometres. Displayed in the current land use map (left), its primary land uses are grassland and intensive agriculture, with dominant farming practices including dairy and meat production. Forestry can be found to the west and patches of moorland on the catchment boundaries.
Its soils are mostly clay and sandy loam and the geology consists of carboniferous limestone, meaning the catchment hydrology will have a significant groundwater component. Waterways within the catchment drain in a northerly direction from the eastern foothills of the Pennines to Newby Beck.
The average Strahler stream order of waterways in the catchment is 1.8 and Sandwath Beck and Newby Beck have the largest order of 4. The longest waterway within the Morland catchment travels a length of 6km from springs in Crosby Ravensworth to the Newby Beck in Newby.
The Morland catchment contributes towards research for the River Eden Demonstration Test Catchment project (Eden DTC). Created in 2010, the aim of the Eden DTC is to develop a research platform for diffuse agricultural pollution on a catchment scale. The Eden catchment was chosen along with two others in the Hampshire Avon and the River Wensum to span a range of characteristics including geology, climate and land use. These catchments are also part of the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative (ECSFDI) which aims to raise awareness of and improve land management to combat diffuse agricultural pollution in England.
Displayed on the current land use map (above) are three stream gauges in use for the Eden DTC, with the gauges to the east, west and north being the control, mitigation and catchment outflow gauges respectively. Other instruments within the catchment include a telemetered rain gauge to the south, a non-telemetered rain gauge to the east and an automatic weather station to the mid-west of the Morland.