Sediment & Water Depth Surveys - Coombe Pool

Hidden just outside the urban sprawl of Coventry, Coombe Abbey Country Park is an excellent example of the work of the prolific 18th century landscape architect, Lancelot “Capability” Brown.

Much like his famed gardens at Chatsworth House and Blenheim Palace, the 500-hectare park features Brown’s trademark undulating grass and scattered belts of woodland, which today act as important green spaces for local residents.

Another constant feature of Brown’s gardens are serpentine lakes, of which Coombe Abbey is no exception.

Coombe Pool snakes right throughout the park and is home to a huge variety of notable bird species, including the largest heron population in the country.

In recent years however, the pool has been subject to siltation, reducing deep open water and altering the habitat that these important species rely upon.

Subsequently, Exo Environmental were approached by Coventry City Council in 2024 to conduct sediment sampling and a water depth survey.

The outcome of these surveys would then inform the council as to whether the lake may need to be dredged and, if so, what kind of methodology this dredging would need to follow.

After obtaining all the relevant licensing from Natural England, the Exo team made our way over to Warwickshire in October, staying overnight to be ready for surveying the following morning.

The first port of call was to measure the water depths. This involved two team members working in tandem, with one on our dinghy using a single beam dual frequency sonar to collect the necessary bathymetric data, whilst another stayed ashore to measure the bank elevations using an RTK Trimble GPS.

Once all the necessary data had been collected, we then used our Piston Sampler to collect 2 composite sediment samples. These were transported back to our workshop in Norfolk, where they were couriered to UKAS accredited laboratories at Eurofins for further analysis.

These findings were presented to Coventry City Council, informing them on what the next steps for Coombe Pool may be.

If you would like to find out more about sediment or water depth surveys we offer, please get in touch.

Coombe Pool, taken Sunday, 2 May, 2021 cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Stephen McKay - geograph.org.uk/p/6826778