The Demonstration Test Catchments (DTC) project was a nationally coordinated programme of research that ran from 2009 - 2019.
It was funded by Defra, the Environment Agency (EA) and Welsh Assembly Government working in three river catchments – the Wensum in Norfolk plus the Eden (Cumbria) and Avon (Hampshire).
The overall objective was to test the hypothesis that it's possible to cost effectively reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse water pollution on ecological function, while maintaining food security by implementing multiple on-farm measures across whole river catchments - using local expertise to solve local problems.
Although the main research programme has now concluded, there are a number of spin-off follow-on research projects still in progress. You can read more about the original DTC project, the work in the River Wensum catchment, and the resulting research findings on these pages.
In March 2020, Defra published the key findings from the Demonstration Test Catchment programme in a summary Evidence Compendium, designed to make results of the work accessible to a wide audience.
