Poole Park lagoon is drained down and refilled with water on a monthly basis to maintain the saline water and ecological conditions that make it a special lagoon habitat.
These events usually take place overnight so as to minimise disruption for the recreational use of the lagoon. However on Friday 29th November the lagoon will be drained down from about 8am to enable consultants from Bournemouth University to fly a drone over the lagoon and survey the conditions at varying water levels. The lagoon will be re-filled over the following days.
We hope to find out how much exposed mud is present at different water levels, which in turn will tell us at what level we would need to hold the water level at through the winter to be of benefit to wading birds who feed on insects in the mud.
The drone is flying with all necessary official certification and risk assessments in place. It will be taking off from the western edge of the lagoon, on a promontory near the corner of Park Lake road and Kingland road.
Over the next two years Bournemouth university will also be monitoring the water bodies to find out what animals are present, the impact of this year’s works and general water quality.
The drain-down will also help to alleviate some of the local flooding issues that are caused by the persistent rainfall over the last months that has led to the ground being saturated, as well as spring tides. A lot of Poole Park is at or near to sea-level with an old and often dilapidated surface water infrastructure. The drainage around the cricket pitch will be improved and upgraded next year and investigations are underway to understand how to improve the drainage situation under Whitecliff road and Keyhole bridge.
