Quality Urban Environments for River Corridor Users and Stakeholders (QUERCUS) is a project financed through EU LIFE, the European Commission‘s environmental fund.
It is a partnership between the London Borough of Lewisham, Chester City Council in NW England and ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.
Each city features a river corridor with similar problems but of varying size, environmental and social characteristics.
Flood prevention schemes and urban development have, in the past, often led to rivers being enclosed in concrete, hidden or ignored.
Local Authorities have been reluctant to invest in rivers perceiving that any improvements made would soon be spoilt by dumped rubbish, vandalism and crime.
The QUERCUS project aims to enhance each river corridor to be an attractive feature of an urban environment by transferring the approach of Designing Out Crime from housing developments and testing it in an environmental setting.