Talk:Abberton Reservoir

Abberton Reservoir is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

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External links modified

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External links modified

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WWII section

Hi Jim, the section seems to be adequately cited to me and to be in enough depth for FAC purposes. Suggestions or thoughts include:

"The reservoir was also referred to as "Colchester Lake"." I am not convinced of the relevance of this and personally would delete it, adding the two cites to the first sentence.
"The reservoir was intended to simulate the Eder Dam in Germany,[13][12] which was attacked after the Möhne Dam had been breached." I don't like the break in the chronology: Used for training, then fast forward to the attack, then back to the details of the training. I would delete "which was attacked after the Möhne Dam had been breached" and add a bit on the attacks to the end; I would be happy to draft and source something.
"The Layer Causeway, from which the photograph was taken, was used as a substitute for the Eder Dam." Rephrase to remove mention of the Layer Causeway - which perhaps needs doing anyway given that "the photograph" seems to be missing - and this is easily cited. Eg 'Abberton Reservoir was a similar of a similar configuration to the Eder reservoir, one of the three targets of the Dambusters' raid.'[IWM website]
"The last practice flight to Abberton was a full dress rehearsal of the attack and took place on the night of May 14, 1943" is covered by Holland, pp. 267-268.
"The site has a visitor centre on Church Road in Layer-de-la-Haye." I am not sure why this is in the WWII section.

That do you? Let me know if you would like me to simply rewrite and source the entire section for you. Gog the Mild (talk) 15:18, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I queried it because there are a couple of "citation" needed tags, the Holland ref has no page number and the link goes nowhere, and Bowman has a link but no page number. I haven't actually made an edit to it yet, but I've just acquired a good source for the wildlife aspects, which has inspired me to work it up. I agree the visitor centre shouldn't be there, and I've never heard it referred to as Colchester Lake anyway. Thanks for your pointers Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:18, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Informal review

These suggestions will be in random order.

Lead

It is the largest freshwater body in the county and the fourth largest reservoir in England, - only in lead and needs source. (I notice that the figures in List of reservoirs in England and Wales by volume are for before the upgrade.)

History

dam wall is constructed of earth with an impermeable puddle clay core constructed using the underlying London clay constructed...constructed?
but most of its water is pumped in from the River Stour, 14 km (8.7 mi) to the south. I find this ambiguous - is the water pumped to the south or is the river Stour to the south? Water was pumped from Stratford St Mary which is around 14 km northeast of the reservoir.
and replacing the existing link from the Stour to Abberton with new, higher capacity, pipes. This is correct but I found it misleading. It wasn't just the pipes that were changed, the new link from the Stour follows a very different route and begins at Wormingford, well upstream from the original abstraction point at Stratford St Mary. There is a map here

Birds

I don't have a subscription to British Birds and thus cannot verify the content.

...and a pair of cattle egrets bred in 2020. The area holds around 20 pairs each of Cetti's warbler and nightingale. This whole section sometimes uses the singular and sometimes the plural for bird species. This sometimes jars slightly.
It is of international importance for wintering gadwall, shoveler and wigeon, and of national importance for mute swans, teal, pochards, tufted ducks, goldeneyes, coots and great crested grebes. singular then plural? perhaps shovelers?
Typical farmland species such as corn bunting, "such as the corn bunting"?
including blue-winged teal (19996), ??
Abberton has operate a bird ringing scheme for more than 70 years Who has operated a ringing scheme? Who or what is meant by Abberton here? Perhaps "A ringing scheme has operated at Abberton ..."?
including wigeon (34 years), pochard (22) and gadwall (21). I would repeat "years" each time.

I'm busy for the rest of today. I'll have another look tomorrow. - Aa77zz (talk) 10:08, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Aa77zz many thanks, I've read this so many times I just miss the same things every time, I'll go through in detail soon, and I've found a bit to add about signal crayfish. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 12:52, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thoughts

This article is heavily focused on the wildlife associated with the reservoir despite the general title. Is more information available on the water supply aspect of the reservoir?
Reference 5 "Project focus" includes "Essex, which is the driest county in the UK." Perhaps this is worth mentioning in the article (if this is indeed the case).
Perhaps worth mentioning that according to the article by Daniel Wilson the reservoir supplies a population of 750,000 people in Essex and NE London.
I find it remarkable that the reservoir obtains water from the Ouse. The article already includes and included work to enable water from the Ouse, 141 km (88 mi) distant in Norfolk, but perhaps it might be good to expand on how this is achieved - mentioning the Ely-Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme - and how this was upgraded - water abstracted from the Ouse near Denver in Norfolk and the two 16 mile pipelines - Kirtling Green to Wixoe and Wormingford to Abberton.

A possible source: Abberton Pipelines Project installation of 32km of pipeline to support the Abberton Scheme - Aa77zz (talk) 09:52, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What happens when there is a drought? Is there always sufficient water in the Ouse to abstract the necessary amount of water? How much does the water level in the main section of the reservoir vary? How low does the level of water in the reservoir drop in times of drought (cf the maximum level of 21m AOD).
Perhaps add a "See also" to the other main reservoir in Essex - the Hanningfield Reservoir - 7 miles south of Chelmsford - also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

- Aa77zz (talk) 09:25, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Aa77zz, yes you're right, I guess given my main interest, I'm not seeing the water for the birds as it were. I'll work on that over the weekend. The existing non-technical statement ref talks about drought and the demands made on the reservoir in average and dry years. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:25, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Aa77zz, I've expanded the water supply section of the article and said a bit more about the Ouse link. I think I've addressed the other issues except that Hanningfield is now mentioned in the text rather than an EL Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:55, 24 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

megalitres

The lede now says "41,000 megalitres (9.0×10⁹ imp gal)". May I suggest to change the 1st unit into "m³" (cubic metres), which is a more usable unit for reservoirs. It also reduces precision issues (did they really mesure by litre/pint?). So, better

41,000 megalitres (9.0×10⁹ imp gal)

~~41,000 cubic metres (9,000,000 imp gal)~~

-DePiep (talk) 20:58, 28 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: {{Convert}} could help presenting the impgal (precision) better. -DePiep (talk) 21:05, 28 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I give up. 1 Mlitre = 10³ cubic metre. (That's how uncommon megalitre is). New try:

41,000 megalitres (9.0×10⁹ imp gal)

=

41,000,000 cubic metres (9.0×10⁹ imp gal)

Now get into 10^x those m3s. -DePiep (talk) 21:31, 28 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe use "billion litres/gallons" (not gigalitres!). Thincat (talk) 09:36, 5 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Expansion: current maximum area

Shouldn't 'current maximum [total] area' be 600 ha, (= Main section, 535 ha + Central section 49 ha + Western section 16 ha)? Could someone with more time than me check the sources? Thankyou - Yadsalohcin (talk) 21:59, 5 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]