The Broads

The Broads, marketed as the Broads National Park, is a network of navigable rivers and shallow lakes called broads spanning Norfolk and Suffolk in the East of England. The broads themselves formed from the flooding of medieval peat excavations. The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 gave the area protected status equivalent to a national park, and the Broads Authority, established as a statutory body in 1989, manages conservation, public enjoyment and navigation across the region. The protected area covers 303 square kilometers and includes seven rivers and 63 broads linked by more than 200 kilometers of navigable waterway; most broads are shallow, typically less than 4 meters deep, and thirteen permit general navigation. The wetland was designated a Ramsar site of international importance, under the name Broadland, in 1976.