Catchment Change Network.net

Last Monday and Tuesday (26^th and 27^th March) we hosted a group of Catchment Managers from UK Water Companies, the Environment Agency, English Nature and the likes. We were lucky enough to have glorious spring weather for the Monday afternoon trip to the Eden DTC which included a visit to Crake Trees Manor Farm to see some of the MOPS2 experiments. On the second day we held a workshop at the Lancaster Environment Centre trying to scope out opportunities for improved control of diffuse pollution and this video, from the facilitator Peter Woodward, eloquently sums up how we spent the day.

To see more of Phil Haygarth’s photos of the event click  here

Another opportunity to discuss future change at the Royal Palace in Stockholm last Thursday where the King had organised a meeting of the 14 guest professors in environmental research who had been supported in visiting Swedish universities by his 50^th Birthday fund.   The day was called Faith in the Future.  The King took great interest in the proceedings,  including hosting a dinner in the evening.

This was the first time that all the Guest Professors had met, and the range of expertise represented was very interesting – from palaeoecology to desertification, from environmental economics to cyanobacteria and health, from desertification to governance, and one hydrologist.     There were talks and panel discussions moderated by Swedish environmental journalists, with a few invited questions from the floor including from the Chief Executive of Erikson (who spoke of smart companies accepting the fact of climate change and  wanting to be ahead of the curve in environmental concerns); the Swedish Minister of the Environment (who talked of how 95% of lobbyists were pushing “old” technologies while scientists were mostly silent on new possibilities);  and one of the largest farmers in southern Sweden (who spoke of farmers’ interest in land management for future generations).   Interestingly Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall had also arrived in Stockholm and were staying at the Palace.  Prince Charles had been invited to the day, but apparently had other commitments…..

One of the main discussion points of the day (unsurprisingly, perhaps) was concerned with how to reform society and transform behaviour into more sustainable (and equitable) modes.   The need to move politics and science into the same domains of discourse, to create new modes of economic thought that were not hooked on growth and on carbon consumptions, and to move governance into synch with the socio-ecological coupling to deal with future change, were all raised as issues.   It was suggested that adaptive, reflective modes of governance that allowed for the uncertainties in future projections of change is necessary but is not evident in most policy making at national and international scales, although there are some good local examples.

Given the title of the day, there was some requirement not to be too pessimistic!  But in fact we cannot afford to be pessimistic – the need to deal with change in climate and population, particularly projected urban population, is too pressing.  In recognising that future projections might be uncertain, it is often forgotten that this implies that rates of change might be underestimated rather than overestimated.   Thus to do nothing is to be risk accepting, perhaps to an irresponsible degree.   The question then is how to convey this to governments with generally shorter attention spans……

  writemyessay4me.org

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Project Summary

My work is to engage with private sector organisations and companies on the topic of water availability and climate change. Water security and climate proofing are challenges end-users need to include in their strategic plans, and they can benefit from cutting-edge science conducted by researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and across the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). To facilitate the dialogue I developed a  website explaining the water cycle and what modelling we can do. This site also looks at the 18 major global river basins in detail and how rainfall, evaporation and runoff are modelled at each.

The WATCH Project

The data from the WATCH project (WATer and global CHange) I managed has wide application and provides a strong resource for researchers and managers. In particular our work on flood and drought estimations is relevant to a number of sectors. The results of this 4 year project are nicely summarised on the WATCH website. Alternatively click here to listen to a short summary of the project.

Applications to Industry

The data and modelling capabilities available through researchers at CEH are relevant to those industries relying on water availability. Also managers interested in the future availability of water would benefit from our modelling and data expertise. This independent, credible and cutting edge information is a positive asset of CEH researchers and NERC as a whole.

For more details please contact Tanya Warnaars.

Tidal Ribble: First Causes Workshop

Thursday 29th March 2012, 10am

at the

Environment Agency, Lutra House, Preston

Follow this link for more details  about the workshop.