Catchment Change Network.net

Follow this link for more details about the forthcoming Catchment Management Conference ‘Protecting water catchments from diffuse pollution – the emerging evidence’ to be held in Birmingham on 21^st February, 2012 organised by the Water Science Forum and RSC with Ofwat involvement.

The subject matter has relevance to a wide grouping of stakeholders. The afternoon Panel Session will include Chris Ryder, Defra; Paul Hickey, EA; Milo Purcell, DWI and Sarah Mukherjee, Water UK. For those of you who wish to attend and show examples of your on-going work, there is a free poster display opportunity.

The 2nd edition of Keith Beven’s Rainfall-Runoff Modelling -The Primer has just been published by Wiley.   It includes a number of new Beyond the Primer  chapters including regionalisation, residence time distributions and the next generation of hydrological models – for more details

The problem of algal bloom contamination in lakes was the topic of a one day meeting in the Lake District between scientists from the UK and China together with members of the local community.

The initiative is part of the UK-China Bridge project to share expertise between the two countries.

Professor Gang Pan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing is an expert in lake contamination and has devised equipment to clean up Lake Taihu in Jiangsu Province. The lake is the size of the entire Lake District and had turned green because of the algae, which is harmful to fish.

He joined Professors Phil Haygarth, Roger Pickup and Dr Maria Fernanda Aller from Lancaster University, Professor Stephen Maberly from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and local representatives including the Mayor of Windermere Joan Stocker, Nigel Wilkinson from Windermere Lake Cruises and Bob Cartwright, Director of Park Services at the Lake District National Park Authority at an event hosted by the  (FBA).

They met in Ambleside to discuss common solutions to lake bloom algae before taking a cruise on Lake Windermere.

Professor Haygarth said: “Algal blooms are a potential health hazard and can be toxic – they have even been known to kill animals. Last year the Great North Swim was called off because of algae in the water.

“Human activity is making the problem worse because the bloom is caused by phosphorus and nitrogen from run–off from agricultural land and sewage discharge seeping into the lake.”

The Mayor of Windermere Joan Stocker said the meeting had been useful.

“What we’ve learned from China is the work that they’ve done very quickly to solve their problems and we need to share more of that information.”

This was a reciprocal visit following a trip by Lancaster researchers to meet Professor Gang Pan and the Mayor of Wuxi at Lake Taihu last year.

Professor Haygarth said: “We are working together to find a solution by managing phosphorus reserves better so they don’t leak into rivers and lakes, but Professor Gang’s approach is different – he is cleaning up Lake Taihu – so we can both learn from each other.”

For more details of the project please visit  the website.

Sharing ideas with Professor Gang Pan and Mayor Joan Stocker

  If the default font were easy to read and not so irritating to my eyes, I wouldn’t be mentioning this lack of customization at all

Both nonstatutory community-based catchment management groups and existing statutory groups seek effective environmental management characterised by public participation, collaborative working and decentralised modes of assessment, planning and decision making. The characteristics and challenges of catchment management for water resources and protection of water quality require such approaches, and an expansion of both community-based and state-led initiatives has been evident in the United Kingdom. Available information about these developments is, however, limited and this paper reports survey findings of such initiatives, providing a mid-to-late 2009 ‘snapshot’ of the situation in England and Wales. Catchment management groups are profiled in terms of size, organisational structure, membership, financing, technology transfer, policy influence and other outcomes. The results are interpreted with reference to a growing international literature, the potential sustainability, effectiveness and impact of groups and environmental governance challenges, including those posed by the European Union Water Framework Directive.

Follow to view Cook, Benson, Inman, Jordan and Smith (2011) Catchment management groups in England and Wales: extent, roles and influences in the CIWEM  Water and Environment Journal. Today, designer carlos quijano has thrown up a concept design go to this web-site of healthbook for ios 8 in action, featuring, among other ideas, integration with the elusive iwatch

Forthcoming conference ‘Protecting Water Catchments from Diffuse Pollution – the Emerging Evidence’ organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry Water Science Forum to be held in Birmingham on 21^st February, 2012. For more details, and to book your place, please click here