Hydrological Extremes, Coasts and Risk Management

CRW2024_04 Natural Capital and River Basin Management Planning: Protecting and Improving Scotland’s Water Environment

Type of project: Capacity Building Project.

Overview: This project will conduct an evidence synthesis to assess the current state of knowledge of how investments in protecting and improving natural capital influence the state of the water environment. The synthesis will also explore the wider benefits these investments provide for nature, climate adaptation, public health, net zero targets and agriculture.

Project Status: Project in progress

Project lead: SRUC

 

CREW Spring 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to our new quarterly CREW newsletter, CREW NEWS!

In this spring edition we’re reminding you of our current calls for proposals, highlighting completed projects and feeding back from our project evaluation forms. As it’s our first edition we’ve also included a refresher on ‘who we are and what we do’ and there’s a letter from our comms officer detailing some favourite moments from her first year in post. 

We’d love to hear what you’d be interested in reading in future issues of CREW NEWS.

Water Scarcity in Scotland: Future Impact for Distilleries and Agriculture

Research led by The James Hutton Institute, in collaboration with Scotland’s Rural College, the University of Aberdeen, and the British Geological Survey, highlights the increasing threat of water scarcity in Scotland due to climate change. Recently published in The Geographer (Winter 2024 edition, Adaption: Are we ready? And how far is it possible to adapt?), the study examines the potential impact on agriculture and distilleries.

Sharing Insights on Hydropower and Sediment Management

Great discussions were held this week at a hybrid hydro-sector dissemination event at the Advanced Research Centre (University of Glasgow), where Professor Richard Williams presented findings from the CREW project, “Environmentally effective and cost-efficient sediment management at impoundments.”

The team showcased their insightful project video, available here and also shared an infographic illustrating how river health relies on sediment flow (pictured).

The event also featured:

Increasing flood resilience: residential and community runoff retention solutions

 

In recent years there has been an increased awareness of the need to address surface water runoff in urban environments. This includes understanding where flood risks may arise, increase, or change in the future due to climate change and increased urban creep, the increased conversion of gardens and other vegetated areas which help to soak up rain. To support resilient surface water management in urban environments, the identification, efficacy, cost effectiveness and prioritisation of implementable flood risk management solutions is essential.

Water Scarcity in Scotland: Future Impact for Distilleries and Agriculture

A recent CREW project led by The James Hutton Institute, in collaboration with Scotland’s Rural College, the University of Aberdeen, and the British Geological Survey, highlighted a pressing issue for Scotland: the increasing likelihood and duration of water scarcity events due to climate change. This project, focused on the impact of these changes on three critical sectors—crop production, livestock farming, and distilleries.

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