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2nd April 2019

Impacts of winter 2015/2016 flooding in and around Ballater and in the Garioch: Project Year 2 Summary

The purpose of the Assessing the Long-term Impacts of Flooding on People and Communities project is to better understand the long-term impacts of flooding upon people and communities and to consider what types of support and advice people and communities need at different stages of a long-term recovery. Over a 36 month period, the project is advancing our understanding of these long-term impacts, contributes to better flood risk management and makes suggestions as to how personal and community resilience may be supported and enhanced.

Two communities in Aberdeenshire affected by flooding in December 2015/ January 2016 are the focus of the research, one of which has repeatedly experienced flooding, one of which had little prior experience of flooding. The Ballater area, in upper Deeside, experienced severe flooding for the first time in many years in late December 2015, flooding that was largely unexpected and which had a widespread impact on the community. The Garioch area, specifically Port Elphinstone and Kintore, on the River Don, has experienced many flood events and was badly flooded in early January 2016. In Year One of the project three distinct yet complimentary data collections elements were undertaken: a Household Survey, conducted in both case study areas; a Business Survey, conducted in both case study areas; and interviews with residents and business owners/ managers in both case study areas, including interviews with those who were and were not directly affected by the Winter 2015/16 flooding. Findings from these three elements of data collection were presented, in three separate reports, to the project Steering Group in late 2017. A short report summarising Year One activities and key findings was published by CREW in early 2018. In Project Year Two a second round of interviews were conducted with householders and business owners/ managers in Ballater and Garioch. This report presents an overview of findings from the Project Year Two interviews. Another report will follow at the end of the 36 month project period.

You can find the first report of this project here

27th March 2019

World Water Day 2019

Image showing the Conference
Every year on 22nd of March, we celebrate World Water Day. This year, The Centre for Expertise on Waters (CREW) and the James Hutton Institute, with the financial support of the Scottish Government, and in partnership with the University of Stirling and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, organised an event around this year’s UN theme of “Leaving No one Behind”.

Discussions focused in particular on “Resilience to Drought and Low Flow Conditions in Scotland”. The event welcomed key stakeholder representatives, government officials, academics and emerging scientists from the Hydro Nation Scholars Programme.

The first part of the event focused on presentation from scientists, stakeholder groups and government representatives, discussing various issues and strategies around drought and drought management in the UK and Scotland in particular. With recent warnings from scientists and policy-makers that England would be suffering considerable effects from droughts within the next 25 years, and periodic droughts that affected Scotland over the last couple of years, there was a lot of discussion about this timely topic.  

Stephen Turner from the Wallingford Centre for Ecology & Hydrology presented on monitoring and early warning systems to support enhanced resilience to drought across the UK. A number of presentations focused on droughts in Scotland over recent years – Mark Hunter of Scottish Water discussed response strategies to ensure as little impact as possible on end users, while Rebecca Millar of Citizens Advice Scotland presented research outputs regarding end users of private water supplies and what could be done to improve resilience to drought and other climate change impacts on water scarcity and quality for private water supplies end users. Further, the impact of drought and low flow conditions on key water-dependent Scottish industries was discussed. Hamish Moir of cbec and Chris Conroy of the Ness Salmon Fishery Board presented the particular context of Salmon migration and nesting, and how Scottish salmon populations are threatened by rising water temperatures and low-level water flow, affecting the salmon’s ability to migrate, and sometimes bringing even lethal consequences. Creating and re-storing wetlands may be a key strategy to alleviate some of this risk to Scottish salmon, and simultaneously enhancing resilience to both droughts and floods. Paul Hammett, Water Specialist at the National Farmers Union presented on resilience and adaptation strategies introduced over recent years: In particular, the soil bank, and more recently, the water bank, allows farmers across a larger region to exchange soil/manure, or water, thereby reducing impacts of regional climate effects for farmers. Ronald Daalmans from Chivas Brothers shared insights into the particular challenges the Whisky industry faces in times of drought and low flow conditions.
After a final presentation by Scott Mcgrane of Fraser of Allander Institute on the future challenges of environmental change on water as an economic resource in Scotland, the participants split up into three discussion groups, focusing on three key topics at the policy-research nexus:

  1. Resilience planning and adaptation strategies
  2. Emerging issues for drought and low flow conditions and
  3. Enhanced monitoring through technical innovation and citizen science.

The results of these expert discussions will be published in a report in early summer. 

Closing remarks were given by Jon Rathjen, Head of the Water Industry Team at the Scottish Government, putting the day’s discussions into the context of a long-term vision for Scotland as a HydroNation, by not only continuing to develop innovative solutions to both drought and flooding in Scotland and internationally, but also by capitalising on this great resource that Scotland has in abundance. He alerted everyone present to not only focus on the specific remedies to specific problems, - but also to think of water, and Scotland’s expertise in managing waters, as the great potential that lies within for both Scottish industries and Scottish people, all the while ensuring the long-term sustainability and protection of the precious resource that is water.

A Short Report and the Full Report are available.

22nd March 2019

Scotland’s contribution to international water policy and research (Report)

On World Water Day in 2018, we held a workshop exploring Scotland’s contribution to international water policy development and research needs. This workshop brought together Scottish academics, practitioners and policy makers to share experiences in promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goal: “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” (SDG 6).

Barriers to implementation and recommendations to enable and accelerate progress towards achieving SDG 6 were discussed in four thematic breakout sessions:

  1. Waste Water Treatment Systems
  2. Water Resources Water Quality and Quality
  3. Drinking Water Supply and Technologies
  4. Future water challenges facing water 

Common high level outcomes and recommendations were identified across the four themes including:

  1. Appropriate data acquisition and reporting of the SDG 6 status; capacity building, and effective mechanisms to get research into practice. 
  2. Governance systems are  generally constrained by sectoral interests (i.e. top down and poorly connected to local needs). There should be improved training of water managers etc in how to use data in decision making  and policy development. Need to review weak legal frameworks.
  3. Knowledge and engagement with communities is the key to successfully attaining SDG 6 and achieving the behavioural change.
  4. Effective drinking water and waste water technologies need to be simple, with low infrastructure and maintenance costs and low energy inputs.

As a result, it was recommended that the Scottish Government seek support from the science community to achieve and monitor SDGs. This will open new challenges for research, partnerships, and opportunities to find solutions to complex development challenges. 

 

22nd March 2019

Our most precious resource - water!

Today on World Water Day, we focus our minds on the world’s most precious resource. Without it there would be no life on Earth- it is as simple as that. No humans, animals, plants, microbes, and no rain, clouds, rivers or oceans. We are indeed a blue planet, unique (so far!) floating in space.

But the statistics on what we are doing to this precious resource are just staggering;
•    Every minute a new born child dies from a water-based infection;
•    Over 30% of the world’s schools don’t have access to clean water;
•    We produce six times more wastewater than the discharge from all the worlds rivers;
•    The freshwater species extinction rate is five times that of terrestrial systems;
•    70% of industrial discharges in developing countries are discharged untreated into water courses;
•    Runoff from agri-chemicals is polluting groundwater, surface waters and ocean around the globe and is on the increase.

But perhaps the most indicative fact of where we are as a global population in our relationship with water is that across the world more people have access to a mobile phone than have access to a toilet!
Even understanding the importance of water globally we still treat it with an incredible disregard. Our ever-increasing demands place an enormous pressure on our water resources across the globe. With a burgeoning population, the demand for water in food production and the uncertainty of climate change we all need to look carefully at our attitude to water and the way it is used and managed. In Scotland, we are lucky enough to live in a water rich country, but we are also very aware of recent episodes over the last few years when either we have too much or too little water, and the disruption that has caused. The Scottish Government Hydro Nation agenda has placed duties on Ministers to protect and enhance our water resources, and it is the first country in the world to do so and provide a framework of sustainable management which is being promoted both at home and overseas.
The James Hutton Institute is deeply embedded in delivering that vision. We lead the Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW), host the Hydro Nation Scholars and International Fellow Programmes and the European funded Water Test Network which helps to bring new water technology to the market place. We also undertake a programme of water-based research in support of Scottish Government’s strategic research programme.  Internationally, you may be aware of the innovative, interdisciplinary project providing a sustainable low carbon treatment system to pupils and staff in Berambadi school, Karnataka. I would encourage you to watch the short video made by the team, which can be found here. In addition, the Institute also has other water-based projects with partners across Europe, India, China, Pakistan and Sub-Saharan Africa. 
Today, it is also fantastic to announce the establishment of the Hydro Nation International Centre, supported by the Macaulay Development Trust, at the Craigiebuckler campus of the James Hutton Institute. This will provide significant added value to our on-going activities and act as a focus for our international work, innovation, training and skills development.
Further, on World Water Day we are delighted to support Scottish Water’s “Your water, your life” campaign, which encourages us all to carry a refillable bottle and “top up from the tap”. We are all too aware of the environmental and societal cost of single use plastic bottles, and to support this life-style change we will give every member of staff  at the James Hutton Institute  a special refillable bottle to encourage everyone to realise the health benefits of drinking more Scottish tap water, which is excellent in both its quality and taste.
So, when you fill your bottle, just take a moment to realise how precious this wonderful resource really is, and how the Institute and its partners are delivering a sustainable future for water resources across the globe.
 

19th March 2019

CREW project 'Dynamic Coast' wins Spotlight Prize

We are excited to announce that CREW project Dynamic Coast (National Coastal Change Assessment, NCCA) has won the Spotlight Prize at the 4th Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards on 21st February 2019.

Dynamic Coast is an open access web-based tool, offering easy-to-interpret reports and maps of the entire 21,000 km of Scottish coastline, allowing for swift identification of potential areas of erosions and vulnerable assets such as roads, rails, or houses concerned. Of the 21,000 km of the Scottish coastline categorised, 3,800 km of potentially erodible ‘soft’ coast have been identified with 23% having experienced significant change. Past rates have been projected to 2050 to identify likely areas of erosion and the assets (roads, rail, housing etc.) that may be vulnerable.  The Coastal Change Assessment aims to create a shared evidence base to support more sustainable coastal and terrestrial planning decisions in the light of a changing climate. The public web-based maps, reports and videos provide easy to interpret maps of the past and anticipated changes on all of Scotland’s erodible shorelines.  A second phase of work, NCCA 2 is currently underway to enhance the NCCA evidence base on future erosion risks. This project is led by Scottish Natural Heritage in collaboration with the University of Glasgow's School of Geographical & Earth Sciences. To find out more about Dynamic Coast click here, and watch this short video. For more information on the award, click here.

4th December 2018

Scotland's Flood Risk Management Conference 2019

Scotland's annual Flood Risk Management Conference will take place on 5-6 February 2019 at Strathclyde University's Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow.

The conference will celebrate achievements and aim to build on them to provide a vision and plan for the future, linking policy and on the ground experiences. The aim is to have the most inclusive conference yet; drawing on delegates expertise, via debates, workshops, interactive sessions and delegate driven workshops. The main themes will include communications with communities and adaptation to climate change with a view to future planning cycles.

The conference is the key opportunity for Scotland’s flood risk management community to come together to share knowledge and best practice.

A detailed programme of the Conference will soon be available on Sniffer’s website

17th October 2018

Flood Risk Management Conference 2019

Hold the date for Flood Risk Management Conference 2019 - 5-6 February 2019 at Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre, Glasgow

The 2019 Flood Risk Management Conference will be held at Technology and Innovation Centre, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 February 2019. Tickets will be released in November. Please see https://www.sniffer.org.uk/news/hold-the-date-for-flood-risk-management-conference-2019 for more details.

 
17th October 2018

Water and the circular economy - where is the greatest sustainable economic benefit for resource recovery in the water environment?

Digestors Digestors by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9153664

This project set out to answer three research questions:

  1. which resources can be, in principle, recovered or obtained from water in Scotland;
  2. what is the total amount of each resource that is present in, or can be obtained from, different water sources in Scotland, and;
  3. which maximum market value and potential savings in energy and carbon dioxide emissions could be achieved when assuming 100% recovery of each resource.

In this project, researchers calculated the amount of each resource (N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Fe, heat, methane and hydrogen) which is present or can be obtained from raw waters or wastewaters in Scotland, their economic value and the maximum potential savings in energy and carbon dioxide emissions associated with the recovery of these resources. The technology readiness level (TRL) of the processes needed for the recovery of these resources was also estimated, and recommendations are provided in the report for future investigations.

 

 

 

 
1st November 2013

Source Control SUDS in Scotland

This project looks at various aspects of source control SUDS in Scotland and globally. The following publications are part of this project: 

  • Research Summary: Implementation of Source Control SUDS in Scotland. 
  • A rapid review of the background to source control. 
  • Source control SUDS delivery on a global scale and in Scotland including approach by responsible organisations and professional groups. 
  • Appendices

 

 

 

 
30th April 2012

A review of the arguments relating to bulk export of water

Agricultural field

This document reviews the available information on water export and summarises the arguments for and against, providing examples where possible.There is very limited, up-to-date robust and impartial evidence relating to bulk export of water, consequently much of the information presented here is International in its nature.

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