Theme: Hydrological Extremes, Coasts and Risk Management
Project status: Project complete. Click here to visit the publication page to view the project outputs.
Type of project: Capacity Building Project
Lead research team: SRUC
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.
The 2025 Sniffer (now Verture ) Flood Resilience Conference brought together experts, policymakers, and communities at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh to tackle the pressing challenges of flood resilience.
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:
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.
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.
Scotland’s climate is changing, and we expect to see further changes in seasonal precipitation patterns that may increase the frequency and severity of water scarcity conditions, including droughts. Drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to water scarcity and environmental stress (formally defined in Scotland as when river water levels are less than 5% of their normal flows, for more than 30 days). Overall, droughts are predicted to increase particularly in the eastern parts of Scotland.
Global temperatures are now approximately 1.5ᵒC higher than pre-industrial levels. Rising air and water temperatures, alongside shifting rainfall patterns, are changing our planet’s ecosystem.
The fellowships are part of CREW's broader strategy, which balances a 'research-push' workstream with a 'policy-pull' approach to facilitate expert knowledge exchange.