integrated water management: ongoing research: challenges for water security: science ... sps...

NERC WSKEP workshop – Edinburgh 3rd May 2012

Integrated Water Management: Ongoing research:

Challenges for Water Security:

Science, Governance, the Ecosystem approach and

Integrating knowledge, policy and practice

Professor Chris J Spray –

a personal view


Research at a time of Rapid Change

Physical - Climate change

- Land use

- Development

Economic - Value for (decreasing) money

Social - Localism

- Engagement & Participation

Technical - Remote sensing

- Rapid information flow

- Modelling capabilities

……Integration is being demanded across and between……


Rapid change leading to greater pressure and

demand for the ‘evidence-base’

Physical - flood damage, biodiversity losses

Economic - multiple benefit value for (still decreasing!) money

Social - input and use of community knowledge, NGO expertise

Technical - solutions

…working within a democratic mandate and Media challenge…


Policy Response is evolving rapidly as well

Millennium Assessment & UK National Ecosystem Assessment

Sterne Report and TEEB

EU Water Framework, Flooding, Environmental Accounting directives…..

DEFRA - Natural Value Programme

- Natural Environment White paper (Natural choice)

- 12 Nature Improvement Areas

- Natural England’s 3 Upland Ecosystem Pilots

- Integrated Catchment pilots (10+15+45)

Scotland - Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009

- Scottish Land Use Strategy

- Climate Change Act

Wales - Natural Environment Framework

NGOs - Living Landscapes (Scottish Wildlife Trust)

- Tweed Forum

- West Country Rivers Trust


Research Response is evolving as well

• Evidence-base

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science (BESS) call from NERC

• Testing solutions

Payments for Ecosystem Services (UEA, West Country Rivers Trust)

Governance for Integrated catchment management (pilots)

• Techniques and Tools

Radar use in urban flood modelling (Bristol university)

Call for Integration:

LWEC - research strategies (e.g. flooding; ecosystem challenge, etc)

research funding (multidisciplinary)

systems (and ecosystem service) approach

Knowledge Exchange Networks - but caveat: too many, and badly focussed.


Integrated Catchment Management: research themes

Bio-Physical

• Flood risk management

• Water quality

• Climate change

Social Sciences

• Use and integration of community knowledge

• Governance models

• Valuation and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

Integration

• Bringing it all together (for WFD Round 2?)

• Ecosystem services approach


Flood risk management

Eddleston Water Restoration

Aims:

• Looking at potential for delivery of

improvement to river structure & habitats -

• and the potential contribution of “Natural”

Flood Management techniques

-----------------------------------------------------------

• Project based on detailed accurate flow

measures – extensive surface and ground water

network throughout catchment

• Interventions being undertaken to test impact

of new ‘natural’ flood risk measures – re-

meandering, engineered log-jams, etc

• modelled scenarios for flood risk reduction and

changes to ecosystem services

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SEPA, Scottish government, Tweed Forum, Dundee

university


Water quality management

NERC MacroNutrient Cycle

Demonstration Test Catchments Eden, Wensum, Avon (Hants)

Aim To assess the effectiveness of on‐farm mitigation measures for reducing diffuse pollution from agriculture to water • produce evidence to test the hypothesis that it is possible through the implementation of multiple on‐farm measures to: cost‐effectively reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse pollution to water on ecological function, while maintaining food security Multiple partnerships - FBA data coordination


Climate change

2050s, mid emissions scenario, 50% probability, winter precipitation with Ramsar sites

-2% to 0%

0% to +4%

+4% to +8%

+8% to +12%

+12% to +16%

Reactive methods: •Reduce other

pressures •Water/land

management at Landscape scale •Seek multiple

ecosystem benefits

Proactive methods: •Species translocation

•Habitat alteration •Migration corridors

•New reserves in future “Climate change

envelopes”

Potential strategic Climate change biodiversity response options For lake conservation at the catchment landscape scale SNH/SEPA funded research Martin Muir/John Rowan/Chris Spray Dundee

22/05/2012 10

Use and integration of Community knowledge

Managing Borderlands: – RELU project (Lead Newcastle University)

Examining how local communities can become more resilient and adaptive to

flooding in the context of the “borders” that exist between institutions, between

different knowledges (and access to knowledge) and different stakeholders in

England and Scotland, faced by challenges of climate change

Comparing “upstream” and “downstream” communities; institutions, agencies and

individuals, etc (Q methodology)


Valuation and payments for Ecosystem services

West Country Rivers Trust and UEA

Devising and testing PES schemes

Setting up markets for Payments for Ecosystem Services across a Catchment

Fecal Organisms

Nutrients

Flooding

Carbon

Sediment UPSTEAM

Market - buyers

DOWNSTREAM

Providers - farmers

Ethical broker

Trusted Intermediary

Water, Carbon, flood reduction, nutrient control, recreation


Governance structures for Catchment management

Scottish Universities Insight Institute

Gatekeepers of Participatory Management

Dundee University and St. Andrews

University, with Tweed Forum

Workshops and Field Visits in 2011

Motueka River Basin, New Zealand

Fraser Basin, Canada

Tweed, Scotland/England

Dee, Scotland

Catchment NGOs and their role interfacing

between government and society in

integrated water resource management

www.scottishinsight.ac.uk ,


Integration – the Ecosystems Approach

interfacing between government and

society in integrated water resource

management

www.scottishinsight.ac.uk ,

Functional gradients

Carbon sequestrationCarbon sequestration

Floodwater detentionFloodwater detention

Nutrient & contaminant transformationNutrient & contaminant transformation

Food chain Food chain

supportsupport


Conclusions:

• Integration is the BIG Challenge

• Need for long-term pilot Catchment studies, with real bio-

physical data to prove models

• Need for ‘standardisation’ of a range of proven tools and

techniques

• Need for novel, rapid assessment tools – e.g mapping ecosystem

services

• Need more on ground-water:surface water interactions

• Need to enable NGOs and partnerships to also lead

integrated water management: ongoing research: challenges for water security: science ... sps...

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