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Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are a serious risk to human health and the sustainability of the aquaculture industry. Research by Prof. Davidson has improved understanding of temporal and spatial trends in marine HABs and detection of toxins in farmed shellfish. Knowledge gleaned from this research has been adopted by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the design of the HAB Monitoring Programme for Scotland. Prof. Davidson leads the FSA HAB Monitoring Programme. The research findings also underpin the Crown Estate's finfish monitoring programmes and are used to advise aquaculture businesses on ways to reduce economic impact of HAB events.
The OPAL Water Centre at UCL, funded to a total of £732k, developed an innovative educational national water survey programme accessible to people of all ages and abilities, promoted especially within disadvantaged communities. Of the more than 45,000 participants, 17% were from 'hard to reach' communities. The Survey encouraged greater understanding of the aquatic environment through public participation in water quality and aquatic biodiversity assessment and used high-quality research to link the community, voluntary and statutory sectors by creating a channel through which locally derived information could lead to site-specific management as well as national and international policy.
Information on the potential impacts of climate change across the world, and on the effects of policies designed to reduce emissions, is fundamental to inform the development of climate mitigation and adaptation policy. Research conducted at the Unit has been critical to the establishment of a target 80% cut in UK carbon emissions by 2050, as enforced by the Climate Change Act (2008), and provided an affirmation of the relevance of the 2f0b0C global mean temperature rise target central to national and international climate mitigation policy. Research into the global consequences of climate change, particularly for water resources and river flooding, has been used by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to assess the impacts of un-mitigated climate change and the effects of different mitigation policy options.
This work helps the UK and Ireland fulfil their statutory duties to assess and improve the state of freshwater ecosystems. EU legislation requires all water bodies to be managed sustainably to achieve a state close to that of the water body in its natural state. Research in Geography at Newcastle has pioneered the use of diatoms (microscopic algae) in lakes and rivers to describe the ecological characteristics of this natural state and developed models and software that allow deviation from this state to be assessed. The model and database are used by all water agencies in the UK and Republic of Ireland to fulfil their statutory requirements and have led to new environmental standards that indicate that over 40% of the total length of UK rivers is at risk from elevated phosphorus concentrations.
Research by Professor Wilby since 1993 has led to the development of regional climate modelling techniques, climate risk assessment frameworks, and adaptation planning approaches for long- lived water and energy infrastructure. Benefits were delivered through public domain software, practitioner training, and technical advice to policy-makers. This case study provides examples of impact conveyed via these services to national and international agencies, non-governmental organisations and commercial partners who are formulating strategies to manage exposure of their portfolios to climate risks. The work helped build technical capacities in climate risk management and adaptation options appraisal, particularly in vulnerable parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Research at Cranfield has underpinned national policies for managing and allocating the UK's agricultural water resources over the past 20 years. It has supported major reforms in water policy, abstraction legislation and drought management. It has done this by modelling spatial and temporal variations in demand for irrigation, linking this to the financial impacts of water stress on crop yield and quality, projecting future demand, and assessing climate change impacts and potential adaptations. It has also significantly impacted the agri-food sector, helping agribusinesses assess the viability of irrigation and reservoir investment, encouraging collaboration, and reducing risks in the food supply chain.
A novel large-area process-based crop simulation model developed at the University of Reading and published in 2004 has been used to explore how climate change may affect crop production and global food security. The results of Reading's modelling work have been used as evidence to support the case for action on climate change for international agreements and used by the UK Government to inform various areas of policy and, in particular, to help frame its position on climate change at international negotiations. The database and knowledge from this model also informed the development of Reading's innovative web-based tool that locates sites where the climate today is similar to the projected climate in another location - providing insight into potential adaptation practices for crop production in the future by linking to present-day examples. This tool has been used to inform and train farmers and policy-makers in developing countries and has supported policy implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
The Edinburgh-based research (2009-) of Gordon Hughes underpinning this case study has influenced the development of World Bank policies and advice concerning the response to climate change. It has done so by providing a measure of the financial costs of adapting our infrastructure to climate change. His work shows that the financial burden is unevenly spread across countries and sectors, but it can often be substantially reduced by better managing natural resources and weather risks. These findings were given a worldwide reach as they formed the factual basis for the signing of international agreements (worth $80bn) on reducing greenhouse emissions by the 2010 Conference of Parties (all the UN member states).
The project combined stakeholder knowledge with natural science to identify future scenarios and adaptation options for uplands. Research into upland ecosystem services identified win-win scenarios (e.g. around carbon management) and important trade-offs (e.g. effects on biodiversity). These were embedded within government policy reports leading to additional work in government departments seeking to overcome policy barriers in these areas in order to implement the recommendations from the research. Overcoming these policy barriers has influenced government's decision to work in partnership to launch a new peatland carbon code, focussing on upland peatlands, creating corporate social responsibility (CSR) options for companies via peatland protection and restoration.
New approaches to analysing and modelling water systems, developed at Cardiff, have driven national policy changes to improve the proportion of fully functioning water ecosystems in the UK. UK Government, Welsh Government and a range of NGOs have adopted these new approaches, which replace traditional descriptive methods with experimental, analytical and modeling techniques for understanding water ecosystems.
These approaches have been used to develop the water-related component of the National Ecosystem Assessment. This document has directly impacted on UK river management policy, forming the basis of two Defra White papers, `Natural Choice' and `Water for Life', underpinning Welsh Government's Natural Environment Framework and informing the work of a range of NGOs.