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2012 saw 31.1 million overseas visitors come to the UK and 57.7 million domestic holidays taken by GB residents1. However, precise understanding of tourism's economic and environmental impact, particularly at local and regional levels, has historically been weak. Cardiff Business School's (CBS) Welsh Economy Research Unit (WERU) has significantly contributed to developing methodologies to quantify tourism's socio-economic impact at different scales. Their development of the first Tourism Satellite Account for the UK has informed the way national and international agencies conceptualise and measure tourism impacts. Researchers then developed a Tourism Impact Model to assess the impact of new facilities and infrastructure, and of large sporting and cultural events. This has helped event organisers and sponsors, including the Welsh Government, understand how to optimise value for money whilst minimising undesirable environmental impacts.
The Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) is a pioneering study, combining census, civil registration, health and education data (administrative data). It has established an approach that allows the legal and ethical use of personal, sensitive information by maintaining anonymity within the data system. This approach has become a model for the national data linkage systems that are now being established across the UK. The SLS has also enabled policy analysts to monitor key characteristics of the Scottish population in particular health inequalities (alerting policy makers to Scotland's poor position within Europe), migration (aiding economic planning) and changing tenure patterns (informing house building decisions). Finally, the study has become fully embedded in Scotland's National Statistical agency, allowing it to produce new informative statistical series.
The British Household Panel Study (BHPS) is a longitudinal survey that has followed a representative sample of individuals since the early 1990s. The resource is used routinely by government departments (e.g. DWP, HMRC, Cabinet Office) and third-sector bodies (e.g. Children's Society) for their research and for monitoring progress towards policy targets. The data's longitudinal character has helped to transform government departments' understanding of the goals of social policies, and allowed them to redefine targets in ways not possible without the BHPS. Examples include DWP's monitoring of persistent poverty, which uses BHPS data to estimate the probability of an individual living in poverty for several successive years.
A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is defined by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), as requiring special protection due to its vulnerability to damage from maritime activities and for ecological, socio-economic or scientific significance.
The Wadden Sea, in the North Sea, is a dynamic tidal ecosystem and a significant nursery area for commercial fisheries. It is adjacent to one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. It was designated a PSSA following a feasibility study conducted by Southampton Solent University (SSU). SSU later conducted an evaluation of its effectiveness and the report informed the Ministerial Council as the Sylt Declaration.
The advanced information management research of the Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) has led to a better understanding of pollution processes in inland waterways and lakes. It has also improved the standard of water quality information that is available to government and regulatory authorities. The information management framework which DDH has provided supports government-funded activities to improve environmental standards and has helped ensure that the UK Environment Agency is able to comply with the EU's Water Framework Directive, reducing the risk of financial penalties for non-compliance. Moreover, key and accurate evidence about water quality has been made freely available to beneficiaries, including governmental and non-governmental agencies, farmers and land managers, and the general public.
The Green Guide to Specification is an environmental profiling system that enables designers and constructors to select building materials and components which have the lowest environmental impact. Designed and developed at Oxford Brookes University, the Green Guide methodology provides the construction industry with reliable environmental evaluations based on quantitative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data. Now in its 4th edition and part of the BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes programmes, Green Guide has been used to reduce environmental impacts for over 230,000 recorded construction projects, with a further 1.07 million projects registered awaiting certification worldwide. In 2009, the Green Guide was adopted as the official design standard for all construction materials used in the London 2012 Olympics.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
Dr Mark Hampton's research informs tourism policy for the world's 40 small island developing states (SIDS) and poor coastal communities. He generates data that challenge conventional wisdom about the value of large scale tourism for these fragile economies. His findings identify niche tourism as a more sustainable basis for economic growth. The Commonwealth, World Bank and individual governments, as well as numerous other NGOs and industry associations, are amongst those who draw upon Hampton's research findings in order to help vulnerable states formulate effective policies and develop appropriate tourism initiatives.
The North East Economic Model (NEEM) was designed and developed at Durham University Business School (DUBS) from 2003. Customized to the regional economy, the aim of the research was for NEEM to model intra- and extra-regional economic relationships to provide quantitative estimates/projections of the impact of both long-term economic trends and shorter-term economic `shocks'. Its application has had significant impacts on policy practitioners in the region by: (1) facilitating more robust evidence-based policy analysis; (2) giving rise to knowledge transfer to policy-makers regarding the structure and workings of the regional economy; and (3) acting as a catalyst for an extended regional policy-modeling capacity. By influencing professional practice, it has had demonstrable impacts on regional economic policy, regional economic restructuring and local planning.
Open Data has lowered barriers to data access, increased government transparency and delivered significant economic, social and environmental benefits. Southampton research and leadership has led to the UK Public Data Principles, which were enshrined in the UK Government Open Data White Paper, and has led to data.gov.uk, which provides access to 10,000 government datasets. The open datasets are proving means for strong citizen engagement and are delivering economic benefit through the £10 million Open Data Institute. These in turn have placed the UK at the forefront of the global data revolution: the UK experience has informed open data initiatives in the USA, EU and G8.