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An engineering methodology, Management of Slope Stability in Communities (MoSSaiC), has been developed to mitigate urban landslide risk in developing countries, and has been implemented in the Eastern Caribbean. The World Bank is now including the methodology in disaster risk mitigation projects more widely in the Latin America and Caribbean regions, starting with Jamaica (September 2011-). MoSSaiC centres on the efficient management of surface water (construction of hillside drainage networks) and is delivered through a community-focussed programme with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.7:1. The impact includes:
In 2011, the World Bank selected 13 methodologies for an `Aid Effectiveness Showcase' exhibition at its Washington DC headquarters. Due to its effectiveness, MoSSaiC was included as the only methodology relating to landslides.
A long-term research programme into landslides and rockfalls by DU researchers, focused on the use of novel field and laboratory techniques, has had impact on UK and foreign government authorities, NGOs, and businesses. The work has provided frameworks for managing hazard associated with deep-seated landslides in New Zealand and a landslide-dammed lake in northern Pakistan. Research on coastal cliff erosion in North Yorkshire has provided critical support for high-value mining activities at the UK's largest non-hydrocarbon extractive mine, and has underpinned local government strategies for shoreline hazard assessment and management.
New characterisation tools for natural organic matter (NOM) in drinking water are now used as standard practice within water companies such as Severn Trent Water, United Utilities and Yorkshire Water. The tools inform decisions, and help develop strategic plans on catchment management, source selection, treatment optimisation, and disinfection practice. Water companies experienced difficulties in treating high levels of NOM. Cranfield created a novel characterisation toolkit to measure NOM for its electrical charge and hydrophobicity. Also, new techniques for measuring aggregate properties and emerging disinfection by-products have provided a comprehensive analysis. Two novel treatment technologies are currently marketed. These technologies have raised international interest, resulting in industrial development in Australia.
Exeter Engineering's Centre for Water Systems (CWS) undertakes internationally leading fundamental and applied research in the $500bn global water sector. EPSRC-funded research has underpinned impacts with both reach and significance in the areas of practitioner and professional services and economic impact. CWS staff have co-authored authoritative best practice guides with highly respected practitioner publishers: the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Spon Press. These have been widely used in the water sector, and construction and built environment sector. CWS software and knowhow have been used extensively by water service providers (such as Scottish Water) and their consultants (including SEAMS, originally an Exeter spinout) to enhance business performance by identifying efficiencies, saving costs and improving operation. Optimisation software has been made freely available and has hundreds of users worldwide including consultants and financial organisations.
Research, undertaken at the University of Sheffield since 2001, into the discolouration of drinking water occurring within distribution systems has had economic, policy and professional practice impacts on the water supply sector since 2008. This has resulted in improved levels of service, has safeguarded water quality delivered to the public and has delivered substantial economic savings. For example, in one of the few cases where monetary value is available, Wessex Water made 63% savings on two trunk main schemes with an initial estimated cost in excess of £1M. The 4 and 7 km lengths of these trunk mains represent less than 1% of the trunk mains being impacted by our research. Our research has resulted in a step change in the concept and approach to the management of discolouration in water distribution systems.
Over a million urban dwellers in several developing countries are accessing water services as a result of research undertaken at Loughborough University. National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Uganda's main urban water utility, applied the research findings to improve service quality, and extend piped water supply to the previously un-served. During 2008-2011, over 500,000 additional urban residents accessed piped water supply of improved bacteriological and physico-chemical quality — resulting in significant enhancement of health and quality of life (particularly of children). Furthermore, the research benefits were transferred to other countries, through the work of NWSC's External Services Department, extending the reach to other countries including Kenya, Tanzania, India and Zambia.
Slope ALARMS is a novel low-cost sensor that detects acoustic emission and warns of the early signs of impending landslides. It has been developed and patented by Dixon at Loughborough University. British, Italian, Canadian and Austrian organizations with responsibility for vulnerable infrastructure have employed Slope ALARMS sensors since 2008 in locations with high landslide risk. Measurements have provided information on displacement rates and this is making a significant contribution to assessment of slope hazards. The invention has won awards and generated interest globally, raising public and professional awareness of landslide problems and the use of Slope ALARMS.
New health-evidence-based water quality criteria affecting over 24,000 EU bathing waters were implemented throughout the EU in 2012. These quantitative standards for microbial concentrations in sea water were based on WHO guidelines that were developed by Aberystwyth University's Centre for Research into Environment and Health (CREH) and founded on CREH's world-leading research. These standards (i) shape public policy by providing more rigorously-defined, quantitative health-based criteria, and (ii) improve implementation of environmental policy by facilitating the incorporation of real-time prediction of water quality, designed to provide `informed-choice' to bathers. Application of the standards on their own, i.e., without the prediction element, will result in the loss of 50% of UK's `Blue Flag' beach awards. With CREH's predictive element, however, the UK will both keep its blue flags and have higher standards of health protection. This prediction element is estimated by Defra to be worth between £1.4 and £5.3 billion to the UK economy over a period of 25 years following its initial implementation in 2012.
The impact of research by the University of Southampton into global access to safe drinking water has: (i) provided important evidence for new policy initiatives by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to promote home water treatment to reduce the 1.9 million deaths each year due to water- related infections, and (ii) stimulated debate among a range of stakeholders, including the media, advocacy groups and UN bodies, by challenging the accuracy of the assertion by the UN Secretary General that the UN Millennium Development Goal for safe water access has been met.
The Disaster and Development Network (DDN) researches and facilitates the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies to improve community resilience in the poorest communities of Southern Africa and South Asia. The DDN aims to initiate life-saving health policies and disaster risk reduction strategies through local engagement and policy intervention. This Case Study focuses on the way interventions based on DDN research have been implemented at local level, exemplified through community resilience-building in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. DDN research has impacted the United Nations Hyogo Framework for Action, the latest international strategy for disaster reduction.