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A research partnership between Edge Hill University and Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council developed innovative methods of identifying gaps in knowledge and understanding about sedimentary coastal dynamics and investigating practitioner needs. The partnership enabled the dissemination of scientific information to audiences across the wider community. The partnership provided a framework which enabled and enhanced integrated coastal zone management (ICZM). Within this framework coastal zone managers were supported in the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies, taking account of both long and short term environmental change. Policy and management decisions are now based upon sound scientific evidence wherever possible, ascertained by research where time allows, with significant scientific, social and policy benefits. Practice elsewhere on the UK's Irish sea coast, and elsewhere in the EU, has been influenced.
The Coastal Processes Research Group (CPRG) at Plymouth University has developed new methodologies, utilising video systems to efficiently monitor and manage the coastal environment. This research has impacted upon coastal managers, mariners, coastal communities, tourists and industries, for example, by reducing the risk of coastal flooding, drowning in rip currents and ships running aground. Algorithms, methodologies and systems developed by the CPRG, trigger appropriate and timely management intervention to protect coastal communities from flooding, instruct dredging operations and effectively manage recreational beach resources.
Research carried out by the University of Reading's Martin Bell and Nicholas Branch on previously neglected wetland environments (such as coasts, floodplains and mires) has had impact in two main areas:
1) Heritage management: The work has made a major contribution to the sustainable management of marginal environments in the face of climate change and development pressures. This has directly affected local planning processes, with Bell and Branch's approaches to monitoring and recording adopted as best practice by a range of organisations.
2) Capacity building of geoarchaeology in the commercial sector: The research has enhanced the capability of organisations to respond effectively to the challenges of interpreting European wetland archaeology in advance of development pressures. Knowledge transfer of the research to these commercial units has contributed to sustained economic growth for such organisations.
University of Glasgow expertise in coastal erosion has directly influenced biodiversity policy at local, national and international levels, delivered flood mitigation initiatives in partnership with public agencies in Scotland, and mobilised public support for environmental safeguards to preserve our natural heritage. Dr Jim Hansom has been instrumental in shaping UK environmental strategy to include geodiversity. In Scotland, he has worked with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on flood assessments and the identification of Sites of Special Scientific Interest, helped to establish a charity mobilising community volunteers to monitor Scotland's coastline, and assisted Oxfam to allocate erosion prevention grants to local communities. Hansom's expertise has fed into the polemic protest film You've Been Trumped and a BBC Panorama special, bringing coastal geodiversity and biodiversity issues sharply into focus on a very public stage.
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.