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Staff: Global Faculty: Associates:- Dr Alison Reeves
- Dr Andrew Black
- Dr Ben Brock
- Dr John Rowan
- Dr Mark Cutler
- Dr Tom Ball
- Professor Carol MacKintosh
- Professor Geoff Codd
Projects:
Scientific Research
We take forward scientific research in the following, connected, areas:- Water and Wetland Ecosystem Service;
- Land Use, Hydrology and Flood Risk Management;
- Integrated Catchment Management; and
- Water Quality.
Land Use, Hydrology and Flood Risk
We undertake work here both on the practical science side, and on the policy side, working primarily in the Tweed catchment and linking closely to a range of strategic partners – Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Government, Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), British Geological Survery, and especially Tweed Forum, who are the key HELP Basin player in this context. Beyond the Tweed and the UK, our work focuses on hill slope hydrology, forest and land management. Our research includes a focus on the potential effectiveness, or otherwise of intervening in catchments utilising a variety of natural flood management techniques to help reduce the risk of downstream flooding, but recognising also the importance of groundwater and subsurface flows; see our Natural Flood Management poster which summarises much of this work. Also, please see the Science Overview of projects at our Centre.
Above: group of stakeholders, including IHP-HELP Centre scientists and lawyers, on field trip.
Above: cut reeds at Tay reed-beds.
Delivering Water and Wetlands Ecosystem Services
Whilst the scientific paradigm of ecosystem services is now widely embraced, and novel techniques for valuing ecosystem services are being developed, actual delivery on the ground lags far behind. This could look like:- The Bridge between Science and Policy: in particular via catchment-based Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), exploring the role that they play at the interface of emerging policy and community wishes and involvement.
- Wetland Ecosystem Services: managing trade-offs through stakeholder participation – examining the potential for linking upstream providers and downstream beneficiaries in the Tweed basin; the nature of trade-offs that this raises; and the potential for payments for ecosystem services through either public or private funding, and planning mechanisms to deliver catchment wide ecosystem services benefits.
- Valuing Wetland Ecosystem Services: BBC News: "Nature 'is worth billions' to UK", 2nd June 2011, a key finding of a new, major, report: the National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA).
- Strategies for Conservation of Wetlands in the context of a Changing Climate: exploring the impact of climate change on the hydro-ecology of Scottish wetlands and the potential options to take forward mitigation and adaptation strategies for conservation of species and habitats of international importance.
Integrated Catchment Management:
- Flood risk reduction as an element of the wider issue of catchment management.
- Policy and science: perceptions and options for integrated catchment management – examining how stakeholder communities value water and perceive priorities for river and catchment management.
- Policy and science: effective governance for catchment management – examining how stakeholder-led Catchment Management organisations make a real difference to policy delivery in delivering real benefits on the ground; our particular focus is on the Tweed HELP Basin, and within that the Eddleston Water tributary.
- More: download Natural Flood Management poster and see May 2011 Water and Land Management event highlighting the long-established best practice approach to water supply in New York State and how this relies largely on natural filtration as part of integrated catchment management.
- Valuing Ecosystems: Policy, Economic and Management Interactions. Professor Chris Spray presented Trends and Issues in the delivery of Multiple Ecosystem Services at a Catchment Scale: Priorities for River Restoration at the SAC and SEPA Biennial Conference Agriculture and the Environment IX held at the University of Edinburgh between 3rd and 4th April 2012.
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