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Demonstration Test Catchments‐ building our capacity for catchment management
Bob Harris
A joint project of Defra, WAG and the Environment Agency
http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/science/how/strategy.htm
The BIG Challenges
River catchments are complex systems…
… providing ecosystem services which are out of balance
Demonstration Test CatchmentsOverall Initial Objective and Hypothesis
DTC Programme will:‐– assess the effectiveness of on‐farm mitigation measures for reducing diffuse pollution from agriculture to water
– produce evidence to test the hypothesis that it is possible through the implementation of multiple on‐farm measures to:
• cost‐effectively reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse pollution to water on ecological function,
• while maintaining food security
5
The Challenges
• Water and river ecosystems have little identifiable “value” in our society;
• We have lost the connectivity of people to their (environmental) surroundings
• Tendency to work a top‐down system and find it difficult to capture “local learning”;
• Some river basins do not lend themselves to large scale joined‐up planning ‐ geographically and institutionally;
• Science/research has not been closely involved in “the (WFD) process”
The Challenges
• WFD allows adaptive approaches and encourages synergies, but the RBPs so far have been developed with little built in.– Focus has been on the process of preparing them
• we need to address diffuse pressures – but all our processes and culture for past 40 years have been honed to address point sources– We collect data from the wrong places
– Our approach is not holistic
• we tend to deal with one issue at a time, in isolation – whatever’s in the public eye
To balance and maximise ecosystem services we need to understand the complexities as well as we can/need to, work holistically, and integrate…
• Integrated understanding
• Integration between scales
• Integrated approaches….
• Integrated working
Today?
Tomorrow?
Science & knowledge
Policy & regulation
Community & stakeholders
Integrated Catchment Management
Learning from Europe• Be well informed
– Have a sound understanding of the functioning of the soil‐water system and its interaction with the socio‐economic system
• Manage Adaptively– “Learn to manage by managing to learn” as a way of addressing uncertainties in the system
• Take a participatory approach– Learn and manage together to develop “win‐wins”
DTC – Three Objectives• To test the hypothesis ‐ it is possible to cost effectively reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse water pollution on ecological function while maintaining food security through the implementation of multiple on‐farm measures.
• To develop a research platform to host collaborative research and thus test:– More efficient and effective ways of undertaking research
– How interdisciplinary working can inform integrated policy.
• To explore a new model for catchment managementcentred around local knowledge and understanding.
Delivery of objectives by:• Developing “communities of practice” with wider stakeholder groups
• Obtaining and using existing data, information and knowledge more effectively, better definition of the weight of evidence on agricultural diffuse pollution for policy and regulation
• Linking currently disparate research on interrelated impacts of agriculture on the environment
Overall project broken down into five work streams (components)
1. Design and implementation of monitoring approach for each catchment ‐ catchment conceptual model
2. On‐farm measures to mitigate diffuse pollution by monitoring outcomes at a range of scales
3. Knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer,
4. Development of infrastructure for data management and dissemination
5. Predictive Modelling and DSS
3 and 4 undertaken in close co‐operation with the NERC VO
Focusing effort on 3 catchments but linking closely to other catchment work – and an additional Welsh catchment to be added in 2010/11
DTC – some figures
• 3 (4) Catchments• 9 sub‐catchments• each 10 square Km in area• 5 year programme• £6 million budget• >40 Institutions
Demonstration Test Catchments
• Testing measures to protect water• Using new monitoring approaches• Making data available• Sharing knowledge• Linking monitoring to modelling• Building research platforms• Building Communities of Practice• Being adaptive, participatory, collaborative
Shared visionof Integrated Catchment
Management
DTC
Water company schemes and investigations
NERC & RCUK Programmes ‐ VO
EA & NE activities Catchment Sensitive Farming etc
Catchment Management Objective of DTC project –working with “family”
of otheractivities
Defra Programmes
Local schemes/other projects – LA and Rivers Trusts etc
Scottish and Irish Catchment projects
DTC as a Research Platform• Researchers working collaboratively with themselves stakeholders and policy‐makers/regulators;
• Multi‐disciplinary approaches lead to interdisciplinary working;
• Local stakeholders bring local knowledge, policy‐makers bring challenges;
• State of the art monitoring producing data which will be made available to others;
• Data linked closely to models; an iterative process develops our knowledge and understanding
• Communities of practice develop and…• Knowledge exchange just happens!
Integrated Approaches
• Win‐wins– Rely on knowledge, understanding and education
• Incentives– Rely on a funding source– If consumers and taxpayers pay – they have to understand why ‐ the value of ecosystems and how people relate to them
• Regulation– Minimal, but always some who won’t conform; and it needs to be joined up – e.g. water and land use
Regulation‐where they
won’t
Incentives‐where you
can’t
Win‐wins‐where you can
A mix of approaches
What DTC project can offer
• links to existing research consortia working with local stakeholder communities on real problems;
• close links with policy and regulatory communities at local and national levels;
• opportunities to explore new techniques and technologies with the ability to rapidly verify resultant data;
• early take‐up of successful techniques in support of scientific research that is policy‐relevant.
DTC Project Contacts
General enquiries: [email protected]
Defra Project Manager: Dan McGonigle, [email protected]
EA Project Manager: Sean Burke sean.burke@environment‐agency.gov.uk
DTC Secretariat: Bob Harris, : [email protected]
Avon Consortium:Prof Adrian Collins, ADAS
Eden Consortium: Prof Phil Haygarth, Lancaster Uinversity
Wensum Consortium:Dr. Kevin Hiscock, UEA
GHG Platform: Luke.Spadavecchia, [email protected]
