Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Network FCERM_Net
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
Abstract
Flooding is now a major problem worldwide. Recognition of this resulted in funders of flood risk management in the UK pooling resources to jointly fund the Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (FRMRC), from 2004 until 2012. The consortium was charged with establishing a programme of high quality science to enhance understanding of flooding and improve society's ability to reduce flood risk. This initiative enabled the agencies responsible for FCERM in the UK to actively engage with the university research community in a manner that facilitated the successful uptake of improved scientific and engineering techniques in support of flood risk management practice. In anticipation of the end of FRMRC the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) Partnership developed and published its UK Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy in 2011. To provide investment in this strategy the EPSRC held an "Innovative Solutions to Flood Risk" sandpit. The outcome of which was the award of three new grants supporting innovation in flood risk management. The purpose of the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Network (FCERM_Net) is to support the LWEC strategy by providing a co-ordinating activity for the EPSRC investment through the facilitation of interaction between the research and user communities to aid the translation and uptake of the research, identifying emerging research gaps and encouraging the development of new research proposals to bridge these gaps.
Planned Impact
There is a clear mapping from the aims and objectives of the current portfolio of EPSRC flood and coastal erosion sandpit grants and research priorities identified in the LWEC UK Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research Strategy. An important role of the Network is therefore to maintain this "line of sight" from the planned research to the needs of the research users. This will be achieved through the co-ordination of knowledge exchange and dissemination activities that add value to those planned by the individual investigators. For example, (i) the website, bi-annual newsletter and news items in selected professional newsletters will raise general awareness of the research, (ii) themed technical meetings, webinars and fact sheets will provide technical detail of the relevance of the research to research users, and, (iii) the participation of EA/Defra Theme Advisory Groups (covering England and Wales) and the Centre for Expertise in Waters (covering Scotland). The involvement of these organisations in Network steering and meetings will facilitate the identification of research topics that have achieved sufficient level of maturity to justify further development to proof of concept stage prior to implementation in practice. Additionally, the reports to be authored following each Assembly will be designed to advise research users on progress towards these objectives and allow forward planning of any follow on work they will be required to undertake to translate the research outcomes into usable products and tools.
Organisations
Publications
Liu Y
(2015)
A flood inundation modelling using v-support vector machine regression model
in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
| Description | The purpose of this network award was to facilitate meetings between researchers and users in the UK's Flood Risk Management Community to discuss the activities of current funded research and its alignment with users needs. A secondary objective was to co-create future research proposals enable continuation of research funding in this field. As an outcome four new research grant proposals were developed by the community, one of which has been funded. |
| Exploitation Route | There are numerous ongoing collaborations between network members to develop the impact opportunities highlighted by the network's activities. |
| Sectors | Construction,Environment |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net |
| Description | The network has supported the creation of a community of researchers and practitioners with a common interest in improving flood and coastal erosion risk management practice. This community has provided advice, expertise and research that has had a direct impact on the work and practice of flood management agencies. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Construction,Environment,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | FCERM.net Annual Assembly (2014) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Network (FCERM_net) Annual Assembly took place on June 19-20th 2014. It aimed to bring together a diverse range of professionals from across the Flood Risk Management sector, as well as those working in related disciplines. The event had five key objectives: • Share information about on-going research in FCERM and identify knowledge gaps • Develop a dialogue between researchers and research users • Create opportunities for networking and building community • Actively encourage the development of novel research ideas (driven by user/sector needs) • Provide support and encourage development of research students and early career researchers in FCERM The event aspired to be open and inclusive to anyone working within, or indeed, interested in Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management and was marketed using a number of different approaches including: 1. Distribution Lists (FCERM Network list, LWEC distribution list and ESRC distribution list 2. Through other networks (ARRC, ICE, IAHR, GESA) 3. Social Media - twitter and Linked-In total 108 delegates registered for the event, with 101 attending on the day. Format of the Event The programme was designed to launch the FCERM Network and provide delegates with a clear vision of the network's aims and objectives, as well as providing opportunities for contributions, knowledge sharing and progress reports from both academia and other FRM professionals. The day began with an introduction from Garry Pender, who officially launched the network and provided an overview of the network aims and discussed the strategy for achieving these. Project overviews and updates were presented by the PI's of the 3 EPSRC sandpit projects on FLOODMemory , Blue-Green Cities and SESAME (Chris Kilsby, Colin Thorne, and Graham Coates, respectively). These were followed by presentations from professionals working across the sector including Stefan Laeger (Environment Agency), Jeremy Benn (JBA Consulting) and John Hillier, Loughborough University. An event programme is provided in Appendix A. Given the network's objectives of being inclusive and interdisciplinary, providing networking opportunities, and highlighting gaps in research to facilitate collaboration, the afternoon and early evening was dedicated to meeting these objectives in the following ways: 1. A special session was dedicated to looking at FRM from the perspective of another discipline. This 'Guest Spotlight' presentation was delivered by Virginia Murray, Public Health England and explored the relationship between flooding and health. 2. An informal drinks reception in the early evening aimed at providing delegates with opportunities to make connections, follow up on questions from presentations or make new contacts. 3. A final session used the LWEC research strategy to help map current and on-going research activities, as well as identifying gaps and topical/timely needs or research interests. Finally time was allotted to enable delegates to complete evaluation forms. It was emphasised that this was a primary mechanism for members of the Network to share their ideas about what they would like from the Network. A major outcome from the breakout sessions was 3 new interdisciplinary research proposals |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/resource/reality-approach-flood-risk-management-research |
| Description | FCERM.net Annual Assembly (2015) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Network (FCERM.net) Annual Assembly took place in May 2015. It brought together a diverse range of professionals from across the sector with the aim of disseminating key outcomes from on-going research, encouraging networking and collaboration on future research, and sharing guidance on best practice in 'dissemination for impact'. The programme included research presentations from on-going EPRSC projects, input from colleagues at CREW and DEFRA, a breakout session on the theme of dissemination for impact, and closed with forward-looking presentations on new project ideas. A key workshop was delivered at the event that explored the idea of moving away from one-way 'dissemination' towards a model of engagement and co-creation. This workshop yieleded very positive outcomes with industry and consutants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/IntoPractice |
| Description | FCERM.net Launch Event (2013) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The FCERM Network launch meeting took place on November 18th 2013 at Ashton University, Birmingham. The aim of the event was to bring together professionals working across FCERM sector, to share the aims of the network, provide opportunities for delegate input on the direction of the Network, share recent progress on research projects and to provide opportunities for networking. The event was attended by 80 delegates from a number of dicsplines and professions across te FCERM sector. The launch meeting achieved the desired outcomes in that: -It raised the profile of the Network to key audiences in the Eavironment Agency, DERFA, LWEC, universities, and industry -Provdided key stakeholders with opportunities to influence the strategic direction of the network -Provided opportunities for networking and partnership building |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | FCERM.net-Sniffer Research Needs Workshop (2016) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was delived at The National Flood Risk Conference (2016), Edinburgh. The participants were 'users' of research from policy, practice and local authorities, as well as researchers. Pracitioners and Implementers were asked through a variety of activities to identify the most ressing knowlege needs in Flood Risk Managers. As wth the workshop at the conference the previous year, the report from the workshop prioritised the most pressing research needs' to be presented at the CREW (Scotlan's Centre for Exertise on Waters' steering group meeting, where policy requirements in Flood Risk Management and funding for small scale research is on the agenda. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.sniffer.org.uk/knowledge-hubs/resilient-catchments/flood-risk-management/flood-risk-manag... |
| Description | International Water Resources Association (IWRA) World Water Congress (2015) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As part of a contribution to the Worl Water Congress in 2015, the Network delivered a full conference session on Flood Risk Management, inviting international speakers to keynote, and share experiences from their perspective, as well as inviting contributions from the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Professional practitioners and researchers from across the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.iwra.org/congress/2015/special-sessions/ |
| Description | Presentation: Raising profile of FCERM.net at a National Flood Risk Management Conference (2015) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The presentation was delivered at the National Flood Risk Management Conference (2015). The presentation was delivered to almost 250 professionals (policy, practice and local authorities) and researchers in Flood Risk management with the aim of raising the profile of the Network, and of its new on-line community forum. A workshop was also delivered at this event (reported under influencing policy) to directly illustrate the ways in which the network aims to build relationships between sectors in FRM, and encourage the co-creation of research through collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.sniffer.org.uk/knowledge-hubs/resilient-catchments/flood-risk-management/flood-risk-manag... |
| Description | Sharing Best Practice in Network Management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We worked closely with other Knowledge Networks such as ARCC and TEDiNET and have been involved in meetings with them regarding best practice in managing networks. Feedback from these meetings has been very positive with the view that we have taken some very innovative approaches to connecting with our community that other networks would like to replicate. We are now working with these networks to widen our reach into disciplines and sectors that we previously did not have access to, and to ensure that we approach the management, grwoth and sustainability of our Network by keeping up to date with best practice used in other organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Sharing Best Practice in Research Dissemination |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop designed in collaboration with Sniffer for the FCERM.net Annual Assembly at the mid-way point of the Network's funding (and mid-way through 3 sandpit research projects associated with FCERM.net). The workshop was delivered at this time to provide support to research teams at the mid-stage of ther research to encourage increased engagement with 'receptors' or 'users' of their research and to encourage collaboartion between experts in industry and research teams. There was an emphasis on thinking about the 'useability, applicability and usefulness' of the research and researchers were encouraged to explore this with industy experts at the event. There was also a deeper exploration of what 'dissemination of research' looks like and a push towards engagement and co-creation rather than one-way transmission of outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/IntoPractice |
| Description | Web-based Engagement - Social Media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Network has a website that acts as acentral hub for our communcations and engagement (detailed elsewhere). We have used social media extensively to reach audiences outwith our UK network. This includes a vibrant twitter community where we have 885 followers from the flooding/water/environment sector and a Linked In discussion group which enables us to reach a targetted professional audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/FCERMnet |
| Description | Web-based engagement (Community Newsletters) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our community newsletter is sent to our members database every 6-8 weeks, compiled from news storeis gathered from across the whole community, and from other leading outlets for Flood-related news. It aims to keep our members up to date with news, reports, opportunities, events and publications from across the sector. It also aims to sustain the profile of the Network in between our events and promote our monthly blog and webinar series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/newsletters |
| Description | Web-based engagement - Blogs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Network has a website that acts as a central hub for our communcations and engagement (detailed elsewhere). As part of our communication strategy, a key objective was to reach out beyond our technical researchers and practitioners and appeal to a broader audience (local authorities, flood action groups, the media, students, and other interest groups). The blogs were designed to achieve this by being purposefully brief, to identify a perspective on a 'hot topic' and key issues related to this (rather than reporting on a project and methdology) and specifically requests authors not to use subject-specific 'exclusive' jargon or terminolgy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/blogs |
| Description | Web-based engagement - Webinars |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As part of our communication strategy, one of the key audiences identified were professional practitioners, who require to be kept up to date with technical advancements and developmnts in the field, and on-going projects and experiences of other pracitoners. The lunchtime webinar series was developed to provide our community with these 'on-going project' updates and technical information in a breif, accessible format. Webinars are scheduled every 4-6 weeks 9with the exception of th summer months June, July and August) and last for 20mins, with a 10-15min question and answer session to ensure busy professionals can fit this into their working day with ease. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.fcerm.net/resources?field_resource_series_tid=All&field_resource_type_tid=41 |