JPI Urban Europe/NSFC: Designing Sponge Cities for multiple benefits: integrating nature based solutions to create sustainable places
Lead Research Organisation:
UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY
Department Name: Pollution (Wallingford)
Abstract
Climate change will intensify current urban problems like flooding, water quality, high temperatures and air pollution. In China, where cities are expanding rapidly, and Europe, there are opportunities to better manage the greenspace (parks, trees, woodland) and bluespace (rivers, lakes) to provide multiple benefits to people. This project uses the idea of 'Sponge Cities' where nature-based solutions' soak up high rainfall, reduce water and air pollution, high temperatures and noise, and improve recreation and health opportunities. We will work with businesses to design and finance innovative solutions in Chinese and European cities, which can be followed around the world.
Planned Impact
The project aims to become the European and Chinese reference point for Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for citizen-science participants, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, industry and society. It will allow a whole range of local stakeholders to assess how best to design NBS for optimal benefit (i.e. maximising co-benefits and minimising trade-offs in different environmental health and societal domains). As the project is designed specifically to identify suitable ways in which policy can be developed to incentivise business and society to help cities adapt successfully to future pressures from climate and population growth, it should have direct influence on Chinese economic development and welfare. In summary it should foster a more informed decision-making process for a wide range of users.
In order to achieve this, the project will invest in disseminating outputs and available materials / trainings to external stakeholders, with the purpose of motivating them to become engaged users and have a durable and significant impact all over Europe and China beyond the duration of the project.
The consortium has already taken important steps towards building up an initial understanding of key stakeholders. This first mapping will be further developed through the project, but a first categorisation of stakeholders has already emerged. Relevant project stakeholder groups and actors to involve in the process include: (1) the general public, including NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) and citizen scientists; (2) academia and institutions of learning, including career scientists, and primary and secondary school teachers; (3) policy makers and regulatory authorities in the fields of environment, city planning, nature-based solutions and sustainability; science journalists and science media; industry, including SMEs.
We have links with scientists involved in urban environmental research at NIWA (New Zealand) with whom we will share best practice in terms of NBS implementation. NIWA are exploring collaboration between New Zealand and China on urban sustainability.
Our findings will reach out to local authorities. In Suzhou, the authority is supportive of the project and will be engaged in an advisory capacity. This will provide essential groundwork for dissemination of findings. Our workshop activity will bring together governing authorities and businesses, and this linkage will provide a route to continued engagement to raise awareness of project findings.
Earthwatch, who are sub-contractors on the project, are engaged in global citizen science projects on urban sustainability. Our research activity and case study assessments will provide momentum and a logical focus for sustaining citizen participation towards the monitoring of indicators of environmental health in urban parks and waterbodies in response to implementation of NBS. In this way, citizens will directly and actively be involved with the outcomes and impact of the project which will support widening of awareness of NBS benefits amongst local communities.
In order to achieve this, the project will invest in disseminating outputs and available materials / trainings to external stakeholders, with the purpose of motivating them to become engaged users and have a durable and significant impact all over Europe and China beyond the duration of the project.
The consortium has already taken important steps towards building up an initial understanding of key stakeholders. This first mapping will be further developed through the project, but a first categorisation of stakeholders has already emerged. Relevant project stakeholder groups and actors to involve in the process include: (1) the general public, including NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) and citizen scientists; (2) academia and institutions of learning, including career scientists, and primary and secondary school teachers; (3) policy makers and regulatory authorities in the fields of environment, city planning, nature-based solutions and sustainability; science journalists and science media; industry, including SMEs.
We have links with scientists involved in urban environmental research at NIWA (New Zealand) with whom we will share best practice in terms of NBS implementation. NIWA are exploring collaboration between New Zealand and China on urban sustainability.
Our findings will reach out to local authorities. In Suzhou, the authority is supportive of the project and will be engaged in an advisory capacity. This will provide essential groundwork for dissemination of findings. Our workshop activity will bring together governing authorities and businesses, and this linkage will provide a route to continued engagement to raise awareness of project findings.
Earthwatch, who are sub-contractors on the project, are engaged in global citizen science projects on urban sustainability. Our research activity and case study assessments will provide momentum and a logical focus for sustaining citizen participation towards the monitoring of indicators of environmental health in urban parks and waterbodies in response to implementation of NBS. In this way, citizens will directly and actively be involved with the outcomes and impact of the project which will support widening of awareness of NBS benefits amongst local communities.
Organisations
- UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Nottingham Ningbo China (Collaboration)
- Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) (Collaboration)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (Collaboration)
- University of Oslo (Collaboration)
- Babes-Bolyai University (Collaboration)
- Royal Holloway, University of London (Collaboration)
- Tsinghua University China (Collaboration)
Publications
Baker H
(2021)
How robust is the evidence for beneficial hydrological effects of urban tree planting?
in Hydrological Sciences Journal
Cole B
(2023)
Using a multi-lens framework for landscape decisions
in People and Nature
Cárdenas M
(2021)
The Circular Benefits of Participation in Nature-Based Solutions
in Sustainability
Fletcher D
(2022)
Location, Location, Location: Modelling of Noise Mitigation by Urban Woodland Shows the Benefit of Targeted Tree Planting in Cities
in Sustainability
Hutchins M
(2023)
Woodland Establishment Reduces Nutrient Losses to Waterbodies in Urban Catchments: A Review of the Evidence
in Water Resources Research
Hutchins M
(2024)
Comparing likely effectiveness of urban Nature-based Solutions worldwide: The example of riparian tree planting and water quality
in Journal of Environmental Management
Hutchins M
(2021)
Why scale is vital to plan optimal Nature-Based Solutions for resilient cities
in Environmental Research Letters
Jones L
(2022)
Airsheds, watersheds and more - The flows that drive intra-extra-urban connections, and their implications for nature-based solutions (NBS)
in Nature-Based Solutions
Jones L
(2024)
Economic value of the hot-day cooling provided by urban green and blue space
in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
| Description | The project has developed new knowledge through synthesis of existing evidence and new analysis of extensive datasets. In the water environment we have identified the benefits of urban tree planting in reducing flooding and nutrient pollution. For water quality specific considerations are needed when planting riparian trees (which have downstream consequences for eutrophication) and street trees (which may help the rapid transfer to rivers of leached nutrients along impermeable surfaces) (Hutchins et al., 2023). A submitted paper by Qu et al. 2024 (River invertebrate biodiversity benefits from upstream urban woodland, Landscape and Urban Planning) describes primary data analysis at UK national-scale and literature review meta-analysis. We developed methods for the spatial prioritization of urban greening that enhance active transport networks. Specifically, the methods identify the locations that improve equality of access, and enhance network cohesiveness and create connectivity. The methods are applied on the primary UK case study area in Birmingham. We developed dynamic simulation models of urban expansion with recognition of the role of ecosystem service provision in shaping peri-urban landscapes. The methods have been applied to characterise historical urban expansion dynamics across functional urban areas across Europe for multiple periods and can be used to produce alternative scenarios of future development in the urban-rural interface. We developed analytical methods for the estimation of determinants of route choice in round trips for leisure purposes. First results from an experimental approach are found for the city of Sheffield using recreational cycling data. With help from our international partners we have developed a framework for classifying and assessing the multiple benefits of urban nature-based solutions and how these relate to societal economic and financial benefits for society (Hutchins et al., 2021). Our approach is novel in that it includes considerations of scale. We have identified the importance of size and proximity of NBS to recipients. Other tools do not cover these aspects. New models developed during the project contribute to this framework, for example (1) a noise model (Fletcher et al., 2022), (2) an ecosystem service model of flood hydrology (Miller et al., 2023), (3) an adaptation of a water quality model to harmonise assessments between cities and identify the importance of local climatic factors in determining river quality benefits of urban riparian tree planting (Hutchins et al., 2024), (4) European-scale air quality model application to assess between-city differences in tree planting benefits, (5) an analysis of benefits of greening routes for public travel. Often these techniques, in particular in the case of the water environment, represent necessary simplifications of more detailed approaches. The original approaches are often too complex to be readily applied at the necessary scale and may lack sensitivity to key factors. We have developed new collaborations with international research organisations. In China we have contributed to research driven by University of Nottingham Ningbo in a mountainous sponge city in the south where rural-urban interactions are important in determining water-related ecosystem service benefits (Qi et al., 2023). This interconnects well with our wider conceptual advances on rural-urban interactions (Jones et al., 2022). We have made more specific progress on water quality modelling with Romanian collaborators (University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj) in Bracknell where we had earlier in the project done much necessary testing of the water flow and quality modelling tools. Here a novel and detailed process-based modelling approach simulates phosphorus dynamics based on climate driving variables and predicts downstream response to a range of Nature-based Solutions as informed by our core research (Borota et al., 2024. Hydrodynamics and phosphorus loading in an urbanised river channel influences response to future managed change: insights from advection-dispersion modelling, Science of the Total Environment, revised). We have made collaborative contact with Ecoten Urban Comfort (Prague) who undertake assessments of greenspace benefits for thermal control. |
| Exploitation Route | The principles of multi-benefit assessment that we have developed can be taken forward by other researchers. We can also influence non-academics. With our framework we can work together with decision-makers to help enable them to optimise planning of future urban Nature-based Solutions. The success in securing funding for the RECLAIM project is evidence of this influence. Laurence Jones is co-PI on RECLAIM. A substantial part of this new award builds on findings and collaboration networks developed in the current project; and these will be further developed in RECLAIM through a much broader group of participants from multiple sectors. More specifically, our refined models can form the basis for wider knowledge exchange. For example, a growing dataset of applications of the standardised version of the QUESTOR water quality model (Hutchins et al., 2024) provides a knowledge base to help evaluate to what extent an urban NBS intervention established in one part of the world will be successful elsewhere. We envisage the knowledge base will include assessment of interventions including tree planting, urban stream daylighting, and river restoration. Continental-scale assessments (western Europe and UK) have also been made using our air quality modelling approach. |
| Sectors | Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The Descipher project has had economic societal and policy impacts and has pushed wider research agendas forward. (1) Economic impacts. We conducted analysis of the economic value of alleviating damaging urban heat island effects by establishing green and blue space (Jones et al., 2024). Descipher research built on and improved an approach initially undertaken for Defra which developed natural capital accounts for urban green infrastructure. These improvements provided a time-series of assessment of green-space cooling benefit over a period of 10 years, and improved the approach by linking more directly to wet-bulb globe temperature (which is a better measure of heat stress) rather than air temperature. (2) Citizen involvement. We contributed to the design of public surveys of NBS perception. By adapting and applying concepts for visualising urban water status at different levels of quality, we contributed to assessment of public willingness to support Chinese NBS initiatives. This was part of a multi-benefit assessment initiated by a Norwegian co-funded partner NIVA, published with PI Mike Hutchins as co-author (Nawrath et al., 2024), which opens up new mechanisms by which NBS can be adopted in China. The deliverables/insights of the Descipher project are being used in several Earthwatch projects and programmes, in particular the ongoing work and actions of the Evenlode Catchment Partnership (as described by Loiselle et al., 2024 (Citizen scientists filling knowledge gaps of phosphate pollution dynamics in rural areas. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 196, 220) with DeSCIPHER researcher as lead author), and in our support for citizen science river programmes throughout the UK. (3) Local authority decision-making. Our modelling of water quality impacts of urban NBS has had impact at local government level; involving requests to develop further model applications to support ongoing policy decision-making (e.g., in Aarhus, Denmark) and via council meetings where we were invited to contribute knowledge we have gained to inform debate between local authorities and water industry in their co-developing of future sustainable urban water resource management (e.g., in Bracknell) Work under Descipher to develop the ecosystem service model for flood hydrology has been incorporated into an off-line version of the City Explorer Toolkit, an interactive tool aimed at city decision-makers. Work is ongoing to turn this into an online toolkit. There are aspirations to include assessments of other ecosystem services based on research funded under Descipher. (4) Influencing teaching and research in academia. Understanding of multi-faceted nature and scale-dependent accounting of the impact of nature based solution has been incorporated in the development of a new module on Nature Based Solutions in Environmental Engineering that is offered by the University of Surrey to students on 6 MSc programmes in Civil and Environmental Engineering. https://catalogue.surrey.ac.uk/2023-4/module/ENGM303/SEMR2/2 Several members of the consortium are active in the wider UKRI Landscape Decisions Programme, including academics and decision makers across the UK. Findings from the Descipher project have fed into working groups on landscape decision making and optimisation. These inputs relate to the use and challenges of the Ecosystem Service perspective when evaluating nature-based interventions in complex, multi-facetted, environments. More specifically transferred knowledge relates to understanding the interdependence of processes that deliver ecosystem services, and the scale dependency of those processes. Arising from this, the Cole et al (2024) paper presents a framework for holistic landscape decisions which goes beyond a goal of maximising multiple ecosystem services. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Reclaiming Forgotten Cities - Turning cities from vulnerable spaces to healthy places for people [RECLAIM] |
| Amount | £950,788 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/W034034/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 02/2025 |
| Description | Academic collaborations with University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham Ningbo China |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Delivered a seminar about the project to a group comprising academic staff and postgraduate students from University of Nottingham Ningbo and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Urban Environment Ningbo). Training provided to staff and final year undergraduate students on use of the QUESTOR river water quality model. Co-editor on special issue of Frontiers in Water (see below) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Lead authorship of two collaborative papers (through Dr Faith Chan) for submission to MDPI Water journal. Provision of data from a peri-urban river network downstream of a large public water supply reservoir. This is supporting a collaborative QUESTOR model application with Dr Meili Feng which will inform DeSCIPHER project development. Dr Lei Li (University of Manchester, former PhD student at UNNC) has initiated a special issue on "transition of NBS at the science-policy-practice interface" for the journal Frontiers in Water |
| Impact | QUESTOR river quality model application. Joint publications between Mike Hutchins and UNNC colleagues in (1) MDPI Water journal: QI Y, CHAN FKS, GRIFFITHS J, FENG M, SANG Y, O'DONNELL E, HUTCHINS MG, THADANI DR, LI GANG, SHAO M, XIE LI, LIU S, ZHANG C, LI X, LIU L, ZHONG M. 2021. Sponge City Program (SCP) and urban flood management (UFM) - the case of Guiyang, SW China [in special issue: Managing urban floods towards "sponge resilience cities" - concepts and practices]. Water, 13, 2784. 10.3390/w13192784. (2) River IWHR Wiley journal: QI Y, CHAN FKS, FENG M, GRIFFITHS J, HUTCHINS MG, O'DONNELL E, THORNE C, LIU L, ZHANG C, LI X. 2023. Developing a "Sponge Catchment Management Plan (SCMP)" framework at the catchment scale: The case of Guiyang, SW China. River, 10.1002/rvr2.33 These publications are not a formal DeSCIPHER funded contribution but relevant to project objectives and arising from DeSCIPHER activity. Research disciplines of contributing authors include hydrology, environmental science and business studies. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca Romania |
| Organisation | Babes-Bolyai University |
| Country | Romania |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Training in interpretation of QUESTOR model and provision of data from Bracknell case study originally collected under POLLCURB funding. An MSc dissertation was co-supervised and completed in Summer 2021. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Alternative modelling and assessment approaches to quantify impacts of urbanisation and implementation of nature based solutions on water quality. These were used in the MSc dissertation under the supervision of Dr Elisabeta-Cristina Timis. |
| Impact | Mike Hutchins and Cristina Timis originally collaborated in 2010 to assess alternative methods of river processing of pollutants arising from urban activities. Three papers have been published thus far. A fourth (Borota et al 2024, Science of the total Environment, revised) is likely to be published shortly. These are very relevant to the activities in the DeSCIPHER project. The MSc dissertation in 2021 contributed to the paper currently under revision. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Collaboration with Royal Holloway University of London |
| Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Department | Department of Earth Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | co-supervision by Dr Mike Hutchins of an MSc dissertation completed by Henry Baker in September 2020 |
| Collaborator Contribution | co-supervision by Dr Kevin Clemitshaw of an MSc dissertation completed by Henry Baker in September 2020 |
| Impact | An MSc thesis has been published. Henry Baker has undertaken additional literature searches and assessments to identify impacts of urban forestry on aquatic biology indicators. Two collaborative papers have now been published based on Henry Baker's thesis (see publications) and he has co-authored the presentation given to IAHS in July 2023 (see engagement activities) |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Multi-lateral collaborations with co-funded partners |
| Organisation | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Department | Institute of Urban Environment |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The non-UK part of JPI Urban Europe/NSFC project is also funded by RCN (NIVA and UoO) and NSFC (IUE and TU). UKCEH act as overall lead-PI. Collaborative papers are listed in the related section. Other research outputs to which UK investigators have contributed to less substantially (acknowledgements) and/or indirectly via project management facilitation are listed here. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners contribute to overall project objectives. |
| Impact | Journal publications attributed to project funding: 1) Li J, Yu S, Hong B, Lin R, Li Q, Zhang L, Lin T, Jia H, Yang D, Gu C, Jia Q, 2023. Spatial effects of urban green infrastructure on instream water quality assessed by chemical and sensory indicators. Science of the Total Environment 858, 160088. 10/1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160088 2) Li H, Gao H, Zhou Y, Storteig I, Nie L, Sælthun N and Xu C-Y., 2022. Urban Flood Modeling of a Partially Separated and Combined Drainage System in the Grefsen Basin in Oslo, Norway. Journal of Water Management Modelling, C480. 10.14796/JWMM.C480 |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Multi-lateral collaborations with co-funded partners |
| Organisation | Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The non-UK part of JPI Urban Europe/NSFC project is also funded by RCN (NIVA and UoO) and NSFC (IUE and TU). UKCEH act as overall lead-PI. Collaborative papers are listed in the related section. Other research outputs to which UK investigators have contributed to less substantially (acknowledgements) and/or indirectly via project management facilitation are listed here. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners contribute to overall project objectives. |
| Impact | Journal publications attributed to project funding: 1) Li J, Yu S, Hong B, Lin R, Li Q, Zhang L, Lin T, Jia H, Yang D, Gu C, Jia Q, 2023. Spatial effects of urban green infrastructure on instream water quality assessed by chemical and sensory indicators. Science of the Total Environment 858, 160088. 10/1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160088 2) Li H, Gao H, Zhou Y, Storteig I, Nie L, Sælthun N and Xu C-Y., 2022. Urban Flood Modeling of a Partially Separated and Combined Drainage System in the Grefsen Basin in Oslo, Norway. Journal of Water Management Modelling, C480. 10.14796/JWMM.C480 |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Multi-lateral collaborations with co-funded partners |
| Organisation | Tsinghua University China |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The non-UK part of JPI Urban Europe/NSFC project is also funded by RCN (NIVA and UoO) and NSFC (IUE and TU). UKCEH act as overall lead-PI. Collaborative papers are listed in the related section. Other research outputs to which UK investigators have contributed to less substantially (acknowledgements) and/or indirectly via project management facilitation are listed here. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners contribute to overall project objectives. |
| Impact | Journal publications attributed to project funding: 1) Li J, Yu S, Hong B, Lin R, Li Q, Zhang L, Lin T, Jia H, Yang D, Gu C, Jia Q, 2023. Spatial effects of urban green infrastructure on instream water quality assessed by chemical and sensory indicators. Science of the Total Environment 858, 160088. 10/1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160088 2) Li H, Gao H, Zhou Y, Storteig I, Nie L, Sælthun N and Xu C-Y., 2022. Urban Flood Modeling of a Partially Separated and Combined Drainage System in the Grefsen Basin in Oslo, Norway. Journal of Water Management Modelling, C480. 10.14796/JWMM.C480 |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Multi-lateral collaborations with co-funded partners |
| Organisation | University of Oslo |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The non-UK part of JPI Urban Europe/NSFC project is also funded by RCN (NIVA and UoO) and NSFC (IUE and TU). UKCEH act as overall lead-PI. Collaborative papers are listed in the related section. Other research outputs to which UK investigators have contributed to less substantially (acknowledgements) and/or indirectly via project management facilitation are listed here. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners contribute to overall project objectives. |
| Impact | Journal publications attributed to project funding: 1) Li J, Yu S, Hong B, Lin R, Li Q, Zhang L, Lin T, Jia H, Yang D, Gu C, Jia Q, 2023. Spatial effects of urban green infrastructure on instream water quality assessed by chemical and sensory indicators. Science of the Total Environment 858, 160088. 10/1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160088 2) Li H, Gao H, Zhou Y, Storteig I, Nie L, Sælthun N and Xu C-Y., 2022. Urban Flood Modeling of a Partially Separated and Combined Drainage System in the Grefsen Basin in Oslo, Norway. Journal of Water Management Modelling, C480. 10.14796/JWMM.C480 |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Car Free Day Guildford |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 40 people attended a talk and subsequent lively discussion during the 1-day Car Free Guildford event. The talk by Dr Hagen-Zanker was on the role of infrastructure provision in promoting cycling mode choice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://guildford-dragon.com/photo-feature-car-free-day-more-often-say-visitors-and-shopkeepers/ |
| Description | International workshop in China |
| 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 | 27 individuals based in UK China and Norway (of which 12 were from the international project team) attended a 2 day workshop jointly convened by UKCEH and Yunnan University (Kunming, China). The aims of the workshop were to share our project outputs and to undertake knowledge transfer activities with researchers and policymakers. As a result we see opportunities to work with Chinese researchers on impacts of nature based solutions in a wider river basin context; included NBS within urban areas and outside. A 5 page synthesis report of the workshop is available online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-03/DESCIPHER-Yunnan-University-joint-workshop-report-... |
| Description | Interview for local newspaper (SurreyLive) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In the context of the development of a new town master plan, Dr Hagen-Zanker was interviewed by local newspaper (online and paper distribution) on the cycle-friendliness of the existing transport system. The publication led to discussion online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/impenetrable-guildford-no-simple-solution-25352779 |
| Description | Invited presentation and panel member in Partnership for European Environmental Research international webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 1.5 hour webinar entitled "scaling and optimising nature-based solution for resilient cities" on 27 Sept 2021 (convened by NIVA). The webinar comprising 3 presentations and open discussion was jointly hosted by PEER, ICLEI and EURAQUA and had core interests in urban water resources. Dr Mike Hutchins gave a 15 minute presentation on DeSCIPHER project research outcomes and participated as part of an expert panel for following discussion session. There were over 150 registered participants for the online event covering wide spectrum of academic and professional expertise across environmental sciences, engineering and socio-economics. A specific outcome of the event was a new collaboration with a researcher with extensive experience of Nature based Solution governance and implementation in China, with whom Mike Hutchins and Norwegian members of the DeSCIPHER project team are now working together on a peer-reviewed journal publication. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ciens.no/arrangement/webinar-27-9-scaling-optimal-nature-based-solutions-for-resilient-c... |
| Description | Invited presentation on DeSCIPHER project at COP26 Adaptation and resilience workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation on 15/09/2021 by Dr Alex Hagen-Zanker (co-I, University of Surrey) at a UK-China Workshop "Sustainable and Inclusive Climate Adaptation and Resilience in a Carbon Neutral Future: Local Leadership for A Global Goal". Workshop was organised by Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 (ACCA21), affiliated to China Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and UKRI |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/our-work/responding-to-climate-change/ukri-towards-cop26/climate-adaptation-and... |
| Description | Invited presentations in the RECLAIM project webinar series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mike Hutchins and Janice Scheffler (both UKCEH) reported research progress (partly funded by DESCIPHER) on quantifying multiple benefits of tree planting Nature-based Solutions. These presentations included numerous examples of international relevance covering literature reviews and national and trans-national modelling applications. They were given online on 4th October 2023. Mike delivered a talk on "Aquatic benefits and beyond: how urban tree planting enhances ecosystem services" and Janice on "The value of trees by clean air" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-iJ9Gj1xIk&list=PL4xPfJG-Mbo4LvhL3rtVptHETgLU6w0GX |
| Description | Invited presentations to the 5th ASEM (Asia-Europe Foundation) seminar on urban water management meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Three invited presentations to the ASEM Water seminar hosted online in Changsha (China) in November 2022. Mike Hutchins presented project findings (To what extent does urban tree planting provide multiple aquatic benefits?) and Laurence Jones (Introduction of experience of urban modelling work with Chinese projects) and James Miller (Improving urban flood estimation and representing impacts of nature based solutions) both presented research to which project funding had contributed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Online presentation of project progress to JPI Urban Europe policy conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | An online conference entitled "stepping up the game - driving urban transitions" held in November 2020. Mike Hutchins and Stefan Reis attended. The project team provided an online rolling powerpoint presentation. The presentation is now available unrestricted on the JPI webpage for the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Online stakeholder workshop with representatives from organisations in Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was given in April 2020 to representatives from local authority departments and water industry in the Birmingham region. The purpose of the workshop was to follow up an online survey that had been undertaken to identify targets for nature based solutions in Birmingham and to discuss participant views ion incentives and barriers to implementation of nature based solutions. The project team presented their capability to assess the impact of nature based solutions across a range of environmental domains. The feedback from stakeholder participants has enabled the project team to define scenarios to apply using the models chosen to assess nature based solutions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Presentation at International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) conference (part of XXVIII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), Berlin, 11-20 July 2023). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mike Hutchins gave a platform presentation on "Aquatic Benefits & Beyond: how urban tree planting enhances ecosystem services". This covered research funded by DESCIPHER. The presentation prompted detailed discussions about benefits and trade-offs of tree planting in urban areas, with agreement to take debates forward in the formal IAHS HELPING programme which has planned agendas for the next decade |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.iugg2023berlin.org/ |
| Description | Presentation in Urban Living Seminar Series (University of Surrey) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation entitled "Urban growth and ecosystem services in future peri-urban landscapes" by Dr Alex Hagen-Zanker (co-I University of Surrey) on 23/06/2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.surrey.ac.uk/urban-living-research/events |
| Description | Stakeholder survey to inform preparations for forthcoming stakeholder workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A selection of approximately 25 individuals from local authorities, consultants and water industry professionals were contacted and invited to a forthcoming workshop. The invitees were provided with links to an online survey designed to identify the demand for, plans for and barriers to nature based solutions in local authority areas. The focus at this stage is on Birmingham, Responses have informed the workshop preparation. The survey will also be used as part of a H2020 project (REGREEN) which has some common objectives with DeSCIPHER. It is intended the survey will reach out internationally to over 50 people in the coming months. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |