MaRIUS: Managing the Risks, Impacts and Uncertainties of droughts and water Scarcity

Lead Research Organisation: Cranfield University
Department Name: School of Water, Energy and Environment

Abstract

Impacts of water scarcity on the environment, society and the economy are complex. They are profoundly shaped by human choices and trade-offs between competing claims to water. Current practices for management of droughts in the UK have largely evolved from experience. Each drought tests institutions and society in distinctive ways. Yet it is questionable whether this empirical and heuristic approach is fit for purpose in the future, because the past is an incomplete guide to future conditions.

The MaRIUS project will introduce and explore a risk-based approach to the management of droughts and water scarcity, drawing upon global experiences and insights from other hazards to society and the environment. MaRIUS will demonstrate, in the context of real case studies and future scenarios, how risk metrics can be used to inform management decisions and societal preparedness. Enquiry will take place at a range of different scales, from households and farms to river basins and national scales. Fine-scale granular analysis is essential for understanding drought impacts. Aggregation to broader scales provides evidence to inform critical decisions in water companies, national governments and agencies. Analysis on a range of timescales will demonstrate the interactions between long-term planning and short-term decision making, and the difference this makes to impacts and risks.

Underpinning the risk-based approach to management of water scarcity, the MaRIUS project will develop an integrated suite of models of drought processes and impacts of water scarcity. A new 'event set' of past and possible future hydroclimatic drought conditions will enable extensive testing of drought scenarios. The representation of drought processes in hydrological models at catchment and national scales will be enhanced, enabling improved analysis of drought frequency, duration and severity. Models for assessment of the risks of harmful water quality, in rivers and reservoirs, will be developed. The representation of drought impacts in models of species abundance and biodiversity in rivers and wetland ecosystems, such as fens, lowland and upland bogs, will be enhanced. A model of agricultural practices and output will be used to analyse drought impacts on agriculture and investigate the benefits of preparatory steps that may be taken by farmers. The potential economic losses due to water scarcity will be analysed through a combination of 'bottom-up' study of households and businesses, and consideration of supply chain dependence on drought-sensitive industries.

The environmental, economic and social dimensions of water scarcity will be synthesised into a computer visualisation tool (an 'impacts dashboard'). This will enable exploratory analysis of feedbacks between impacts. For example, agricultural land use changes, driven in part by drought frequency, will, in turn, influence water quality and ecosystems. The interdisciplinary analysis will enable comparison of likely outcomes arising from applying both pre-existing drought management arrangements (e.g. restrictions on water use, abstraction limits) and enhanced/innovative management strategies (e.g. use of outlook forecasts, dynamic tariffs).

Social science and stakeholder engagement are deeply embedded in the MaRIUS project, which will be framed by a critical analysis of how impacts of droughts and water scarcity are currently understood and managed by key stakeholders, and how this is shaped by institutions, regulation and markets. First-hand experience and 'collective memory' of communities affected now, and historically, by water scarcity will provide new understandings of the social and cultural dimensions of droughts. On-going engagement between the project social scientists, natural scientists and stakeholders will help to ensure that the outputs from the MaRIUS project, including the 'impacts dashboard', are matched to their needs and to the evolving policy context.

Planned Impact

Droughts are one of the headline strategic risks to the UK. In 2012 the UK experienced the driest spring in over a century, after two dry winters. Ministers faced the prospect of water shortages during the London Olympics. Whilst the drought conditions in early 2012 served as a wake-up call, the potential for water shortages in the UK, driven by changing patterns of demand and changing climatic conditions, had already been recognised. In the Thames Water region alone it is estimated that severe water rationing could potentially result in economic losses of £300million/day. The capacity for the natural environment to recover from periods of very low flows, deteriorated water quality, dry soils and hot temperatures is not well understood.

The MaRIUS project aims to provide new evidence and insights to minimise and manage the harmful impacts of droughts and water scarcity to the environment, society and the economy. It will provide benefits through the improved management of risks and more inclusive, transparent, effective and efficient arrangements for risk management.

The expected beneficiaries are:
1. Organisations with responsibility for the management of droughts and water scarcity, who will benefit from improved evidence of the risks of droughts and potential impacts of water scarcity. These organisations include water utilities, regulators (EA, Ofwat) and government (Defra and the devolved administrations). Improved information will enable better management of scarce resources and inevitable trade-offs during periods of water scarcity. A multi-attribute understanding of risk will enable the development of new indicators and trigger points for the management of droughts. Decision makers (including senior executives and ministers) will be provided with a more nuanced and accurate assessment of risks and the implications of different management options. Adoption of a risk-based approach to drought management will enable more explicit treatment of uncertainty and more proportionate allocation of resources to risk reduction.
2. Communities and businesses who may be impacted by droughts and water scarcity, including domestic and industrial water users and farmers, who will benefit from more transparent and risk-informed management of droughts. These benefits will be achieved indirectly through uptake of new science and methodologies by the organisations mentioned in (1) and also via the direct interaction and communication with communities, NGOs and other stakeholders that are planned as part of the MaRIUS project.
3. The natural environment and organisations with responsibility for, or an interest in, protecting the environment from the impacts of droughts and water scarcity, including Natural England, the EA, wildlife trusts and rivers trusts, who will benefit from better understanding of the risks of droughts to the natural environment and the impacts of management options designed to reduce the risks of water scarcity. Involvement in the research will help to ensure that environmental impacts of water scarcity are given appropriate weight alongside water users.

The MaRIUS project is in a strong position to deliver these impacts. The consortium has long-standing links with the stakeholder community, and outstanding experience of delivering impacts from previous projects. The MaRIUS project has a carefully developed dissemination plan and strategies to promote uptake and impact. Jointly with Project Partners in government and industry, we will target decisions taking place during and after the project (e.g. Abstraction reform, Water Resources Management Planning Guideline, EA Water Company Drought Plan Guideline) and processes (e.g. Water Score-Card, Water Situation Report, Hydrological Outlook) where the proposed research is likely to have most impact. Joint work on drought case studies and scenario analyses with our Project Partners will test methodologies and promote applied uptake of the research.
 
Title Podcast - Impact of drought and water scarcity on agriculture 
Description Dr Dolores Rey speaks on the evidence of increasing resilience in the irrigated agricultural sector to water scarcity and drought 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2015 
Impact Dissemination of the project research 
URL https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/impact-drought-and-water-scarcity-agriculture
 
Description Results showed that farmers have adapted their irrigated businesses to become more resilient to drought, despite increasing water scarcity, due to investments in alternative water sources, improved farm drought planning, collective action through the formation of Water Abstractor Groups and improved working relationships with the regulator during times of drought. However, the benefits of this have been amplified by the way the Regulator manages drought has also evolved over time, changing to a more proactive attitude, recognising the importance of having irrigators involved in the drought management decisions and providing them better forecast and information on which to based farm-decisions. The importance of this vertically integrated management of droughts to reduce the impacts at the farm level is clear to farmers.

Research has suggested that climate change will have regionally different impacts on irrigators across England, with irrigators in the west likely to face increased risk of abstraction restrictions due to summer low flow conditions whilst irrigators in the east will face increased risk of having insufficient licenced water to meet future demands. We developed and applied a novel approach for the probabilistic risk assessment of potential future economic losses in irrigated agriculture arising from the interaction of climate change and regulatory drought management, with an application to England and Wales. Hydro-meteorological variability is considered within a synthetic dataset of daily rainfall and river flows for a baseline period (1977-2004), and for projections for near (2022-2049) and far (2072-2099) futures. The probability, magnitude and timing of abstraction restrictions are derived by applying rainfall and river flow triggers in 129 catchments to simulated river flows from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's Grid-to-Grid model driven using the MaRIUS large event set data. Results show that restrictions will become more severe, frequent and longer in the future. The highest economic risks are projected where drought-sensitive crops with a high financial value are concentrated in catchments with increasingly uncertain water supply. This research highlights the significant economic losses associated with mandatory drought restrictions experienced by the agricultural sector and supports the need for environmental regulators and irrigators to collaboratively manage scarce water resources to balance environmental and economic considerations.

MaRIUS outputs have also been used within the D-Risk webtool, which is a freely available intuitive tool designed to help irrigated growers understand and manage their drought risk. The tool, which was made available in February 2018, has been launched at the UK Irrigation Association conference and been presented to growers at Water Abstractor Groups and AHDB-linked professional development course. Meteorological and hydrological outputs from MaRIUS are also being used in the development of the D-Risk2 webtool in collaboration with the Environment Agency and Natural England. The tool has been successfully applied in the River Lark catchment, part of the CamEO Priority Catchment.
Exploitation Route Results likely to be taken into account by farmer representatives in their promotion of bottom-up approaches to catchment management of drought events. The D-Risk webtool, which utilises MaRIUS outputs, has already been used in collaboration with agribusiness and leisure sector partners who were not original Project Partners in the DRisk proposal. We anticipate many other growers continuing to use the tool to understand and manage their drought risk through, for example, changing their cropping mix/areas, investing in storage or exploring watertrading. Meteorological and hydrological outputs from MaRIUS were also used in the development of the D-Risk2 webtool which is currently undergoing testing with the agricultural sector - once completed, the webtool (and case study applications) will be freely available. MaRIUS outputs have also been used by Cranfield University within research within Water Resources East and in consultancy activities with agribusiness and leisure sector businesses. The research features within the UK Irrigation Association-published "Irrigation water strategy for UK agriculture and horticulture"
Sectors Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment

 
Description The understanding of farmer decision-making under drought and water scarcity has led to four major irrigated businesses acting as Project Partners for a successful NERC Open Innovation call application to understand the economic impacts of abstraction licencing changes due to the Water Framework Directive on their farm businesses (called D-Risk). This work is also supported by the National Farmers Union and the UK Irrigation Association to deliver wider non-academic impacts. The DRisk webtool, which utilises the large event set of weather time series developed in the MaRIUS project, is being widely used by, and promoted to, the irrigated agri-business sector to support their drought risk and abstraction management. The DRisk webtool (and the DRisk2 project) feature in the UK Irrigation Association's Irrigation Handook and the "Irrigation water strategy for UK agriculture and horticulture", enhancing awareness, uptake and expected impact. Results from the MaRIUS project (in conjunction with the D-Risk project) on risk of irrigation abstraction constraints associated with reduced abstraction licence volume under drought conditions were presented to the Head of Abstraction Reform at Defra - the methodology being used to assess the reduced abstraction licence volumes subsequently was modified. Outputs from the MaRIUS project are being by Cranfield University used within the multi-stakeholder "Water Resources East" project to plan a long term water resource strategy for the east of England for the next 100 years; and have been used within consultancy activities for a further major agribusiness and leisure sector business. Interest in the DRisk webtool (with its MaRIUS datasets) has led to a second successful NERC Innovation Award (D-Risk2) in collaboration with the Environment Agency and Natural England to develop a national scale tool to support their Catchment Based Approach to water resource management. The MARIUS project has organised a number of annual Drought Symposia, together with co-organising the AboutDrought Download event, in which Cranfield have actively participated, which had a positive effect of raising awareness, and discussions with industry practitioners, some of whom gave presentations. Members of the project team have engaged with many different non-academic stakeholders from water companies, NGOs, regulators, government bodies and others. Our MaRIUS research have been presented at a range of national and international conferences, raising awareness of UK drought research and promoting knowledge transfer of UK approaches to drought management internationally. Material from MaRIUS is used within post-graduate teaching at Cranfield University, in particular within the "Drought and Water Scarcity" module within the Environmental Water Management MSc; and now within the "Floods and drought" module within the Advanced Water Management MSc.
First Year Of Impact 2016
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment
Impact Types Economic

 
Description Development and delivery of M-level module on "Drought and Water Scarcity"
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description ELM Modelling Expert Panel
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
 
Description Input into Water Resources East
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description POST Note on "Water Resilience and Climate Change"
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description World Business Council for Sustainable Development Water Impact Protocol working group
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
 
Description Assessing impacts of future drought risks and abstraction reform on agricultural irrigation in East Anglia
Amount £49,000 (GBP)
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2023 
End 04/2023
 
Description Assessing impacts of future drought risks and abstraction reform on agricultural irrigation in key catchments in EA East Anglia Area (Stage 1)
Amount £49,000 (GBP)
Organisation Environment Agency 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2023 
End 04/2023
 
Description Enhancement, application and market appraisal of a rainwater harvesting tool to support water resilience in UK protected horticulture
Amount £23,000 (GBP)
Organisation Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 07/2022
 
Description Facilitating multisector partnerships to support knowledge exchange: operationalising water sharing for environmental and business benefit
Amount £23,000 (GBP)
Organisation Higher Education Funding Council for England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2021 
End 08/2021
 
Description KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PARTNERSHIP No KTP011130 between Cranfield University and The Royal Horticultural Society
Amount £240,000 (GBP)
Funding ID KTP011130 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2018 
End 11/2021
 
Description NERC Drought and WaterScarcity Programme WP4
Amount £2,000,000 (GBP)
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2017 
End 09/2019
 
Description NERC Open Innovation Call
Amount £121,000 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/S013997/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2019 
End 03/2020
 
Description NERC Open Innovation Call
Amount £117,238 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/N017471/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2016 
End 03/2018
 
Description NERC Research programme policy impact - short-term opportunity
Amount £13,914 (GBP)
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2017 
End 04/2018
 
Title MaRIUS Dashboard 
Description The Dashboard is a way in which we have collected analysis and outputs from the project research and created an interesting set of text with static and interactive figures that will inform different audiences interested in the aspects of drought and water scarcity explored by the MaRIUS project. Cranfield have led the development, design and implementation of the science dashboard 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The Dashboard is a key way in different sets of people (practitioners, public, academics) can find out more about the research, findings and datasets. It will shortly go live and be made available to other research groups and audiences 
 
Title DRisk annual maximum potential soil moisture deficit (1900-2006) 
Description A dataset of timeseries of annual maximum potential soil moisture deficit (1900-2006) covering the UK, derived using precipitaion and potential evapotranspiration from the MaRIUS large 'Event Set' dataset 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This dataset is used with the D-Risk webtool that is freely available to the agricultural sector 
URL https://figshare.com/articles/DRisk_annual_maximum_potential_soil_moisture_deficit_1900-2006_derived...
 
Title Evaluation of changing surface water abstraction reliability for supplemental irrigation under climate change 
Description This contains associated data for Rio et al paper on "Evaluation of changing surface water abstraction reliability for supplemental irrigation under climate change" paper 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Used in published paper 
URL https://figshare.com/articles/_/6327176
 
Title Final D-Risk webtool and website 
Description D-Risk is an intuitive and free online webtool to help farming enterprises rapidly understand their business drought and abstraction risks and thereby support robust decisions regarding future irrigation investment and management 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Used in multiple stakeholder and scientific presentations, stakeholder workshops and publications. Freely available to farming community. Has been used by commercial orgnisations to help plan their infrastructure investment to reduce drought risk. Had led to follow-on funding 
URL http://www.d-risk.eu
 
Title Historic droughts and irrigated agriculture - Interviews with growers in the Anglian region, UK 
Description This datasets contains the anonymised transcripts of interviews with irrigators in the Anglian region (UK) carried out between February 2015 and March 2016. A total of 15 growers participated in this study to understand how they had been impacted by, and responded to, past droughts. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Used within published paper 
URL https://figshare.com/articles/Historic_droughts_and_irrigated_agriculture_-_Interviews_with_growers_...
 
Title Prototype D-Risk tool 
Description The D-Risk tool combines farm business information (crop types, irrigation methods and areas), abstraction licence data (source, annual and daily abstraction limits, reservoir storage) and meteorological data (from the MaRIUS project) to derive farm irrigation need and the risk of having insufficient licence volume under current and future climate variability. The outputs can be used to inform risk management by exploring changing crop types and areas; investment in increase storage or the need for increased licence volumes 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The prototype D-Risk tool will be presented and tested with our agribusiness partners in a forthcoming workshop. 
 
Title Water abstraction restrictions and related economic losses in irrigated agriculture in England and Wales 
Description This data sets includes the inputs and raw outputs from the paper "A probabilistic risk assessment of the national economic impacts of regulatory drought management on irrigated agriculture" available at https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF001092. The inputs and raw outputs are included as follows: 1) Irrigated crops area used from Rey et al. (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.04.017 2) Yield and quality losses per grid cell and crop type from Rey et al. (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.04.017 3) Ratios per type of source of irrigation: surface water, groundwater, tidal water 4) The daily water abstraction restrictions at catchment level for each 100 ensemble member in the baseline (BS), near future (NF) and far future (FF). These files are too large (each file contains 65,016,000 observations) so to open them it will be needed to use a data management software such us R, Matlab, STATA. 5) The monthly economic losses (£) related to the implemented water abstraction restrictions per crop and at catchment level for each 100 ensemble member in the BS, NF and FF. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Uncertain as yet to be cited, but the databased has had >1000 views and 117 downloads to-date (March 2020) 
URL http://cord.cranfield.ac.uk/articles/Water_abstraction_restrictions_and_related_economic_losses_in_i...
 
Description Environment Agency collaboration on abstraction restriction 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Evaluated the impacts of climate change on section 57 abstraction licence restrictions on agriculture. Delivered through MSc project
Collaborator Contribution Detailed understanding of the underlying datasets used; advice and feedback on proposed methods and draft results
Impact MSc thesis: Hall B (2015). Using 'Future Flows Hydrology' to understand the changing likelihood of agricultural abstraction restrictions. MSc thesis, Cranfield University
Start Year 2015
 
Description Invited tutor with CzechGlobe Summer School 
Organisation Justus Liebig University Giessen
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Keynote speaker and seminar group leader within early career and PhD student summer school; co-author on journal manuscript in preparation
Collaborator Contribution Workshop organisation; journal manuscript proposal
Impact Journal paper in press: • Trnka M, Hayes M, Jurecka F, BartoÅ¡ová L , Anderson M, Brázdil R, Brown J, Camarero JJ, Cudlín P, Dobrovolný P, Itzinger J, Feng S, Finnessey T, Gregoric G, Havlik P, Hain C, Holman I et al (In Press). Priority questions in multidisciplinary drought research. Clim Res. Also collaboration has led to involvement in a recently awarded multi-disciplinary project to the European Structural and Investment Funds on "SustES - Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions"
Start Year 2014
 
Description Invited tutor with CzechGlobe Summer School 
Organisation University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Department National Drought Mitigation Centre
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Keynote speaker and seminar group leader within early career and PhD student summer school; co-author on journal manuscript in preparation
Collaborator Contribution Workshop organisation; journal manuscript proposal
Impact Journal paper in press: • Trnka M, Hayes M, Jurecka F, BartoÅ¡ová L , Anderson M, Brázdil R, Brown J, Camarero JJ, Cudlín P, Dobrovolný P, Itzinger J, Feng S, Finnessey T, Gregoric G, Havlik P, Hain C, Holman I et al (In Press). Priority questions in multidisciplinary drought research. Clim Res. Also collaboration has led to involvement in a recently awarded multi-disciplinary project to the European Structural and Investment Funds on "SustES - Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions"
Start Year 2014
 
Description Invited tutor with CzechGlobe Summer School 
Organisation WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
Department Landscape Dynamics
Country Switzerland 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Keynote speaker and seminar group leader within early career and PhD student summer school; co-author on journal manuscript in preparation
Collaborator Contribution Workshop organisation; journal manuscript proposal
Impact Journal paper in press: • Trnka M, Hayes M, Jurecka F, BartoÅ¡ová L , Anderson M, Brázdil R, Brown J, Camarero JJ, Cudlín P, Dobrovolný P, Itzinger J, Feng S, Finnessey T, Gregoric G, Havlik P, Hain C, Holman I et al (In Press). Priority questions in multidisciplinary drought research. Clim Res. Also collaboration has led to involvement in a recently awarded multi-disciplinary project to the European Structural and Investment Funds on "SustES - Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions"
Start Year 2014
 
Description KTP on drought management in the gardening sector 
Organisation Royal Horticultural Society
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution After being approached by RHS, meetings and follow-on discussions led to the co-development and writing of a KTP proposal on drought management with the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley
Collaborator Contribution Co-development and writing of a KTP proposal on drought management
Impact KTP proposal on drought management successfully submitted - awaiting funding decision
Start Year 2017
 
Title D-Risk webtool 
Description The D-Risk webtool is a freely available intuitive tool designed to help irrigated growers understand and manage their drought risk. By entering easily available farm data (crop types, areas etc), licence data (source, volume,restrictions) and reservoir storage, the webtool uses the MaRIUS event set to calculate monthly farm irrigation need and (through comparison with the licence data) derive the risk of annual headroom and storage shortfall. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2018 
Impact The D-Risk webtool was launched at the recent (February 2018) UK Irrigation Association annual conference. We have also been asked to present it to several water abstractor groups, demonstrating an interest in using the tool 
URL http://www.d-risk.eu
 
Description AboutDrought Download event 
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 Contribution to the D&WS programme AboutDrought Download event in London which aimed to promote awareness and uptake of research outputs and tools. Cranfield contributions included demonstrations of the DRisk webtool (which utilises the MaRIUS event set) and the Agricultural Drought Impact explorer to participants; provding multiple posters highlighting our findings for the Agriculture Stand; manning the Agriculture Stand and responding to stakeholder questions; and a plenary agricultural synthesis presentation. The event generated plenty of interest and discussion and is expected to increased the impact of our D&WS programme outputs
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description BBC Farming Today interview (July 2018) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Radio interview for BBC Farming Today on "Summer drought in the UK"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description BBC regional news interviews 
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 TV interviews were given on the regional news programmes of BBC Look East, BBC South East and BBC Look North regarding the impacts of the 2022 drought on agriculture and water resource management
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Blog on how the UK is dealing with the impact of droughts on agriculture 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact A blog on the how the UK is dealing with the impact of droughts on agriculture following the last drought, informed by NERC research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description British Council/Newton Fund and FAPESP workshop (Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Presentation provided overview of the Historic Droughts and MaRIUS projects in the "Water as the Frontier of Agribusiness: Politico-Ecological and Socio-Economic Connections from Farms to Global Markets" workshop (Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 2015, supported by the British Council/Newton Fund and FAPESP). Increased awareness of NERC Droughts programme; increased early career researcher's professional network

None to date
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description British Hydrological Society evening presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An invited talk on "The 2018 drought - lessons for the agricultural sector (and others)" to members of the south-east branch of the British Hydrological Society. The talks generated a lot of questions and discussions on improved drought and abstraction management and the challenges of balancing the competing needs for water within an evidence-based approach
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description British Hydrological Society presentation (November 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 Overview of NERC Droughts projects at BHS meeting on "Putting more hydrology into water resource planning - better links between water resources and drought planning" generated questions on the programme; requests for more information; increased awareness

Increased awareness of practioners of the NERC drought projects; how they can be involved; led to invitation to present at CIWEM study weekend
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description CIWEM conference on "Abstraction Reform: Implementation Challenges, Options and Solutions" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Member of expert panel (including local government, water company, agriculture, abstractors, regulator and conservation charity representatives) discussing "Co-operation to build resilience", followed by lively questions and discussion aferwards
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.ciwem.org/events/abstraction-reform-implementation-challenges-options-and-solutions/
 
Description DRIsk stand at UK Irrigation Association annual science conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact An interactive stand was used to demonstrate how the D-Risk tool (which embeds data from MaRIUS) can support the business drought management of members of the UK Irrigation Association. Interest and questions expected to lead to enhanced usage of the newly-launched DRisk webtool
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Drought article in The Times (August 2022) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interviewed by Times journalist for an article on the developing 2022 drought that was published in the Time on 1st August 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/drought-uk-hosepipe-ban-august-how-worried-should-you-be-dl2kqkjg...
 
Description Drought article in the Adu Dhabi National newpaper 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interviewed on drought impacts for a piece on the UK drought for The National in Abu Dhabi (print and online editions)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.thenationalnews.com/weekend/2022/08/05/uk-drought-panic-as-europe-shrivels-in-battle-to-...
 
Description Farmer interviews 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Interviews with irrigated agribusinesses to understand their vulnerability to drought and responses implemented.
Outcomes / impacts - three of the business interviewed became Project Partners on a successful NERC Open Innovation call proposal; invited speaker to UK Irrigation Association annual science conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description GIAN shortcourse 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Planning and delivery of a 1-week Short course at IIT Kharagpur under the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD)'s international scheme on Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN). The course on "Improved climate change adaptation strategies in water resources" was delivered to mostly post-graduate students and academic staff from multiple institutions from across India to improve their knowledge, understanding and capacity in top-down and bottom-up assessment of the consequences of climate and socioeconomic change and the development of adaptation strategies. The course received excellent feedback from the participants. All lectures were professionally videoed and should be made available through the GIAN youtube channel for wider availability
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Vs6_sUP3rKT9Wllndc24g
 
Description Invited presentation at IrrigEx - Feb 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Invited speaker on "Supporting farmers and growers to assess and manage drought risk" at the Irrigex theatre at IrrigEx/FloodEx, the largest national industry event covering irrigation and flooding. The talk covered insights from the Drought and Water Scarcity programme projects and the DRisk webtool. The talk developed a lot of interest, with delegates coming along to the Drought and Water Scarcity programme stand to find out more and ask for further details on the projects and tools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Invited speaker - Drought in the Anthropocene 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited presentation on drought in agriculture, given at the Royal Society's "Drought risk in the Anthropocene" conference. Droughts affect a range of economically important sectors but their impacts are usually most evident within agriculture. These impacts are not confined to arid and semi-arid regions, but are increasingly experienced in more temperate and humid regions. Agriculture is a highly heterogenous sector, with differing drought sensitivity and potential drought response options. This presentation considered how agriculture is affected by different types of drought and then, using research from Thailand and the UK, consider examples of reactive and adaptive drought responses implemented by farming and non-farming actors. Finally, the presentation discussed how agriculture can transition to longer-term planning and investment that builds drought resilience through supporting both short-term coping responses and effective adaptation to future droughts
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2021/10/drought-anthropocene/
 
Description Invited speaker on "Supporting innovation for increased drought resilience in the irrigated sector" at AgriTech East's 5th REAP conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Invited speaker to give presentation on "Supporting innovation for increased drought resilience in the irrigated sector" at AgriTech East's 5th REAP conference on 'What is the future we want for agriculture and how can innovation help deliver it?'. This flagship conference is focussed on promoting innovation in the agricultural sector and its suppliers. Led to enquiry for research expertise from company which was passed to colleagues for follow-on
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Invited speaker on "Understanding and managing current and future drought risks to UK irrigated agriculture" at MCAST Annual Water conference in Malta 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Invited speaker on "Understanding and managing current and future drought risks to UK irrigated agriculture" at MCAST Annual Water conference on "the Science and Creativity in Water" in Malta- an annual conference targeted at academia, industry and policymakers in this water-stressed island. Increased awareness of UK drought research and potential input into ongoing water resource strategy development
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description MaRIUS 'Live' showcase event 
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 Presentation on "UK droughts and agriculture" as part of the MaRIUS 'Live' showcase event. Generated questions and discussions on water resource completion; and enhanced awareness of MaRIUS research outputs
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5AXsp8rsqeD3CwkqDgPBquIMYrF-ia8w
 
Description Oral and poster presentations at American Geophysical Union Fall conference (St Fancisco, December 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Two poster presentations and one oral presentations of research to diverse international audiences, which generated useful feedback and a potential collaborator to enhance research scope
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Oral presentation at EGU Vienna 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Oral presentation at the European Geophysical Union's annual conference in Vienna in 2018 on "Risk of economic impacts to irrigated agriculture due to drought management". Presentation on the novel approach to risk-based assessment of economic impacts generated significant interest and questioning from the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Oral presentation at UKIA Annual conference 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Oral presentation on "Agriculture and Water Resources East" at UK Irrigation Association annual science conference at Peterborough, highlighting the use of products from the Drought and Water Scarcity programme in assessing the water needs for irrigation within this multi-sectoral water resources management strategy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Oxford Drought Conference 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A plenary oral presentation on "Taking lessons from the 2018 drought forward into increased drought resilience in the agricultural sector", drawing on Cranfield activities within the D&WS Programme. The talk generated lively discussion around agreeing the importance of recognising the mental health impacts of drought; and the need for an improved evidence base regarding the longer-term ecological impacts of irrigation abstraction
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description PICO presentation at EGU 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Pico oral presentation on "An innovative drought risk management tool to support resilient irrigated food production" to delegates followed by interactive demonstration and discussion of the D-Risk webtool at European Geophysical Union conference in Vienna in 2018
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Poster presentation at UK Irrigation Association annual conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Poster generated questions and discussion on results

Additional stakeholder contact for follow-up interviews
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Presentation and roudntable discussion at policy session at Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (Zurich, 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation and participation in roundtable discussion on "Water scarcity and drought management: the role of economic instruments in the EU and Australia" in order to draw insights on the transferability of economic instruments to assist climate change adaptation. Increased visibility and international networks. From these, Dr Rey was invited to join a proposal for the establishment of working group on economic instruments for water management under the Sustainable Water Future Programme. The proposal was successful, with the Economic Instruments of Water Security Working Group (http://water-future.org/people/economic-policy-working-group/ ) established with more than 25 international members .
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://water-future.org/people/economic-policy-working-group/
 
Description Presentation at 19th UK-IWA Young Water Professionals Conference Towards a Resilient Water Future 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation by PDRA on "Risk of economic impacts to agricultural irrigation due to drought management" at 19th UK-IWA Young Water Professionals Conference Towards a Resilient Water Future. Opportunity to improve network with water professionals and increase awareness of activity within water utility sector
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at AdaptationFutures 2016 (Rotterdam) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Dr Dolores Rey presented a paper on "Developing drought resilience in irrigated agriculture in the face of increasing water scarcity" at the Adaptation Futures 2016 Conference, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The presentation won the "best young speaker" presentation which was presented in Plenary. Contacts made were followed up with subsequent visit from CSIRO scientist to Cranfield University to discuss collaboration with Dr Rey
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation at Drought and Decision Making symposium, Oxford 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on "Evidence of increasing resilience in the irrigated agricultural sector in the face of increasing water scarcity" by Research Fellow, subsequently podcast. Sparked valuable feedback and discussion. Valuable networking development and exposure for Research Fellow
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Presentation at ENDOWS/AboutDrought Showcase event in Birmingam 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on "Risk of economic impacts to agricultural irrigation due to drought management" at ENDOWS/AboutDrought Showcase event in Birmingam. Generated interested discussion on costs of drought management to agriculture.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at European Climate Change Adapatation 2017 conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on "Adaptation to changing future risk of agricultural irrigation constraints during drought" to showcase MaRIUS output. Generated significant interest and request to visit Cranfield from CSIRO participant
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation at IAH 2018 at Daejeon, South Korea 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Poster presentation on "Supporting efficient and resilient irrigation in the context of increasing water scarcity" at International Association of Hydrogeologists 2018 conference at Daejeon, South Korea. Generated interested discussion, but unclear impact other than general awareness raising of D&WS research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at MCAST annual water conference (Science and Creativity in Water) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on "Understanding and managing current and future drought risks to UK irrigated agriculture" at MCAST Annual Water Conference on "The science and creativity in water", Paola, Malta. Questions and discussion aimed to promote outputs from NERC Drought and Water Scarcity programme (MaRIUS, HistoricDroughts and ENDOWS) and D:Risk.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at Newton Fund workshop in South Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on "Water for food under climate change in England" at Newton Fund early career workshop on "Equipping early career researchers with tools for evaluating ecosystem services which underpin food and water security". Based on discussions and networking opportunties, Dr Rey was invited to contribute water-related risk expertise to a follow-up proposal writing meeting organized in Cairo in Feb 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation at UK Irrigation Assocation conference - March 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation to diverse audience of farmers, agribusinesses, regulatory agency staff, consultants and equipment suppliers on Cranfield's work on agricultural water resources, irrigation demand and drought. Very positive feedback from head of Water Resources East. New contacts made to follow-up
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation of water trading report results at the AboutDrought showcase event, Birmingham, March 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on key findings from the Cranfield / National Farmers Union report on "Assessing opportunities for secondary markets for water in response to proposed abstraction reforms" that was produced following the workshop co-organised with NFU.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation on "15 years of agricultural abstraction and the 2011-2012 drought" at the HistoricDrought stakeholder symposium (March 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation to stakeholder audience placing the most recent 2010-12 drought within a longer record of agricultural abstraction. Results on the distribution of abstraction within the sector (which showed that a very large volume of water is tied up in largely unused licences even during severe drought) and the implications for abstraction reform generated questions and discussions from audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation on "Adaptation to changing future risk of agricultural irrigation constraints during drought" at ECCA 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on "Adaptation to changing future risk of agricultural irrigation constraints during drought" at European Climate Change Adaptation conference in Glasgow in 2017. Generated useful discussion and contribute to increased awareness of UK D&WS research and the DRisk webtool
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation on "Droughts and agriculture in the UK - impacts and responses" to British Hydrological Society SE Section in London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on "Droughts and agriculture in the UK - impacts and responses" to British Hydrological Society SE Section in London. Generated discussion from audience and requests for additional information
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation on "Future risk of agricultural irrigation constraints during drought" at MaRIUS symposium (September 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Poster presentation of research outputs on the spatial risk of future abstraction restrictions generated a lot of discussion from Environment Agency staff and agricultural sector representatives (particularly regarding the counter-intuitive spatial distributions of risk) and requests for more information on the research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation on "Past, present and future - agriculture and drought" at Drought and Water Scarcity programme conference (June 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on overview of agricultural research within MaRIUS and HistoricDroughts to other researchers and stakeholders that increased awareness, generated questions and discussions and provides foundation for pursuing future collaborative proposals
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation on agricultural activities within the NERC D&WS projects at ENDOWS event with Natural Resources Wales staff (Cardiff) 
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 Presentation on agricultural activities within the NERC D&WS projects at ENDOWS event with Natural Resources Wales staff (Cardiff). Engaged discussion led to useful feedback and follow-on engagement activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation to East Suffolk Water Abstractor Group on "D-Risk: A planning tool to manage your irrigation abstraction and drought risks" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A presentation to members of the East Suffolk Water Abstractor Group on how the D-Risk tool (which embeds data from MaRIUS) can support their business drought management. Lots of note taking and questions expected to lead to enhanced usage of the newly-launched DRisk webtool
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation to Head of abstraction and upstream policy at Defra (Nov 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation to Head of abstraction and upstream policy at Defra and Environment Agency staff regarding DRisk (and MaRIUS) research on the impacts of the draft EA methodology for WFD-focussed agricultural licence reductions in the Cam and Ely Ouse (and nationally). Subsequent to this meeting, the methodology was dropped and Defra requested that the DRisk project consider the application of the DRisk tool to support voluntary (as opposed to mandatory) licence reductions
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation to UK Irrigation Association members 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation of drought research to UK Irrigation Association members (agribusinesses, consultants, suppliers, regulators) at annual conference. Stimulated debate and questions with regard to regulatory reform and food security. Received requests from representatives of Defra and Environment Agency for further information; and agreement of additional agribusinesses to engage in our research activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation to agricultural stakeholders at Drought and Water Scarcity Programme sector workshop (Peterborough, 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation describing the agricultural user relevance of research outcomes and activities to inform discussion on future collaboration and research policies generated valuable sector prioritisation of future activities to inform follow-on funding application
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description RGS drought conference 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation reporting our D&WS research on "Understanding the hydro-climatic conditions of the 2018 drought: experiences and lessons from the UK livestock sector" that sought to increase awareness of the under-appreciated vulnerability of the livestock sector to drought. The presentations lessons' on the need for longer term strategic planning from farm to sector to government was discussed during the Q&A
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Roorkee Water Conclave 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A presentation (to a largely Indian audience) describing how Cranfield D&WS research has contributed to increased drought resilience within the UK irrigated sector. The discussion focussed on the understanding the relative importance of crop yield vs quality for maximising irrigation benefits and the contrasts between the regulatory regimes of the UK and water management in India
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description SMC Media briefing - London September 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact SMC media briefing in London to national and international press representatives on the 2018 drought, with Jim Hall (infrastructure and water management), Jamie Hannaford (environment and hydrology) and Ian Holman (agriculture). Led to several articles in the press, in particular "After the hottest summer on record, get set for an 'above-average autumn" in The Daily Telegraph includes agricultural impacts of summer drought.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/20180904/281711205527450
 
Description Sugar beet growers workshop 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Meeting with sugar beet growers at Clumber Park Hotel. Present were 17 growers (who supply the Newark factory), 2 representatives from British Sugar and 1 from the British Beet Research Organisation to discuss the financial value of irrigation on sugar beet and the impacts of the 2018 drought. Insights from the discussions will feed into ongoing drought and water scarcity research and KE activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Toolshed demonstration on "An innovative drought risk management tool to support resilient irrigated food production" at AdaptationFutures 2018 in Cape Town 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A "Toolshed" presentation on "An innovative drought risk management tool to support resilient irrigated food production" at AdaptationFutures 2018 in Cape Town. This consisted of a short presentation to assembled delegates, followed by an interactive presentation and discussion on the DRisk webtool with participants. Generated substantial interest from international audience on drought research and management in UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact An article on "UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again?" was written for The Conversation. The article attracted 20 comments, was shared 34 and 42 on twitter and Facbook, respectively and was republished by 13 other outlets
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://theconversation.com/uk-drought-are-farmers-facing-the-crop-failures-of-1976-all-over-again-1...
 
Description WaterFutures 2020 (Bangalore) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A presentation describing how Cranfield D&WS research has contributed to increased drought resilience within the UK irrigated sector. The discussion focussed on the understanding the relative importance of crop yield vs quality for maximising irrigation benefits and the contrasts between the regulatory regimes of the UK and water management in other countries
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Workshop and discussion on the 2018 drought at CUPGRA conference at Cambridge 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A workshop and discussion on the 2018 drought with delegates at the 28th annual Cambridge University Potato GRowers Association (CUPGRA) conference at Cambridge. Using insights from the NERC Drought and Water Scarcity programme, four interactive workshops were run with growers and agronomists to reflect on the 2018 drought, its impacts and their coping measures and longer term responses. Responses will feed back into the D&WS WP4 activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Workshop co-organized with NFU on water trading 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A participatory workshop, co-organized with NFU at their offices in Newmarket in February 2018, to discuss the opportunities for water trading under ongoing abstraction reform to reduce drought impacts and support increased resilience. NFU water adviser plus 10 growers participated in the workshop. The meeting started with a talk by Environment Agency. Discussion from the workshop contributed to joint Cranfield / NFU report
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018