to policy-makers and other water-focussed stakeholders to suggest what information and research they require from the scientific community to enable more effective policy decisions.
Governmental institutes, non-governmental organisations, industry, business, academia and other policy stakeholders were asked to submit questions whose answers they and their organisations perceived as being key to the future of water in the UK. Over 700 questions were received and these were discussed at a subsequent workshop to which all questionnaire respondents were invited, with workshop participants discussing which questions possessed the greatest relevance to current and near future water policy. A total of 94 questions were finally identified and grouped into nine ‘themes’ based on similarity of content, although there is inevitably some overlap reflecting the systemic nature of water research. The full 94 questions are listed below, separated into the most appropriate theme. These nine themes reflect the thematic areas that emerged from the workshop but they, and the questions therein, are not presented in any ‘priority’ order. A subsequent priortisation exercise involving workshop participants and other stakeholders further identified the water research questions considered to be of greatest importance to UK policymakers (Box 1). Further details of the methodological approach which led to the 94 questions and the prioritised questions can be found in the recently published paper by Brown et al. (2010), which also includes a detailed discussion of the research topics and questions identified.
Extreme events 1. How can we work with natural ecosystems such as wetlands, salt marshes, upland forests and moorland to reduce flood risk?
2. How much water will be coming through UK river networks under different climate change scenarios?
3. What are the best ways to retain more water upstream for supply purposes in times of drought or to prevent flooding events downstream during extreme precipitation events?
4. What are the risks to water supply infrastructure under future scenarios of extreme rainfall events?
5. How can we reduce uncertainty in the prediction of floods and droughts?
6. How can we efficiently and effectively plan adaptation measures to cope with extreme events given the uncertainty associated with model predictions?
7. How can we improve flood resilience and adaptation at the individual, community and population level to improve emergency planning and protect key infrastructure?
8. How can proper economic analyses be integrated into flood management budgets?
9. What opportunities exist for improving dissemination and communication of flood information, particularly
Extreme events - Lee Mason on risk and flood warnings?
10. Who is responsible for reducing risk from flooding, including economic loss from infrastructure damage?
11. How far should we go with managed realignment of coasts and flood banks?
Freshwater pollution 12. Should we spend money on reducing pollutant input to water bodies to meet new standards if there is no evidence of change to the biota after the intervention?
13. Given the lack of unimpacted ‘reference’ systems in the UK, how can we develop a systematic approach that uses local ‘before-after controls’ to compare environmental response to remediation strategies?
14. How are upland lake and stream ecosystems responding to changes in water quality (e.g. rising dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations)?
15. How do water-substrate interactions in stream hyporheic zones or lake sediments influence
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