pricing structures and measures are best able to deliver water justice and cost recovery?
Communicating water research 79. How can researchers improve communication of water research to policy makers, practitioners, the public and lay audiences?
80. How can policy makers and regulators improve the flow of knowledge to scientists to ensure adequate pre- and post-monitoring of new policies?
81. How do we create the most realistic public perception of water security?
82. How do we improve knowledge transfer from research to the stakeholders with a view to implementation and practical benefits?
Integrated catchment management 83. How do we change or align upstream land management to reflect long-term water quality, quantity and resource requirements and reduce the need for downstream technological fixes?
84. How do we trade-off the requirements of the Water Framework Directive with other global concerns (particularly growing demand for food and energy from biofuels)?
85. Where water utilities and regulators perceive catchment solutions to be important, what will be the effects on tenancy agreements, farmers undertakings and the degree of commercial compensation?
86. What is the right balance between the cost of treatment and in-stream ecosystem benefits?
87. Will the drive for spatial connectivity in aquatic ecosystem restoration lead to real improvements in aquatic biodiversity?
88. What are the effects of local-scale engineering schemes (e.g. hydroelectric schemes) on river ecosystems, how can we regulate them, and to what extent do these developments conflict with the policy of barrier removal to aid fish migration?
89. Where are the key opportunities for restoring floodplain space along river corridors in a manner similar to central European examples (e.g. Paillex et al., 2009)?
90. To what extent can we apply ideas of hydrological connectivity to prioritise restoration of water bodies?
91. How will hydrological and ecological connectivity between the array of freshwater bodies (streams, floodplains, ponds, lakes, groundwater) be affected by future changes in the hydrological cycle?
92. What are the benefits of river morphological restoration schemes for the broader catchment, and how can these benefits be assessed?
93. How can we adapt our agricultural systems to reduce water use in times of shortage?
94. How do we manage the water cycle to further improve public health and environmental protection?
As discussed by Brown et al. (2010), the questions demonstrate that there is a clear need to improve the
|126| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE Image above: Integrated catchment management - Paul Kay
stakeholders, indicating that knowledge transfer between researchers and practitioners needs to be improved; and there appears to be an emphasis on broad or aggregated policy issues over narrow, specific questions that researchers are better equipped to answer. The questions also indicate a strong demand for applied research through improved understanding of the effects of management interventions across a range of water issues and for basic research in both physical and socio-economic processes to better understand uncertainty in, for example, extreme event forecasting.
Appraisal or valuation is a recurring thematic area, whether through the value of water resources, biodiversity, ecosystem services or cost-benefit analysis. In particular, the importance of healthy, functioning ecosystems is evident in a number of questions, although more needs to be done to fully embed the ‘ecosystem concept’ in the water sector. Sustainability also recurs through a number of themes and questions, with reference made to long-term planning rather than short-term intervention and a willingness to seek long- term innovative solutions from the research community across disciplines suggestive of a holistic approach to decision making in water management.
It is immediately apparent from the questions, particularly the prioritised list, that most stakeholders are concerned with the impact of extreme events such as flooding and, to a much lesser extent, drought. Extreme events cross two of the main grand challenges in water research – understanding the effects of climate change
communication of research as detailed research already exists to help answer some of the questions suggested by policy
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