on rainfall events and the impact of land use changes (urbanisation and development) on water flow – and concentrate on adapting to changing environmental and human conditions by engineering natural and artificial barriers, storage facilities and transport mechanisms. The strong representation of questions addressing water supply, treatment and distribution, which together with questions on demand account for a third of all questions posed is notable and timely, particularly regarding the recent water supply issues in Northern Ireland, and is indicative of the major implications that water distribution exerts on all other thematic areas. An area that received surprisingly little attention was the interface of water issues with other key sectors such as food and energy security, despite concern that demand for all three will increase significantly in the coming years.
Within the ten priority questions, four themes are therefore evident: the recurring focus on extreme events, valuation of freshwater services, water governance (industry level upwards) and effective communication of water research and innovation. Hence, as the UK economy is further squeezed, it is perhaps these areas that should form the focus of applied water research and enable the UK to adopt a sustainable approach to the management of water for people and the environment. Acknowledgements This article is based on a paper appearing in the journal
Science of the Total Environment, vol. 409, pages 256- 266, entitled “Priority water research questions as determined by UK practitioners and policy-makers” by Brown et al. We would like to thank all our co-authors who contributed to this paper and everyone who attended the original workshop at the University of Leeds in November 2009 or who provided questions. This study was funded primarily by a University of Leeds, Faculty of Environment Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer grant.
More information Further details of the questions, workshop and resulting paper (Brown et al. 2010) are available from http://
www.wateratleeds.org/prioritising-water-research.php. For more information about getting involved in water research activities or to discuss potential collaborations or partnerships, please contact water@leeds.
References
APPWG, 2008. The future of the UK water sector. All Party Parliamentary Water Group.
Brown, L E; Mitchell, G; Holden, J; Folkard, A; Wright, N; Beharry-Borg, N; Berry, G; Brierley, B; Chapman, P; Clarke, S J; Cotton, L; Dobson, M; Dollar, E; Fletcher, M; Foster, J; Hanlon, A; Hildon, S; Hiley, P; Hillis, P; Hoseason, J; Johnston, K; Kay, P; McDonald, A; Parrott, A; Powell, A; Slack, R J; Sleigh, A; Spray, C; Tapley, K; Underhill, R; Woulds, C., 2010. Priority water research questions as determined by UK practitioners and policy makers. Science of the Total Environment 409:256-266
Emaginating. 2009. Debt and affordability - debt collection performance and income deprivation. UKWIR Project CU-04
Pitt, M. 2008. Learning lessons from the 2007 floods. The Pitt Review. UK Cabinet Office.
Image left: Understanding & managing demand - Andrey Brukhno
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