Author: Emily Crane

Thinking Sustainability H2O: a workshop promoting water management and resilience for small businesses

Friday 14th December, 2018
Location: Jurys Inn Cheltenham, GL51 0TS
Event organisers: Co-organised by the Centre for Water, Communities and Resilience, and Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol with the Federation of Small Businesses
Event type: Workshop
Booking: Register online

The focus of this workshop will be the co-development of a business toolkit for increased water resilience. It will exchange knowledge from the UK About Drought project (aboutdrought.com) about ways that small and medium sized businesses can become more ‘water resilient’.

This workshop will be of particular interest to those running small and medium sized businesses that use water in any way in their business processes, and are exposed to different types of water risk.

Participants will explore the ways in which water (from flood to drought) could affect their business, including opportunities for innovation. Sharing draft resources prepared by the About Drought team, we will discuss the design of a toolkit designed to help businesses think through their water resilience. This will include reflecting on the messages and messengers that businesses engage with and trust, along with the merits of incorporating water resilient thinking into wider Business Sustainability Management.

• Water resource management (reduce, reuse, recycle)
• Resilience and management of situations for flooding and drought risk
• Contingency planning and risk management

In addition there may be opportunities to discuss:
• Regulatory compliance
• Resource efficiency and circular economy
• Integration with environmental management systems (ISO14001); CSR programmes (corporate social responsibility); and programmes for organisational change and innovation

Participants will be invited to contribute to the co-development of a water resilience toolkit of resources for small businesses that will form part of guidance to be rolled out nationally. All contributors’ contributions will be acknowledged.

If you have any queries about this event please contact Ruth Vargo or Laura Chilver at dry@uwe.ac.uk

Webinar: Introducing the NERC ‘Drought and Water Scarcity in the UK’ research programme’s Engagement project, ‘ENDOWS’

Wednesday 13 December at 11 am
30 minutes duration
Host: Helen Gavin, University of Oxford/Atkins
Presenter: Helen Gavin (slides by Jamie Hannaford, CEH)

Video

Topic

This webinar features the UK Research Councils’ programme, ‘Drought and Water Scarcity in the UK’. The webinar will focus on a project within this programme called ‘ENDOWS’: ENgaging diverse stakeholders and publics with outputs from the UK DrOught and Water Scarcity programme.

The objective of ENDOWS is to engage with stakeholders, practitioners, and publics, to involve them in the UK Drought and Water Scarcity programme and to disseminate information about the findings, outputs and datasets arising from the programme that everyone can use.

Jamie Hannaford will give a 20 minute overview to the ENDOWS phase of work, and afterwards there will 10 minutes to answer questions.

Joining instructions:

Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device by clicking this URL:  https://zoom.us/j/284627623

Join by phone from the UK:  +44 (0) 20 3695 0088

The Webinar ID is: 284 627 623

Test news post

News items added on 22/11/2017

Large areas of the Iberian Peninsula are experiencing extreme drought conditions with Spain experiencing the worst drought for decades

New research shows droughts may be more costly than floods in cities

News items added on 18/10/2017

Horn of Africa Drought Response Issue No. 04 (5th October 2017) Currently over 20 million people are estimated to be affected by drought across the Horn of Africa

South Africa’s drooping flower tourism Ongoing drought in South Africa is affecting tourism

Weakening N American monsoon linked to global warming may lead to continued reduction in water resources in California:

Link established between European summer heatwave of 2017 and global warming:

MaRIUS (Managing the Risks, Impacts and Uncertainties of drought and water Scarcity) LIVE

We held our Showcase Event on 2 November 2017 to set out the findings of the MaRIUS research, and what outputs are available. This event profiled the research findings on the effect and impacts of droughts and water scarcity in the UK, what outputs are available for use; what further work that is planned, and how interested parties can get involved.

Videos

MaRIUS Showcase video playlist on YouTube

More information

The span of the MaRIUS project is large and covers physical and social science topics including: drought governance; drought options and management; community responses and environmental competency. It includes climatic aspects of drought and the derivation of a synthetic ‘drought event library’; hydrological responses both on a catchment and national scale; effects on water quality including nutrient concentration in rivers and algal concentrations in reservoirs, and effect of land use change; the ramifications on water resources on the Thames catchment and also nationally. It includes the impact of drought and water scarcity on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; agriculture and farming; the economy; and on electricity production.

The event was very successful and provided a key opportunity for stakeholders and researchers to meet and discuss the effect and impact of drought and water scarcity in the UK and what research outputs are available for the whole community.

View further information on the MaRIUS website

About Drought: Agriculture and ecological impacts

Thursday 7th March 2019, 6.30pm to 8.00pm
Location: The Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George Street, London (Nearest tube: Westminster)
Event organiser: About Drought and BHS
Event type: Meeting
Bookings: No registration is required. No charge.

BHS and About Drought (UK Drought and Water Scarcity Programme – ENDOWS Engaging diverse stakeholders and publics with outputs from the UK Drought and Water Scarcity) initiative invite you to this evening discussion of cross-sectoral impacts of drought on agriculture and river ecology.

Prof Ian Holman, Cranfield Water Science Institute

The 2018 drought – lessons for the agricultural sector
2018 was a very challenging year for the agricultural sector. This presentation will review some of the impacts experienced by the agricultural sector last year and consider how lessons from last year can be taken forward to inform increased drought resilience in the sector.

Dr Francois Edwards, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

The ecology of drought in rivers

The presentation will delve into the ecological impacts, resilience and recovery of rivers subject to drought.

There is no charge to attend this meeting and both BHS members and non-members are welcome. No registration is required.

Enquiries: Victoria Crellin (01372) 756813, victoria.crellin@atkinsglobal.com

The changing nature of water management

28 February 2018
Location: Peterborough
Event organiser: UK Irrigation Association
Event type: UKIA Spring Conference
Registration: Register online

The UKIA Irrigation Association is holding its 2018 Spring Conference in Peterborough (see attached flyer). The theme is ‘The changing nature of water management – How do irrigators engage with change?’ The Special Guest Speaker (Dr Wiehann Steyn) will be discussing the current severe drought in South Africa and implications for agriculture and UK imports.

Further information is available on the registration page.

Conference brochure (pdf) from UKIA website.