Learning from US and European Experience in Catchment Management

Project Status: Completed (See Final Report Summary)
Type of Project: Capacity Building Award
Principal Investigator: Dr Hadrian Cook, Imperial College (Email)

Publications, Data and Other Outputs

 

Objectives

The overall objective is to provide an initial assessment of the potential of catchment, river basin or watershed management measures (WMMs) for water quality improvement and integrated land and water resource use and management in the UK, and to capacity build via a network of relevant professionals capable of advanced research in this area. The particular focus will be on the potential of watershed agricultural programmes (WAPs), implemented primarily through change in land and water management practices by farmers and other land users.

A technical and economic assessment of the feasibility of WAPs will identify watershed management measures suitable for the UK. The US driver is water pathogen loading, but in the UK it is diffuse pollution management. Therefore attention will focus on the potential for nutrient control, pollution, flood and abstraction management considering the relative land scarcity and capacity for water filtration during treatment. Gaps in scientific and technical knowledge will be identified.

Economic and institutional analysis will focus on case studies to identify critical determinants of feasibility. We will undertake historical reviews, individual and group discussions, household and enterprise modelling, and transaction cost and institutional analysis. The focus of more quantitative analysis will be on the incentives, opportunities and constraints for different actors which will be examined in the context of different activities by public/EU actions affecting broader economic policies, the environment, research and technology development. Earlier findings will be scoped to integrate technical and economic analysis of case study catchments within broader experience to prioritise scientific and economic factors. We will identify conditions for successful policy implementation of WMMS under different UK socio-economic and agro-ecological conditions with particular regard for critical constraints and ‘policy levers’.