FCERM.net August Newsletter

Welcome

Dear Network Members,

As August arrives, many of our colleagues are enjoying some much deserved time away during the summer vacation.  In this summer edition of our newsletter, we bring you our top picks of the news and events from the flood and coastal erosion risk management community. 

We also bring you this month's In Perspective blog which has been written by Professor Colin Thorne, Nottingham University.  In this short piece Colin makes the case that in order to truly reduce flood risk, we need to harmonise the use of floodplains to provide the dual purposes of farming and flood risk management.  He offers us a vision where we shift our perspectives and practices to embrace a 'time-share' philosophy, and begin to plan for flood risk management that can deliver multiple benefits - for both society and the river.

COMMUNITY NEWS

FCERM.net says hello to Europe!

In an effort to raise the profile of the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Network (FCERM.net) in Europe and forge new international partnerships, Garry Pender gives an interview in a European publication, describing the role the Network plays in UK Flood Risk Management and praising the community for their innovation, collaborative spirit and their ambition to break down disciplinary boundaries.   Read more.......

New Centre for Earth and Marine Science and Technology to be based in Edinburgh

The British Geological Survey (BGS) and Heriot-Watt University are joining forces to create a new centre for Earth and Marine Science and Technology.  Based at Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Campus, the Sir Charles Lyell Centre will be one of Europe's leading centres for research and expertise in the earth and marine sciences.  In the spirit of collaboration researchers from both institutions came together at a 2-day ‘Research Futures’ event.  Prof. Garry Pender, Dr. Heather Haynes and Dr. Catherine Morgan were there to represent the FCERM.net. 

World Met Organisation Launch New Atlas of Mortality

A new report describes the distribution and impacts of weather, climate, and water-related disasters and highlights measures to increase resilience. The report aims to aid decision makers facing the challenge of protecting communities from natural disasters. Read more...

Committee on Climate Change Report urges more action for Resilience

A report by the government’s official adviser on preparing for climate change, The Committee on Climate Change has called for vital work to begin to enhance the resilience of transport networks, homes, hospitals and water supplies. Read more....

Flood Action Team (FLoAT) Launches to Collect Data on Processes Generating Surface Water and Flash Flooding

A new project FLoAT has launched a project to collect high quality data for flash floods resulting from intense rainfall.  The team will use a variety of data collection methods including novel approaches such as crowd-sourcing as well as more traditional field work sampling.  The research team have already been ‘storm chasing’ across the North of England, a write-up of which can be found on the FFIR research blog. Read More.....

DEFRA Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder: The First Year

A project that aims to increase community resillience to flooding in communities in England has reached the end of it's first year, and is showing promising results. The Pathfinder project uses a framework for measuring community resilience and findings show all 13 communities have made progress in Year 1 on the interventions outlined in their original project plans. Collingwood Environmental Planning report that in some cases, planned targets have been exceeded and additional activities have been initiated. Interventions include  Property Level Protection, rain gauges, CCTV schemes and community flood stores as well as outreach approaches such as materials for engaging with schools and a Junior Flood Action Group. Read More.....

FCERM.net Annual Assembly Presentations On-line

Following the success of the Network annual assembly in June presentations for both days are now available on-line.  Along with the presentation slides, recordings of our Keynote speakers Prof. Edmund Penning-Rowsell and Prof Arthur Mynett are all available. Further videos will be posted on-line in due course.

EVENTS

August Webinar

Dabo Guan, Senior Lecturer of Environmental Economics and Governance at Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), University of Leeds presents the FCERM.net August webinar titled

Flood footprint: theories and applications.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday 20th August, 12.15pm.  Paticipation is open to all, so please do circulate this event to your colleagues.  To participate simply use the link:

http://itsu.clickwebinar.com/FCERM_net_August

More information...

Understanding Uncertainty in Environmental Modelling

This residential workshop for Early Career Researchers is themed towards weather, climate and natural hazards and will present an overview of model evaluation methods, statistical inference for model output, and the use of models in risk management and decision-making, with the aim of exposing participants to methods and insights available in environmental modelling and encouraging critical evaluation of the approaches and methodologies used in their own research. More information.....

Knowledge exchange skills development workshop for Early Career Researchers

The theme of this 2-day workshop on 9-10 October 2014 in York is knowledge exchange, focussing on stakeholder engagement. Participants will get a better understanding of the benefits and challenges of working closely with stakeholders, which they can apply to their own research activities.  More information.....

IAHR River Flow 2014 – the 7th International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, 3rd September 2014 to Friday, 5th September

The event aims to create an environment for reflection, discussion and exchange of knowledge regarding fluvial hydraulics and river morphology. It is an opportunity to meet, to discuss and to learn about the interaction between water, sediments and structures in natural or built environments.  More information.....

SUCCESSES

PhD success for Collingwood Environmental Planning’s Peter Phillips

CEP’s Peter Phillips has recently been awarded a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Strathclyde. His thesis was entitled Land use planning in urban areas – towards an ecosystems approach. Peter’s PhD used Glasgow as a case study to develop a range of tools, models and guidance to support the development of multifunctional urban land use strategies for climate change adaptation, focussing on flood risk management (FRM) and ecological networks. The practical research outputs are designed to be integrated with Scotland’s statutory Local Development Plan (LDP) process, helping urban planning authorities to develop more targeted LDPs from the perspective of key urban ecosystem services. The research developed a suite of Geographic Information System (GIS) based models designed to target urban land use / management decision-making to support the provision of ecological network and water / flood management ecosystem services. Other research outputs included a new suite of guiding principles for ecosystems approach based urban land use planning and technical guidance to help urban planning stakeholders interpret and act upon GIS model outputs in the LDP process. Peter would be happy to discuss his research and its potential application and can be contacted at: p.phillips@cep.co.uk        

OPPORTUNITIES

PhD Post: Impact of climate change on extreme flood events – Applications Welcome

To understand the complex hydrological processes that contribute to flooding, hydraulic flood-risk models are available. However, these models are not designed to accommodate probabilistic climate information, such as available through UKCP09.

This PhD project will be based in the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment at Heriot-Watt University and will develop a new innovative statistical model, which can define the flow boundary conditions.....read more

 

A Note from the Network

Your News

We hope you have found our August newsletter to be informative and useful.  If you have any news, events, successes or opportunities that you think would be of value to the community, drop an email titled 'NEWS' to c.morgan@hw.ac.uk .Be sure to include a title for your content and a high resolution image.

With thanks,

The FCERM.net Team