EU Cost Meeting at North Wyke

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Originally uploaded by wq0109

This week the Working group 3 from the EU COST action on 'Mitigation options for nutrient reduction in surface water and groundwater' met at North Wyke in Devon, UK. There were nearly 50 participants from over 20 EU countries and some photos of the meeting can be seen here. A new EU wide initiative on pooling mitigation measures was sketched out and will be built upon as the COST action evolves through 2008 and beyond. This will add to UK Defra led work on the Diffuse Pollution Inventory and seeks ways of sharing the evidence base through a wider European forum. Much welcome! Phil

Open University, Open Systems Research Group work on Integrated Catchment Managing

Kevin Collins (OU) and his colleagues have been working with the catchment science team at the Environment Agency over the past 2 years. At CAIWA2007, Kevin gave a fascinating presentation on 'Trusting emergence: Some experiences of learning about integrated catchment science with the Environment Agency of England and Wales '. This paper set out to explore whether current scientific practices and the resultant scientific explanations are able to meet the demands of doing effective integrated, adaptive water management, using some learning arising from co-research work with the EA in England and Wales.

Useful web resource: Learning for Sustainability

I recently discovered this very useful site (maintained by Will Allan) that aims to provide a practical resource for those who work with communities (in the wider sense of the term) to help them identify and adopt more sustainable practices. The pages on interdisciplinary research have links to the key scientific literature.

NERC Science into Policy booklet

This is a very helpful booklet that is primarily aimed to help NERC staff and NERC-funded scientists (equally applicable to all scientists) to:
a) recognise the relevance of science to policy-makers;
b) identify available opportunities, routes and best practice to influence policy-making;
c) communicate science in an appropriate and accessible way, to the right policy-makers, showing how it fits their policy needs.

The booklet explains key aspects of the UK policy-making process and gives links to some important information sources.

EU Floods Directive comes into force

Information from the Defra website:
The European Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks (2007/60/EC of 23 October 2007) (the Floods Directive) is designed to help Member States prevent and limit floods and their damaging effects on human health, the environment, infrastructure and property. The Floods Directive came into force on 26 November, 2007 and Member States have 2 years in which to transpose the Directive into domestic law.

There is no existing Community legislation in the field of flood risk management. In putting the case for action, the Commission points to the large numbers of people affected by flooding within the Community in recent years, the high level of actual and prospective economic damage, and the severe environmental consequences that can arise from flooding, for example when waste water treatment plants or factories holding quantities of toxic chemicals are flooded (an aspect that is in fact addressed by the Water Framework Directive).

EU COST Workshop in Devon on Mitigating Nutrient Pollution

Workshop (of WG3) of the COST Action 869 (http://www.cost869.alterra.nl/) is being held this week at IGER North Wyke, Devon. This will bring together over 50 leading scientists from across Europe to assess how much we know about mitigating nutrient pollution of surface and ground waters.

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive: WFD CIRCA Forum

Welcome to the CIRCA Interest Group "Implementing the Water Framework Directive", a new electronic forum accessible through the internet! This forum has been established in order to improve the sharing of information and the views on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. It is also part of the Common Implementation Strategy agreed on by the 15 Member States, Norway and the Commission on 2 May 2001 in Fiskebackskill, Sweden.

Contains all the information relevant to the WFD CIS process which is publicly available

An example being a recent workshop on setting nutrient standard
Zandvoort 11-12th October 2007