Strategies for the future

Why?

Public perception is that Scotland has plenty of good quality fresh and coastal water resources. However, environmental pressures on waters are growing and need to be tackled in an integrated manner including changes to land management. Changing policy can impact on a variety of geographical scales from the field through to national and global. Equally some responses will be rapid whilst others may take decades to realise consequences.

Research is needed to address these temporal and spatial interactions between policy and the environment. There are a number of common themes that will influence and impact how catchments are managed, including:

• Climate change.
• Improving sustainability and healthy communities.
• Ecosystem services.
• Governance and participation Outcomes.

Outcomes

• Undertake horizon scanning for identifying future pressureson the aquatic environment.
• Input to policy consultations taking account of future as well as current opportunities.
• Using current analysis to provide guidance for future implementation (e.g. from the Water Framework Directive for the Floods Directive).
• Using models and scenarios to ‘test’ possible measures for efficacy and equity

Contacts

• Dr Simon Langan