UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

🗞️ Our December newsletter is out now! Top stories include: 🌍 Landmark #NexusAssessment of linked global crises ✅ Action preventing Yellow-legged (Asian) hornet establishment 💧 Slowing the flow with natural flood management 🐞 Citizen science crucial for helping detect invasive non-native species Plus more news, blog posts, training courses and our Christmas closure arrangements. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gAbnfY33 #CitizenScience #SlowTheFlow #EnvironmentalScience

Very good to see an updated assessment of current and future flood and coastal erosion risk across England published this week by the Environment Agency. It shows that 6.3million properties in England are currently at risk of flooding from at least one of rivers, the sea, or surface water. Around 4.6 million of these properties are in areas at risk from surface water flooding, a 43% increase on the previous assessment.   This improved risk assessment has been underpinned by significant advances in data, modelling and technology. UKCEH are proud to have supported this through the provision of information, advice and data from the Flood Estimation Handbook, UK National River Flow Archive at UKCEH, and Land Cover Map.     The updated National Assessment of Flood Risk (NaFRA) will be used by government, Environment Agency, and local communities to plan for and improve flood resilience in areas at risk. The assessment also shows the total number of properties in areas at flood risk in England could increase to around 8 million, or 1 in 4 properties, by the middle of the century. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eY9yKRP7 The scale of these flooding impacts is why our new UKCEH five-year strategy to 2030 has “Building resilience in a changing climate” as one of our top three research priorities: https://lnkd.in/eBcaCGVw You can find out more about how natural flood management can be part of the solution in our recent podcast (recorded before the updated numbers were published): https://lnkd.in/gg5zAv_N #flooding #FloodRisk #FloodResilience Doug Wilson OBE Steven Cole Nick Reynard

Launched today, landmark IPBES assessment of interlinked global challenges in biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change, and the need for a joined-up approach to tackle them. 📚 >70 options presented to help manage these nexus elements and deliver multiple benefits 🌍 165 experts from 57 countries 🔦 6500 sources of knowledge ⏳ 3 years of work Congratulations to co-chairs Prof Paula Harrison from UKCEH and Prof Pamela McElwee of Rutgers University and all the experts involved throughout the process! The report describes how interacting crises compound each other, making separate efforts to address them ineffective. It outlines options and actions for decision-makers around the world ✅ Biodiversity is declining at every level from global to local, and across every region, the report states, having direct and dire impacts on food security and nutrition, water quality and availability, health and wellbeing outcomes, resilience to climate change and almost all of nature’s other contributions to people. More than half of global gross domestic product – over $50 trillion of annual economic activity around the world – is moderately to highly dependent on nature. But, the authors say, current decision-making has prioritised short-term financial returns while ignoring costs to nature. This is having significant negative knock-on effects on biodiversity loss, climate change, water availability and human health. However a number of actions, from national to community level, are available to sustainably manage these challenges, many of which are also low cost.   Numerous case studies of the successful implementation of response options from across the globe are highlighted. For example, an innovative project in rural Senegal cut water pollution and removed invasive aquatic plants in order to reduce the habitat for snails hosting parasitic worms that cause bilharzia, a disease that can cause life-long ill health and affects 200 million people worldwide. The report also highlights agroecology as a holistic response option for shifting agricultural production systems towards the sustainable management of biodiversity, crops and other resources. After a week of negotiations, the Nexus assessment summary was approved on 16 December 2024 at the 11th session of the IPBES Plenary – made up of representatives of the 147 governments that are members of IPBES – at Windhoek, Namibia. See the IPBES release and link to summary report: https://lnkd.in/d__2Hn6m Read our news summary: https://lnkd.in/ekkS9_2i #NexusAssessment #biodiversity #water

🌳 🏙️ Urban tree planting reduces flood risk and improves water quality. Less is known about effects for aquatic biodiversity. Our new research shows clear benefits of tree planting both alongside urban rivers and further away in upstream catchment areas. Findings were consistent from a systematic literature review of worldwide research and from a nationwide statistical analysis in England. As it was based on a filtered subset of rivers from a large database, the statistical approach, covering 143 small basins, was able to exclude effects of wastewater pollution. It could focus instead purely on the effects on surface runoff and ecological habitats arising from urban morphology. In this context, built land cover has negative effects. Bare ground, even in small amounts, is detrimental. Green infrastructure provides clear benefits for macroinvertebrate diversity. Woodland provides stronger benefits than grassland. Given the increasing accessibility of land cover data, the approach adopted in the England case study is applicable elsewhere wherever macroinvertebrate community data are also available. Read the full study, “River invertebrate biodiversity benefits from upstream urban woodland”, by Yueming Qu et al: https://lnkd.in/geYChnvS #woodland #TreePlanting #biodiversity Mike Hutchins Alice Fitch REGREEN

The Hydrological Summary for November 2024 has been published! ☀️ 🌧️ The first half of November was dry, cloudy and mild, in contrast to the second half which saw snow, storms and heavy rain. Total rainfall was below average in the north and, despite the first dry fortnight, average in the south – although this masks regional variation. 🌊 River flows also reflected this spatial gradient, with below normal to notably low flows in the north and flows in the normal range to notably high in the south. Groundwater levels ranged from the normal range to exceptionally high, with recharge observed in late November. Reservoir stocks at most impoundments fell relative to average, removing surpluses for some in the north and for Scotland as a whole. 🗻 Whilst the wet start to December may have somewhat ameliorated any water resources concerns associated with the dry autumn in the north, the wetted soils and high groundwater levels continue to elevate flood risk in the south and east during the transition into winter. 💧 The latest Hydrological Outlook indicates above normal river flows in south-east England, some of which will be exceptionally high. In eastern Scotland, river flows are likely to be normal to below normal, and elsewhere river flows are likely to be in the normal to above normal range. For groundwater levels, above normal levels are expected, with the exception of east Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Dumfries where normal levels are most likely. Read the Hydrological Summary here: https://lnkd.in/egXJV2Qu #riverflow #rainfall #reservoirs #groundwater UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) British Geological Survey Met Office Environment Agency Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru / Natural Resources Wales Scottish Environment Protection Agency Department for Infrastructure

Following years of work and deliberations over the past week, the IPBES biodiversity-water-food-health #NexusAssessment is due to launch tomorrow, Tuesday 17 December! Congratulations to all involved, including our own Prof Paula Harrison, one of the co-chairs 👏🏼 More details tomorrow...

🌍 The interconnections between food, water, health, biodiversity, and climate change present significant challenges. IPBES is due to launch its Nexus Assessment report looking at how these crises are interlinked and can cascade and compound each other. Tune in to the latest episode of the IPBES Nature Insight podcast, where the chairs of the #NexusAssessment, including UKCEH's Professor Paula Harrison, discuss these linkages and potential solutions to tackle them together: 🎧 https://lnkd.in/eNdtyxuV #podcast #EnvironmentalScience #IPBES11

The Caribbean UK Overseas Territories are rich in biodiversity, hosting many unique species. However, invasive non-native species present a significant and growing threat to these ecosystems. In collaboration with two #DarwinPlus-funded projects, we hosted a workshop bringing together participants from Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos Islands. The event provided an opportunity to: 🔍 Share insights on monitoring and managing invasive species 🤝 Highlight inspiring efforts to mitigate impacts 🌟 Emphasise the role of community engagement in successful initiatives The workshop also showcased beautiful resources designed to raise awareness about biological invasions and their impact on biodiversity 🌱🐦. 👉 See our blog to explore these stories and insights: https://lnkd.in/eQtfRQWt #biodiversity #InvasiveNonNativeSpecies

Are you at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting in Liverpool? Come and find us on stand 10 from 11-13 December to learn more about the long-term environmental data we have available through our National Capability for UK Challenges programme, our latest AgZero+ sustainable agriculture research and much more that UKCEH has to offer. https://lnkd.in/e-aGA5kh #BES2024

📣 New podcast episode! This time on Counting the Earth, we're discussing natural flood management, and how a nature-based approach can work alongside more traditional flood management techniques to help address the challenges posed by the climate crisis and changes in land use. Have a listen as Sue and Alice visit the Bruern Estate in Oxfordshire to explore how this approach is reducing flood risks downstream in Milton-under-Wychwood. They meet UKCEH senior hydrologist Dr Alejandro R. DUSSAILLANT J. and Ann Berkeley from WILD OXFORDSHIRE, and learn how features such as leaky woody dams, swales, wet woodlands and field corner bunds are helping to manage water flow through the catchment, bringing co-benefits along the way. And UKCEH hydrologists Neeraj Sah and Ponnambalam Rameshwaran share insights from their monitoring activity evaluating the longer-term effectiveness of these innovative approaches. 🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/gg5zAv_N #flooding #NaturalFloodManagement #NatureBasedSolutions Sue Nelson, Boffin Media Alice Hope Rachael Buchanan