Development and Dissemination of the Estuaries Research Programme
Project background
A wide range of research into estuary morphology and processes has been completed since 1998 in the first two phases of the Estuaries Research Programme (ERP). The final project in ERP Phase 2 is a scoping and dissemination study (project FD2119) integrating much of the research to date, consolidating the Estuary Impact Assessment System (EIAS) and scoping the way forward to an Estuary Management System (EMS).
Consultation
Consultation with key customers has taken place as this is central to the development of the EIAS and EMS to ensure that the needs of the estuarine management community are met by the proposed system. Further feedback was obtained at the 2007 Flood and Coastal Erosion Management Conference in York (3rd to 5th July 2007), and an Estuaries Research Programme dissemination event on 2nd July 2007.
The objective of the consultation programme was to assess the needs of Operating Authorities, the flood management industry and other organisations involved in estuary management, to understand who wants/needs to know about the outputs and the best way to disseminate the tools that the ERP is producing.
To give a quantitative indication of the strength of opinions, responses were collated according to the number of consultees citing particular points and issues. These responses were collected under eight subject groups dealing with: interests, familiarity with ERP, ERP websites, ERP outputs, motivation, improvements needed, dissemination, and training.Estuary Impact Assessment System
The project will deliver an enhanced version of the Estuary Impact Assessment System, issued as a report in Phase 1 as part of the EMPHASYS project. The enhanced version will be in the form of a web-based tool that allows end users to access the results and find relevant tools that have been produced by ERP. It will build on the estuary guide already available from www.estuary-guide.net.
Estuary Management System
The project will scope out the Estuary Management System to be developed in Phase 3 of the ERP, both the form this should take and the remaining research required to deliver it. Broadly it is proposed that this should follow the Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts and Response framework (DPSIR) that has been used in other work.
Further work in the project
Having taken on board new relevant information from the consultation it will:
- Define and deliver the enhanced Estuary Impact Assessment System (EIAS);
- Scope out the form of an integrated Estuary Management System (EMS) and associated requirement for tools that may need to be developed; and,
- Provide some training and disseminate the outcomes of the project.
The project forms part of the Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management joint R&D Programme.
For more information please contact the Project Manager Dr Richard Whitehouse (r.whitehouse@hrwallingford.co.uk)
or the Project Officer Dr Kate Scott (Kate.Scott@environment-agency.gov.uk)
