Science and Research

SpongeScapes is a Horizon Europe project uniting 14 case studies across Europe to advance the understanding and implementation of sponge measures—nature-based solutions that restore landscapes' natural capacity to absorb, temporarily store, and slowly release water. These measures play a vital role in mitigating floods, droughts, and other climate impacts while delivering co-benefits such as improved water quality, biodiversity, and community well-being.

Visit our website (link below) to explore the science, case studies, and training opportunities

The Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) is now establishing a long term monitoring programme in the UK. FDRI is an innovative long-term programme which, for the first time in the UK, will monitor the whole hydrological system, to improve resilience to floods and droughts. FDRI will advance our understanding of how, when and where floods and droughts occur, enabling improved predictions, robust assessment of impacts and implementation of appropriate mitigation measures.

A report has just been published by scientists at the James Hutton Institute, SRUC and University of Aberdeen that assesses the socio-economic impacts of soil degradation on Scotland’s water environment. The work was commissioned by Scotland's Centre of Expertise for Waters. 

The 2024 British Hydrological Society National Symposium will be held at the University of Oxford on the 23rd and 24th September. This major two-day event will showcase research across the hydrological community and include presentations, workshops, discussions, field visit and conference dinner. The field visit this year includes a walk around the site of the proposed Oxford Alleviation Scheme where you will have an opportunity to understand the flood mechanisms within Oxford and hear about the plans for the scheme.  
 

The Engineering with Nature initiative (led by US Army Corps of Engineers) has now published "Engineering with Nature: An Atlas, volume 3". The atlas contains lots of global case studies that are using NbS inspired approaches. 58 projects (including several cases from the UK) are highlighted in this latest version which is available to download via the link below. 

We are reaching out to you with an exciting opportunity to contribute to research on River woodland evidence gaps. This survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete (ideally on a laptop or desktop).
 

The Tweed Forum have published a new guide to riverside tree planting. The guide called "Riparian woodland creation – a guide for practitioners" is available via the link at the bottom of this page. The Practitioners’ Guide to Riparian Woodland Creation is aimed at farmers, landowners, land managers, conservation bodies and other organisations to assist and encourage tree planting at the scale required to make a significant difference. The guide was commissioned and funded by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering with Nature initiative has released a new season of podcasts (season 7). Podcasts cover topics such as regenerative land management, policy issues and knowledge exchange. You can also access the previous 6 seasons of podcasts via the link below. 

A report has been published on the Hydronation Chair website on "Water Metrics and Standards: Review of current approaches, challenges and issues". The report presents the findings of an initial scoping survey carried out by the Hydronation Chair in late 2022/early 2023 on behalf of the Water Metrics and Standards Working Group, convened by SEPA and NatureScot. The report makes a series of recommendations for next steps for developing water metrics (including those associated with NFM measures).

The Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) is a joint initiative between Scottish Government, NatureScot, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund Supporting the development of environmental projects in Scotland. FIRNS aims to value and monetise ecosystem services derived from the restoration of natural capital assets, in a model that will attract and repay investment or support an investment model that can be scaled up and duplicated elsewhere.