Water Objective WA-2.2

Urban and rural ecohydrological impacts

Water Objective WA-2.2 contributes to meeting CEH Science Strategy Challenge II (to processes linking physical and chemical changes in the environment with ecosystem responses) by using a "landscape mosaic" approach to integrating the impacts of changes in urban, peri-urban and rural land use.

Objective WA-2.2 aims to:

  • Develop novel methods of measuring water fluxes at landscape scale
  • Quantify impacts of urban, peri-urban and rural land use on hydrological behaviour
  • Develop models of water, sediment and nutrient fluxes from different landscape types and mosaics from source to sea
  • Understand the role of soil moisture dynamics in catchment process
  • Measure the impact of agricultural sediments on river ecosystems
  • Develop methods for linking catchment land use to aquatic biological communities

These activities also inform and are informed by other areas of Water Programme research and related research in the Biogeochemistry and Biodiversity Programmes and the Environmental Information Data Centre.

 

Areas of research

WA-2.2 undertakes research which is supported by a wide range of stakeholders, which include Natural England, the Environment Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the National Biodiversity Network and the European Union.

Areas of research relevant to Objective WA-2.2 include:

  • Peri-urban hydro-ecology
  • Integrated catchment science
  • Phosphorus target concentrations in British rivers

Collaborative research projects

WA-2.2 contributes to a wide range of collaborative projects.