Authors: Sarah West, Rachel Pateman, Alison Dyke

In: Data Submission in Citizen Science Projects Report for Defra (Project number PH0475) - Project Report

Download: Defra Data Submission in Citizen Science Projects Report (PDF , 1,267kb)

In: Climate and Development, online 15 September 2016

Author(s): Ensor, J.E., S.E. Park, S.J. Attwood, A.M. Kaminski and J.E. Johnson

DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2016.1223595

A central claim of community-based adaptation (CBA) is that it increases resilience. Yet the concept of resilience is treated inconsistently in CBA, obscuring discussion of the limitations and benefits of resilience thinking and undermining evaluation of resilience outcomes in target communities. This paper examines different participatory assessment activities carried out as part of CBA case studies in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands.

The activities and their outputs were assessed against 10 characteristics of resilience previously identified in a systematic review. The findings offer support to the claim that CBA can build resilience in target communities, revealing the inherent strengths of CBA in relation to resilience. However, it is necessary for CBA assessments to simultaneously incorporate activities that consider cultural, political, economic and ecological factors influencing resilience within and between communities. This may demand multiple staff with different skills.

The findings also highlight the importance of politics and power in shaping adaptive capacity. In particular, addressing the highly context-specific nature of social, cultural and political relations demands an approach that is situated in and responsive to local realities. Overall, the case studies suggest that using the 10 characteristics as an analytical framework offers support to practitioners looking to develop, implement or evaluate CBA assessment activities. Yet within this, it is critical that a focus on increasing resilience through CBA does not preclude transformation in social relations.

Realizing the potential to support resilience and transformation requires CBA practitioners to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of resilience, while also paying close attention to multiple potential barriers to equitable adaptation.

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In: Final report on behalf of the UK Environmental Observation Framework (UKEOF)

Author(s): Geoghegan, H., A. Dyke, R. Pateman, S. West & G. Everett

The UK Environmental Observation Framework(UKEOF) commissioned the University of Reading, in partnership with the SEI York, and the University of West England to undertake a study to investigate people's motivations for citizen science. 

Citizen science delivers environmental data, forms the basis of scientific research and policy, and is an enjoyable activity. To ensure projects provide benefits to science and society, the researchers asked why citizen scientists, environmental volunteers (potential participants) and stakeholders from science, policy, and practice participate in citizen science. Understanding their motivations is vital in order to recruit volunteers, maintain involvement, maximise data quality, and ensure institutional buy-in.

This report presents results from a social science project, revealing the use of the term citizen science, the motivations of participants, potential solutions to motivational challenges, and the importance of accommodating motivations through evaluation. The definition of citizen science is changing. Stakeholders accepted its popular meaning as data collection by citizens for use by scientists and extended it to suggest that citizens must also benefit from participation.

Many stakeholders involved in running projects and using data self-identified as ‘citizen scientists’, e.g. recording species in their leisure time. Such distinctions between amateur and professional expertise were broken down further by the varied use of the term to brand projects and activities. Most projects remain contributory, but collaborative and co-designed projects are gaining followers.

Download the full report (external link to website)

In: Environmental Pollution Vol 214, July 2016, pp 859–865

Author(s): Welden, N.A.C., and P. Cowie

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.03.067

This article examines the uptake of microplastic in three langoustine populations around the coast of Scotland, UK and proposes possible reasons for differences between and within them.

Over the past twenty years microplastic pollution has been recorded in all major marine habitats, and is now considered to be of high environmental concern. Correspondingly, the number of reports of microplastic ingestion by marine species is increasing. Despite this, there are still relatively few studies which address the uptake and retention of microplastic in wild populations. Langoustine, Nephrops norvegicus, sampled from the Clyde Sea Area, have previously been seen to contain large aggregations of microplastic fibres. The large proportion of contaminated individuals and size of the microplastic aggregations observed suggests that Nephrops are at high risk of microplastic ingestion. In this study the levels of ingested microplastic in populations of N. norvegicus from the Clyde Sea Area, North Minch and North Sea are examined. Animals in the near-shore, Clyde Sea population showed both a higher percentage of microplastic containing individuals and much greater weights of microplastic retained in the gut. N. norvegicusrevealed that only a small percentage of individuals from the North Sea and Minch contained microplastic, predominantly single strands. An expanded sample from the Clyde Sea Area was examined to identify the factors influencing microplastic retention. This revealed that males, larger individuals, and animals that had recently moulted contained lower levels of microplastic. The presence of identified food items in the gut was not seen to correlate with microplastic loads. Observations of microplastic in the shed stomach lining of recently moulted individuals and the lack of aggregations in wild-caught individuals suggests that ecdysis is the primary route of microplastic loss by N.norvegicus. Therefore the large aggregations observed in wild-caught animals are believed to build up over extended periods as a result of the complex gut structure of N.norvegicus.

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In: Environmental Modelling & Software Volume 82, August 2016, Pages 44–72

Author(s): Katic, P. and J. Morris

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.04.004

This paper describes the application of a Bayesian network decision tool in the White Volta Basin, West Africa.

Irrigation for smallholder farming systems is an important approach for sustainable intensification and increased productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, provided investments in irrigation are properly targeted and accompanied by complementary improvements. Many GIS-based tools have been developed to identify suitable areas for investments in different types of small scale irrigation (SSI), but they do not explicitly address uncertainty on the data input and on the determination of factors that affect success of an investment in a given context. This paper addresses this problem by presenting an application of a decision-support targeting tool based on Bayesian networks (BNs) that can be used by non-expert policy-makers and investors to assess the potential success of specific technologies used for groundwater-based SSI. A case study application for the White Volta Basin in West Africa is presented to illustrate the BN approach.

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This article suggests that over time, breeding strategies used for soybean production have led to more ozone sensitive cultivars and this could result in potential yield reductions. The consequences of this are important in terms of global food production and rearing livestock.

In: Global Change Biology

Author(s): Osborne, S.A., G. Mills, F. Hayes, E.A. Ainsworth, P. Büker and L. Emberson

DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13318

The rising trend in concentrations of ground-level ozone (O₃) – a common air pollutant and phytotoxin – currently being experienced in some world regions represents a threat to agricultural yield. Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an O₃-sensitive crop species, and is experiencing increasing global demand as a dietary protein source and constituent of livestock feed. The study collated O₃ exposure-yield data for 49 soybean cultivars, from 28 experimental studies published between 1982 and 2014, to produce an updated dose-response function for soybean. Different cultivars were seen to vary considerably in their sensitivity to O₃, with estimated yield loss due to O₃ ranging from 13.3% for the least sensitive cultivar to 37.9% for the most sensitive, at a 7-hour mean O₃ concentration (M7) of 55 ppb – a level frequently observed in regions of the USA, India and China in recent years. The year of cultivar release, country of data collection and type of O₃ exposure used were all important explanatory variables in a multivariate regression model describing soybean yield response to O₃. The data show that the O₃ sensitivity of soybean cultivars increased by an average of 32.5% between 1960 and 2000, suggesting that selective breeding strategies targeting high yield and high stomatal conductance may have inadvertently selected for greater O₃sensitivity over time. Higher sensitivity was observed in data from India and China compared to the USA, although it is difficult to determine if this effect is the result of differential cultivar physiology, or related to local environmental factors such as co-occurring pollutants. Gaining further understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to O₃ will be important in shaping future strategies for breeding O₃-tolerant cultivars.

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In: Environmental Pollution Vol 214, July 2016, pp 549–555

Author(s): Gosling, L., M. Ashmore, T. Sparks and N. Bell

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.04.066

This paper highlights the use of citizen science as tool for evaluating tree disease.

Elevated sulphur dioxide (SO₂) concentrations were the major cause of the absence of symptoms of tar spot (Rhytisma acerinum) of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), in urban areas in the 1970s. The subsequent large decline in SO₂ concentrations has not always been accompanied by increased tar spot symptoms, for reasons that have remained unresolved.

The study used a large citizen science survey, providing over 1000 records across England, to test two competing hypotheses proposed in earlier studies. The authors were able to demonstrate the validity of both hypotheses; tar spot symptoms were reduced where there were fewer fallen leaves as a source of inoculum, and elevated nitrogen dioxide concentrations reduced tar spot symptoms above a threshold concentration of about 20 μg m⁻³. Symptom severity was also lower at sites with higher temperature and lower rainfall. 

These findings demonstrate the power of citizen science to resolve competing hypotheses about the impacts of air pollution and other environmental drivers.

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In: Natural Hazards, online 11 April 2016

Author(s): Bracken, L.J., E.A. Oughton, A. Donaldson, B. Cook, J. Forrester, C. Spray, S. Cinderby, D. Passmore, and N. Bissett

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2284-2

River flooding is a serious hazard in the UK with interest driven by recent widespread events. This paper reviews different approaches to flood risk management and the borders (physical, conceptual and organisational) that are involved.

The paper showcases a multi-method approach to negotiating flood risk management interventions. The authors address three fundamental issues around flood risk management: differences and similarities between a variety of approaches; how different approaches work across borders between professionals, lay people, organizations and between different planning regimes; and, whether the science evidence base is adequate to support different types of flood risk management. They explore these issues through a case study on the River Tweed using Q methodology, community mapping and focus groups, participatory GIS, and interviews, which enabled co-production of knowledge around possible interventions to manage flooding.

The research demonstrated that excellent networks of practice exist to make decisions about flood risk management in the Scottish–English borders. Physical and organizational borders were continually traversed in practice. There was an overwhelming desire from professional flood managers and local communities for an alternative to simply structural methods of flood management. People were keen to make use of the ability of catchments to store water, even if land needed to be sacrificed to do so. There was no difference in the desire to embrace natural flood management approaches between people with different roles in flood management, expertise, training or based in different locations. Thus conceptual borders were also crossed effectively in practice.

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In: Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(4), 440

Author(s): Ward Thompson, C.,P. Aspinall, J.Roe, L. Robertson and D. Miller

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph13040440

This article presents results from a study in Scotland, UK which analyzed the health benefits from access to green spaces. 

Environment-health research has shown significant relationships between the quantity of green space in deprived urban neighbourhoods and people’s stress levels. The focus of this paper is the nature of access to green space (i.e., its quantity or use) necessary before any health benefit is found. It draws on a cross-sectional survey of 406 adults in four communities of high urban deprivation in Scotland, United Kingdom. Self-reported measures of stress and general health were primary outcomes; physical activity and social well-being were also measured.

A comprehensive, objective measure of green space quantity around each participant’s home was also used, alongside self-report measures of use of local green space. Correlated Component Regression identified the optimal predictors for primary outcome variables in the different communities surveyed. Social isolation and place belonging were the strongest predictors of stress in three out of four communities sampled, and of poor general health in the fourth, least healthy, community. The amount of green space in the neighbourhood, and in particular access to a garden or allotment, were significant predictors of stress. Physical activity, frequency of visits to green space in winter months, and views from the home were predictors of general health. The findings have implications for public health and for planning of green infrastructure, gardens and public open space in urban environments.

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In: Report by SEI for Oxfam Australia

Author: Ensor, J.

This report documents findings from fieldwork in Vanuatu aimed at contextualizing the resilience-building work of the Vanuatu NGO Climate Change Adaptation Program and linking it to emerging themes in the academic literature on adaptation and resilience.

These themes challenge those concerned with adaptation to think more critically about the nature of communities, and to explore how power and politics at different scales (from the local to the global) influence the opportunities for and constraints on adaptation for different members of a community. The resilience perspective pushes understanding of adaptation further, inviting systematic consideration not only of how programming can address not only climate change impacts, but also of how agency and structure can be addressed to empower vulnerable groups in the face of climate change.

The findings draw attention to how vulnerability is defined by multiple interconnected issues that have different significance in the lives of different community members, each of whom have their own perceptions of risk and access to opportunities. While relationships defined by power and cultural norms shape how local risks are understood, prioritized and managed in adaptation decision making processes, a focus on equitable decision-making can support the emergence of adaptive capacity that is the basis for future adaptive actions that benefit the whole community.

Adaptive capacity also demands opportunities for local people to build their technical and decision-making capacities and relationships with external actors. While this is increasingly understood by the agencies working within the Vanuatu NGO Climate Change Adaptation Program at the level of rhetoric, it remains for a deeper change in perspective to develop.

For the most part, structural issues that fundamentally limit adaptation and development choices remain in the background to the projects studied during the fieldwork. The baseline assessments that underpin community-based adaptation must take account of those structural issues at multiple scales, and establish whether support for more equitable social, cultural or political change is a necessary part of action on adaptation.

Taken together, this analysis supports the intention of the programme to shift community-based adaptation away from its comfort zone. However, agencies will need to work hard to push beyond the familiar focus on climate change impacts and capacity-building that supports individual agency, and towards actions that link agency and structure through support for broad-based coalitions for change.

In support of this goal, rights-based strategies are proposed to address structural constraints on adaptive capacity. By exploring the mechanisms that underpin marginalisation and exclusion, rights-based approaches enable development actors to support vulnerable communities in seeking reform via social and political processes or through appeal to legal or administrative systems.

See listing on Oxfam site (external link)

In: Report by SEI for the Measure What Matters project

Author(s): Taherzadeh, O. and C. West

This report by the Measure What Matters team examines the current state of corporate and government reporting of water sustainability in India.

Businesses, governments and global-level actors all gather data on water resources. However, serving different purposes, their accounting systems are rarely harmonized, which can lead to information asymmetries between different scales of governance, leading to a potential risk of mission drift and subsequent resource mismanagement and conflict. This is particularly important for implementing the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

If we understand where misalignments and blind-spots exist between different actors' accounting systems, we can take steps to improve the coverage and alignment of water reporting. This understanding can also foster effective goal-setting and action in sustainable water governance.

This report examines the current state of corporate and government water reporting in India. The research assessed the coverage of government water monitoring and common corporate water reporting frameworks in the country across a range of water sustainability dimensions: water use efficiency, infrastructure capacity, risk identification, pollution management, compliance with water-related regulation, and access to clean water and sanitation. 

The analysis found significant misalignments and blind-spots in the way water sustainability was being conceptualized and measured by the Indian government, within corporate reporting frameworks, and across the SDGs. This is indicative of monitoring and reporting inefficiencies within India’s water economy and at worst suggest a lack of state and industry capacity to detect water-related impacts and act decisively to resolve them. Within this context, several dimensions of water sustainability are identified which require particular attention to improve reporting alignment between corporate and government levels and the SDGs. These are:

1. Access to water: Measures of access to (clean) water and sanitation by local communities
2. Compliance: Measures of compliance with, and disclosure against local, national, regional and international water legislation
3. Infrastructure: Availability of infrastructure to provide (clean) water (efficiently/sustainably)
   
   

The report also assesses sustainability disclosures from India’s top 200 businesses against the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) water-related indicators. It reveals a chronic lack of water reporting across India’s major businesses, with the worst offenders in the services, utilities and manufacturing sectors.

The report offers recommendations to tackle India’s water dilemma going beyond technological fixes and short-term supply-side measures, and looks for opportunities for cooperation across scales to help harmonize India’s water accounting with the SDGs. 

Download the report (PDF, 1.9MB - external link to project website)

In: Environmental Science & Policy
Volume 58, April 2016, Pages 74–82

Author(s): Topi, C., E. Esposto, and V.M. Govigli

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.01.0

This paper describes a prioritization methodology for demand side water efficiency measures. Eight domestic measures are appraised using economical and environmental indicators. Out of these 6 show attractive pay-back periods producing €10.2 million annual savings overall. The paper suggests that by using these measures domestic water consumption could be reduced of 34% by 2020.

Cities are major contributors to global emissions, producers of waste and consumers of resources such as energy, water and food: implementing green development strategies is hence a core challenge of modern city-planning. The attention of research has been focusing on the development of energy efficient, low carbon strategies, yet city decision-makers need truly integrated approaches, as the one proposed by the water-energy-food Nexus. The paper investigates whether it is possible to take one step in this direction by extending existing approaches to energy efficiency strategies to progressively include other priority resources, in particular water.

To test this hypothesis a robust and well accepted methodology was used, the ELCC (Economics of Low Carbon development strategies for Cities) developed by SEI and CCCEP. This has been further extended to include demand side water efficiency strategies for cities. This adapted ELCC framework was applied to the case study of the domestic sector of the city of Bologna (Italy), identifying and prioritizing several efficiency measures. Measures were evaluated through their capital investment, annual values of savings, payback period and reduction in consumption, and then aggregated in different scenarios in order to highlight potential urban investments and to showcase a possible approach to the prioritization of demand side water efficiency measures.

The results show that, with an upfront investment of €17 million, a feasible subset of Bologna’s households could be equipped with five selected cost-effective measures, generating annual savings of €10.2 million and reducing the total domestic water consumption of 34% by 2020 compared to the 2012 initial value. With additional €28.5 million, households could be equipped with more costly appliances reaching an overall water reduction of 37% by 2020. In conclusion, the paper confirms that it is possible to successfully extend current approaches to urban energy efficiency strategies to include demand side water efficiency, adding an important building block to the construction of an integrated Nexus-based approach to green development strategies at the city-level. 

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