14 Feb 2024

The government has announced funding awards to improve lowland peat soils, including over £1.3 million to projects across the North. Peatlands are the country’s largest terrestrial carbon store, however, as a result of centuries of drainage for agriculture, just 1% of England’s lowland peatlands remain in a near-natural state, and these drained peatlands account for […]

14 Feb 2024

A new report from the EU Business and Biodiversity Platform explores in the built environment sector. The built environment contributes to biodiversity loss, particularly through changes in land use, disturbance of water cycle, unsustainable sourcing of a wide array of building materials, pollution, and contributions to climate change. Recognizing these impacts, leading companies and financiers […]

14 Feb 2024

The ICE Handbook of Urban Drainage Practice. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, Urban Drainage Practice provides an overview of current key challenges, opportunities and future directions of urban drainage in a practical and accessible way. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, Urban Drainage Practice provides an overview of current key challenges, opportunities […]

14 Feb 2024

Interesting new research published in Nature-based Solutions Sitting in our own soup? Combined sewers, climate change and nature-based solutions for urban water management in Berlin Highlights Pollution impacts from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are increasing with climate change. Interest in measures of success for future responses accompanies growing awareness of impacts. Stakeholder interviews and literature […]

07 Feb 2024

A toxic mix of oil, chemicals and bits of tyre from roads is polluting English waterways and no-one is regularly monitoring it, the BBC has found. Heavy rain forces run-off into streams and rivers. Campaigners say it causes “absolutely horrific” damage in places, including just downstream of where The Great British Bake Off is filmed. […]

07 Feb 2024

The Guardian reports that seventeen landfills across England are known to be producing a highly toxic liquid substance containing some banned and potentially carcinogenic “forever chemicals”, in some cases at levels 260 times higher than that deemed safe for drinking water. However the government says it does not know where these landfills are. Over a […]

07 Feb 2024

More designated bathing water sites would have been rated ‘poor’ in 2022 had all water quality samples been included in assessments, an investigation has found, with regulators accused of a ‘painting a better picture’ of the situation at the expense of public health. The ENDS report has found that the number of ‘poor’ rated bathing […]

07 Feb 2024

Following on from World Wetlands Day (2 Feb), the World Wetland Network is running a participatory science survey of the state of the world’s wetlands. The survey is open until 30 April, after which a senior science team assesses the findings, which will be published at Ramsar COP15 in 2025.