The Environment Agency has published plans ordering Southern Water to reduce its abstraction from the River Test by 40 per cent. New licence revisions will mean the level of abstraction permitted will be cut from 136 to 80 million litres per day. Abstraction will also be restricted when river flow drops below 355 million litres per […]
Creating a pioneering model of urban river stewardship in Sheffield Helen Batt, Environment Agency 30 June 2017 After the floods in 2007 in Sheffield the Environment Agency undertook a comprehensive programme of works to clear the River Don of tree growth, vegetation and debris. Both eyewitness accounts and subsequent modelling demonstrated the capacity of the channel […]
The European Commission will present by the end of 2017 a Strategy on Plastics as part of the Circular Economy Action Plan; one of its components will address leakages of plastic to the environment. As inputs for the Strategy, the Commission has launched studies investigating all sources of micro-plastics and options to reduce their emissions. […]
It is not clear where this idea has come from. A way of putting existing designations in a wider local context. A mini-MSP? A city MP has launched a campaign to turn Plymouth Sound into the UK’s first National Marine park. Labour’s Luke Pollard has outlined his intention to turn the city’s famous bay into […]
Coalition working, is gaining traction as a device for focussing effort, here are four major organisational responses by both NGOs and Governments that match the unfolding massive scale of the problem. The task will soon become to assess the effectiveness of these coalitions in practice. 1.The Plastic Pollution Coalition http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/ The Plastic Pollution Coalition mission is to […]
Scientists at the University of Southampton are warning that future coastal impact studies must take account of extreme sea levels – a phenomenon expected to occur more frequently as rising waters combine with high tides and storm surges to potentially devastating effect. A new study published today in Nature Communications – led by the University […]
York Workshop Reports Thanks to Bryce Beukers-Stewart. Whilst the debris and comment still explodes around Gove’s pronouncements on fisheries, two thoughtful reports have been published which are the outcomes of the York Brexit workshops earlier in the year. Click here to download the two reports one on Fisheries and Brexit and the other on the […]
The National Infrastructure Commission has assessed the impact of the environment and climate change on future infrastructure. It includes analysis of water quality and water resource impacts, and looks at the prospects for integrating green infrastructure and natural capital into future infrastructure plans. Comments on the discussion paper are invited by 28 July. Click here […]