CEP research published on measuring recovery from extreme weather events

ClimateXChange has published a report prepared by CEP and partners measuring recovery from extreme weather events.

ClimateXChange has published the report ‘Measuring recovery from extreme weather events’ which was prepared by CEP and the University of Strathclyde.

This research built on CEP’s work on flood resilience and investigated international approaches to assessing recovery from extreme weather events, the data sources they use and their applicability to Scotland. The aim was to develop a common understanding of climate resilience and the critical components in planning for local and national recovery from extreme weather.

The report identifies monitoring frameworks used internationally which could be relevant to Scotland and evaluates the extent to which they would work with the approaches set out in Scotland’s National Performance Framework and the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP).

Based on international experience, the building blocks for developing a system for monitoring recovery from extreme weather events in Scotland are:

• Framing recovery within a set of wider social goals such as wellbeing or resilience.

• An approach that establishes the different areas or recovery that need to be considered and the role the community will play in deciding the system to be used.

• A set of indicators of recovery.

• Joined-up data across different scales (national, regional/local and community) with a focus on process and outcomes.

• Relevance of the spatial scale at which data is collected and the timing and frequency of collection to the indicator.

• Drawing on existing information.

For more information, please contact the Project Director, Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP at Flood & Coast 2019 conference

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (CEP) a panel member at the 2019 Flood and Coast conference.

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be presenting, on 18 June 2019, a short paper on community resilience to flooding at the 2019 Conference panel session Climate change - how do we overcome the physical, political & societal barriers to meet the challenge.  The other members of the panel are:  

• Andrew Eden, National lead - climate adaptation & resilience, Environment Agency

• Craig Jones, Director, Circular Ecology

• Janet Taylor, Chair, Lune Valley Flood Forum

• Andrew Russell, Committee for Climate Change

• Jonathan Farr, Policy, Water Aid

Convened by the Environment Agency, the Flood & Coast conference 2019 is a unique event that advances the debate about flood and coast erosion risk, resilience and response between government bodies and local authorities with business, major infrastructure and asset managers, as well as affected communities. 

For more information please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

CEP's Ric Eales appointed Visiting Professor

CEP’s Ric Eales appointed visiting professor at the university of strathclyde, department of civil and environmental engineering

Photo credit: Montrose Street, Glasgow © MSeses / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

We are pleased to announce that Ric Eales, CEP’s Managing Director, has been appointed a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.

CEP has a long relationship with the University of Strathclyde and has collaborated on research and teaching over many years.  We have explored together issues as diverse as rural land use management, climate change impacts on transport infrastructure, social impacts of off-shore renewables, and stakeholder engagement in controversial proposed energy developments.

Ric’s appointment, which is a great honour, will reinforce this relationship into the future.  Ric is looking forward to working with both the staff and students in this innovative and multidisciplinary department.

For more information contacts Ric Eales r.eales@cep.co.uk / ric.eales@strath.ac.uk

CEP is running a second workshop on the Influence of global megatrends in Slovenia

CEP WILL RUN A SECOND WORKSHOP ON THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL MEGATRENDS ON THE STATE OF ENVIRONMENT IN SLOVENIA

CEP is preparing an expert workshop which will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 11th April, 2018 as a part of the project Influence of global megatrends on the state of environment in Slovenia, carried out for the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and the Slovenian Environment Agency. This project is being delivered by CEP and is adapting and implementing a method toolkit previously developed (by CEP) for the European Environment Agency.

The workshop will bring together national experts from various fields to discuss and assess the risks and opportunities for the state of environment and policy arising from the most relevant implications for environment in Slovenia of global megatrends (GMTs), as analysed by the European Environment Agency in their European Environment State and Outlook Report (SOER) 2015. The workshop will focus on two GMTs: GMT 7 (intensified global competition for resources), and GMT 9 (increasingly severe consequences of climate change). The event will also be an opportunity for the participants to follow-up on the discussion held at the scoping workshop in November 2017 in Ljubljana, the aim of which was to identify and prioritise the implications of GMTs in Slovenia.

For further information on the project please contact Rolands Sadauskis (Project Manager). CEP's Owen White is the Project Director.

CLIMATE CHANGE INDICATORS CO-DEVELOPED BY CEP PUBLISHED

Climate change adaptation indicators co-developed by CEP have been published by the Scottish government

The Scottish Government has published a set of climate change adaptation indicators designed to monitor how well Scotland is doing against the objectives set by the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP). 

In partnership with the University of Strathclyde, CEP developed indicators for transport infrastructure as part of a wider project for ClimateXChange, which is Scotland's centre of expertise on climate change. The indicators have informed the Adaptation Sub-Committee's independent assessment of the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme published in September 2016.

A separate document with all the indicators including hyperlinks to each indicator card can be found here.

CEP's Dr Bill Sheate at Environment Analyst Infrastructure Conference

CEP at Environment Analyst Infrastructure conference

Dr Bill Sheate will be running a round-table discussion on Exploring Biodiversity Offsetting & How It Can Work In Practice at the Managing the Environmental Impacts of UK Infrastructure Development conference, produced jointly by Environment Analyst and Environment OnSite, to be held in London on 21 June 2016.  The conference is intended to provide an opportunity for environmental consultants to come together with their contractors and clients and share best practice examples of what can be achieved when environmental impacts are considered early in the design and development process.

Dr Sheate led the evaluation project undertaken by CEP for Defra on the Biodiversity Offsetting Pilot Scheme 2012-2014.

CEP at Flood and Coast 2016 conference

FLOOD AND COAST 2016

CEP is participating in Flood and Coast 2016: Risk, Resilience and Response in a Changing Climate, a conference which is being held in Telford between 23 – 25 February.

Clare Twigger-Ross is presenting on Developing community resilience to flood risk - the role of flood groups in the session on Working with people and communities at 4 pm on 23rd February.

Paula Or is presenting on How to measure success in building community resilience to flooding - developing frameworks for understanding and evaluating community resilience to flood risk in a UK context in the session on Working with people and communities at 4 pm on 24th February

CEP's report on Community resilience to climate change published

JRF publisheS CEP's report on Community resilience to climate change

The findings of CEP's study on community resilience, undertaken for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, have been published on 17 November with the title ‘Community resilience to climate change: An evidence review’. The report and a summary of findings are available on the JRF website.

CEP's Clare Twigger-Ross at Resilience to Climate Change seminar

Image: Flooding at the head of Loch Tay, by nz_willowherb

CEP's Clare Twigger-Ross presenting at RGS SEMINAR: Resilience to Climate Change: Who pays (and who benefits)? 

This knowledge-exchange event, taking place at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in London on Tuesday 17th November, will explore the question of ‘who pays?’ to deliver adaptation to climate change in the UK, and with this, community resilience. Coming a week before the Spending Review, this event will consider not only who should pay in financial terms to deliver climate change adaptation, in an age of austerity, but also who will pay socially through a failure to adapt – or even through measures deemed necessary to adapt.

CEP's Clare Twigger-Ross will be presenting the results of a study undertaken by a team led by CEP for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: ‘Community resilience to climate change: An evidence review’. The seminar coincides with the publication of the report by JRF which should be available on their website from the 17th November.

The seminar will be followed by a panel discussion and the opportunity to stay to dinner to explore community resilience and adaptation to climate change.

Find out more and register to attend.