ReMEDIES Boater Behaviour Survey

The Boater Behaviour Survey as part of CEP’s research for the Life ReMEDIES Project is now live

CEP is seeking a range of recreational boaters to take part in a survey about boating practices and sea grass as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project.

LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES is a four-year marine conservation partnership project working to Save Our Seabed at five Special Areas of Conservation along England’s south coast, through seagrass restoration, education and innovation. It is funded by the EU LIFE programme and led by Natural England in partnership with Marine Conservation Society, Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth City Council/Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and Royal Yachting Association.

The project is looking at the behaviours of people who boat for recreation specifically focussing on anchoring and mooring in seagrass. We are focusing on two special areas of conservation Plymouth Sound & Estuaries and Solent Maritime – Isle of Wight and would like to hear from people who go boating for recreation in these areas.

We are really keen to involve as wide a range of recreational boaters as possible, so if you are able to help us to publicise the survey and encourage boaters to participate please do so by sharing this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R5H7PJ3

If you’re a sailor, powerboater or enjoy any other type of recreational boating in and around the Solent/Isle of Wight or Plymouth, we’d like to find out more about you and your boating practices. Please complete our online survey, open until Wednesday 2 December.

If you have any queries about this survey, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

CEP to deliver a new project on the evaluation of Biodiversity Net Gain

CEP has been awarded a new project by Natural England and Defra on the design of an evaluation framework for Biodiversity Net Gain in England

CEP, in partnership with BSG Ecology, Geodata Institute, CECAN and Vivid Economics, has been commissioned by Natural England on behalf of Defra to undertake a new project to design an evaluation framework for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) in England. The aim of mandatory BNG policy, as set out in the Environment Bill, is to secure a measurable improvement in habitat for biodiversity whilst streamlining the planning process and creating better places for local communities.

The purpose of the evaluation framework is to enable Natural England and Defra to evaluate how BNG is being delivered and understand the impact (environmental, social, and economic) of the BNG policy.

In this project we will conduct a streamlined evidence review to bring together the most up to date relevant evidence on key issues related to BNG. This evidence will feed into the development of the evaluation framework, including setting out the underpinning intervention theory by examining the logic of mandatory BNG and the intervention pathways associated with delivering BNG in practice. Development of the framework will be further supported by work to scope the data requirements and potential sources. The process will be iterative, incorporating a range of stakeholder perspectives from developers, local planning authorities, conservation, amenity and local community NGOs and partnerships as well as central government.

The project started in September 2020 and is expected to run until March 2021.

For more information, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).

Upcoming meetings with recreational boaters as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project

CEP is looking for participants from the recreational boating community to take part in upcoming Zoom meetings as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project

CEP is seeking a range of recreational boaters to take part in meetings on boating practices and sea grass as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project led by Natural England in partnership with RYA, the Green Blue, Ocean Conservation Trust, Marine Conservation Society, Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and Plymouth City Council.

The meetings will be held by Zoom videoconferencing on Friday 25 September at 6.30pm for boaters in the Plymouth Sound and Estuaries area and Tuesday 6 October at 6.30pm for boaters in the Solent / Isle of Wight area.

CEP has been commissioned by the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project to run the meetings as part of a strand of work to understand and improve recreational boater practices and behaviours affecting seagrass. The information from the meetings with the recreational boater community and from a survey to be conducted soon after, will be used to identify and design approaches to improving the impact of recreational boating on seagrass.

We are really keen to involve as wide a range of recreational boaters as possible, so if you are able to help us to publicise the meetings and survey and encourage boaters to participate please do.

If you yourself are a recreational boater who boats in either the Solent Maritime / Isle of Wight or the Plymouth Sound and Estuaries areas, and own or crew on yachts or power boats then we are very interested in hearing from you. The meetings will be a great opportunity for local boaters to help shape action to protect seagrass in the areas they know well and to get involved in an exciting project that will have a range of benefits, both for boaters and the marine environment.

The meetings are voluntary, and your opinions and experiences will be very valuable.  All discussions will be anonymised and follow our GDPR and ethics protocol.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up.

The LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project is working to improve the condition of four marine habitats of European importance. The project is led by Natural England in partnership with RYA, the Green Blue, Ocean Conservation Trust, Marine Conservation Society, Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and Plymouth City Council.  The project has commissioned independent research consultancy Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP) to run the meetings as part of a strand of work to understand and improve boater practices and behaviours affecting seagrass.

If you have any queries about this survey, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director)

CEP to deliver a new EEA project on transformations of socio-ecological systems

CEP has been awarded a new EEA project to take stock of the knowledge base in the field of transformations of socio-ecological systems of relevance for EU policy making

Collingwood Environmental Planning has been commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to conduct a literature review to take stock of the most recent findings on ‘transformations of socio-ecological systems’ of relevance for EU policy making. CEP will be working in partnership with cChange.   

This new project has been awarded under the CEP-led framework service contract for the EEA which provides assistance on forward-looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions.  

Transformations in socio-ecological systems can be understood as an umbrella term for more specific and actionable concepts, approaches and solutions-oriented knowledge related to sustainability transitions. Over the coming years, as part of work to build the knowledge base for the next European Environment State and Outlook Report (SOER, 2025), the EEA would like to develop the evidence base related to transformations in socio-ecological systems, with a focus on its use in policy-relevant assessments.  

The project will focus on assisting the EEA to strengthen its understanding related to solutions-oriented knowledge on aspects such as ecological resilience, nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, ecosystem-based management, and social justice.  Within these areas, the stock taking will focus on: 

• improving the conceptual understanding of these concepts and approaches; 

• practical evidence, including case studies, on the application and implementation of the specific concepts; and,  

• potential implications for policy and governance in dealing with sustainability transformations. 

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White (Technical Director) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant) for more information.   

CEP have completed a series of virtual focus groups and interviews on youth environmental leadership

This stage of research has been successfully completed as part of the Our Bright Future programme evaluation.

CEP have been carrying out a series of online focus groups and interviews as part of a thematic study on youth environmental leadership. The study is part of the evaluation of the Our Bright Future programme currently being carried out by CEP and partners ERS, on behalf of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

The overall objective of the focus groups and interviews was to better understand to what extent, and in what ways, being involved in Our Bright Future projects has empowered young people and equipped them to be active environmental citizens, and should they choose, environmental leaders.

In light of the global pandemic, we have been using Zoom video conferencing technology to carry out research that would normally be done face-to-face. The focus groups were designed using interactive software and break-out sessions, with an agenda designed to maximise engagement in an online setting. A total of three virtual focus groups, each with six participants from across three selected case study OBF programmes have now been successfully completed, along with a series of individual video interviews with 11 OBF participants from a wider selection of projects, and six project staff. 

We are now entering the analysis stage of this research and plan to include participating young people in this analysis and review of the final report.

For more information about the project please contact Owen White (technical director) or Rebecca Jones (consultant).

CEP to deliver a new NE project on Behaviour Change

CEP has been awarded a new project to assist Natural England to understand the behaviours of recreational boaters

CEP, in partnership with the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, has been commissioned by Natural England to undertake a new project to understand the behaviours of recreational boaters with regards to anchoring and mooring in Seagrass.

LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES (LIFE18 NAT/UK/000039) Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affecting the Seabed.

Action C1: Changing Stakeholder Behaviour Project

The project is part of the wider project LIFE Recreation Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affecting the Seabed (ReMEDIES) to improve the condition of marine habitats of European importance.

The overall aims of the Behaviour Change Project are to develop a clearer understanding of the behaviours of recreational boaters in relation to anchoring and mooring in seagrass in two pilot sites, to facilitate the design and development of interventions to address any issues uncovered, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions in order to achieve measurable behavioural changes that can lead, in the long term, to positive biodiversity outcomes.

The project focuses on two Special Areas of Conservation: Plymouth Sound & Estuaries and Solent Maritime – Isle of Wight.

Through this project, we will conduct a review of existing evidence and undertake new research with members of the local recreational boating community to further explore and understand the behavioural context. We will develop and test methods for changing behaviours and grow understanding of what works, using behavioural insights, to encourage more responsible boating behaviours, and we will disseminate learning to other sites.

The project commenced in June 2020 and is expected to end in January 2022. 

For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).

CEP evidence review informs Defra Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk

Defra has just published CEP’s ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience’ alongside its Policy Statement which sets out the government’s long-term ambition to create a nation more resilient to flood and coastal erosion. 

Defra published its Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk on 14 July.  An ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience‘ and a summary report of the outcome of the 2019 Flood and coastal erosion: call for evidence (two supporting documents prepared by Collingwood Environmental Planning) were published at the same time.

As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the government intends to boost the long-term resilience of homes, businesses, infrastructure and the environment and reduce harm from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion. The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England, which was laid before Parliament on 14 July, calls for transformational action on resilience and adaptation. The move towards “flood resilience” from “flood risk management” reflects the need to diversify strategies to enable people to live well in the context of floods.

To inform Defra’s Policy Statement, this project reviewed the main frameworks for defining and conceptualising flood resilience, and how such frameworks can be used in a resilience approach for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. 

The evidence review involved:

• A Quick Scoping Review covering the main approaches to flood resilience currently in existence and the use of metrics to implement resilience approaches

• Two evidence review and policy implementation workshops involving FCERM policymakers and cross-government practitioners.

For more information please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant, CEP).

CEP's 25th Anniversary

Blog post by Ric Eales Managing Director of Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP)

In the attached blog Ric Eales marks CEP’s 25th anniversary by sharing some reflections on the journey over the last 25 years and contemplates the future. 

He initially takes us back to June 1995 when it all began for CEP and explores some of the environmental challenges we faced then, and still face today.  He highlights some of CEP’s key contributions over the last 25 years and what makes CEP different as an environmental consultancy.

Ric also reflects on the current Covid-19 pandemic and the need for effective and forward-looking action that is integrated with tackling the climate and ecological emergency.  The blog presents the results of a brainstorm of ideas around what should be included in a manifesto for the green recovery from the Covid-19 crisis organised into eight broad but interrelated clusters.

Ric hopes that by CEP’s 50th anniversary, we will be able to look back to 2020 and appreciate the transformative changes which enabled us to effectively tackle today’s crisis.

For more information contact Ric Eales (Managing Director).

Blog post: Understanding Drivers of Change

Understanding the drivers of change that shape the environment we live in and interact with policy can help improve strategic decision-making and lead to better outcomes for the environment and people.

Blog post by Owen White

A new report on drivers of change for Europe’s environment

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published a report which identifies and describes Drivers of change of relevance for Europe's environment and sustainability.  The report was developed with the support of CEP (working with partners Futureline, Fraunhofer, the German Environment Agency, the University of Bergen, and the University of Barcelona).  The report recognises that Europe exists within an increasingly complex and uncertain world and that the current state, and future outlook of Europe’s environment is influenced by a range of environmental but also non-environmental ‘drivers of change’.  As the world is increasingly ‘interconnected through flows of information, resources, goods and services, people and ideas’ these drivers often originate outside Europe.  

Environmental policy and strategy has often focused on specific outcomes, such as meeting an air quality target, often in isolation of wider system considerations.  More recently broader and longer-term policy ambitions have emerged, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the 7th European Action Programme, the European Green Deal, and in the UK the 25 Year Environment Plan.  At the same time, there has been an increased interest in understanding better the systemic nature of many environmental challenges, and integrating approaches such as systems thinking, foresight and horizon scanning into the process of environmental policy-making.

By identifying key drivers of change for the environment and sustainability in a systematic and systemic way, this new report aims to provide a sound knowledge base for decision-making and ‘information concerning possible future scenarios and implications, so to better support policy-makers in anticipating issues, managing risks and chasing opportunities’. 

Six clusters of drivers of change are defined and described in detail, including interactions within and across clusters (see figure):

1.     A growing, urbanising and migrating global population

2.     Climate change and environmental degradation worldwide

3.     Increasing scarcity of and global competition for resources

4.     Accelerating technological change and convergence

5.     Power shifts in the global economy and geopolitical landscape

6.     Diversifying values, lifestyles and governance approaches

The report presents a timely reflection on Europe and European countries place in a rapidly changing world.  The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder of the impact external factors can have on society.  The report in fact identified an increased risk of epidemics and potential for new global pandemics. 

More broadly, the report highlights some of the key changes that are emerging in the global and European landscape, and how Europe and European countries might need to respond to the challenges, risks and opportunities these changes imply.  It identifies the increasingly complex and interconnected nature of many of the economic, social and environmental challenges we face and the need to tackle these in a systemic way, by transforming production and consumption systems, such as for mobility, energy and food.  The EEA intends to use this report as the basis for further research into the implications of drivers of change in Europe, focusing on key priority areas including: the move from a linear to a circular economy; sustainability in the food system ‘from farm to fork'; future proofing energy, buildings and mobility; and to help ensure a socially fair transition.

CEP supporting clients in understanding drivers of change and their implications

For this report CEP worked collaboratively with the EEA to identify, collate and cluster potential drivers of change through a combination of expert knowledge and desk-based research.  Once agreed the clusters of drivers were then developed in consultation with a senior expert advisory board and EEA staff.  The work drew on a wide range of sources including: indicators and trends; projections (e.g. for population); outlooks or scenarios (such as for climate change or technological developments); and research by academic, NGOs/civil society, international institutions and policy institutions (e.g. the European Commission).

The report builds on more than decade of work by CEP in this area for the EEA, European Commission and national clients.  This includes identifying and characterising assessments of global megatrends (global, long‑term trends that are slow to form but have a major impact) as part of the EEA’s flagship European state of the environment reporting (SOER) in 2010 and 2015.  CEP has also worked with clients to design and implement methodologies to better understand the implications of drivers of change and emerging issues for the environment and environmental policy.  This includes:

• Developing a methodology to understand the implications of global megatrends at the national level, and adapting and applying this method in Slovenia and the Western Balkans.

• Supporting the design and implementation of the European Foresight System for Emerging Environmental Issues (FORENV).

CEP have also recently been appointed with Cranfield University as a supplier to the new ‘Futures Framework’ which is supporting departments and agencies across UK Government in undertaking futures work and developing foresight capabilities.  The support will include understanding: emerging trends and developments that could impact policy; systemic consequences of policy or strategy; and, underlying drivers and issues in scoping policy or strategy.

CEP’s approach to understanding the implications of drivers of change is based around participatory expert insight (through workshops or consultations) combined with thorough desk-based research to draw on the best available evidence.  We work with clients to understand their needs, and tailor our approach accordingly.  We also seek to include a capacity building element in our work, for example delivering a half-day training session for the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment on using systems thinking as a tool for participatory decision-making as part of our work on understanding the implications of global megatrends for the environment in Slovenia.

For more information contact Owen White (Technical Director).

Positive take-homes from the She Is Still Sustainable Series

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross recently attended two online seminars as part of the She is Still Sustainable series. 

This is what she had to say about it:

“She Is Still Sustainable (SISS) is a growing network of  mid-career women working in or around sustainability. SISS was to have held a workshop on the 27/28th April but instead held two online seminars.  The first session led by Liz Rivers focused on sustaining ourselves, not succumbing to lock down perfectionism and sharing our thoughts on wellbeing in this strange time. It was uplifting and supportive and set me up for the day. The second session on the next day focused on How do we shape a new future?  Hosted by Alina Congreve, Samantha Freelove and Kerry North, with special guest speakers Farhana Yamin, Solitaire Townsend, Susan Buckingham and Zoe Le Grand, this was an interactive session with breakout conversations as well as presentations.  It was inspiring to hear about what these women are thinking about and doing – from Farhana Yamin talking about focusing on the local with the Think and Do Pop Up in Camden - a community space to give people in Camden the chance to come together to develop ideas and projects tackling the climate and ecological crisis through to  Zoe Le Grand’s  list of how Covid might open up spaces for system change.   The input was great and it was a really stimulating session – very positive and proactive thinking about how to push forward the sustainability agenda.  The group was welcoming, supportive and encouraging and I left feeling positive and empowered.  Penny Walker one of She is Still Sustainable’s founders has written a recent blog talking about the sessions and how they made them work virtually, including a She is Still Sustainable selfie!  It made me think about the value of networks and of meeting people outside my own work/home network, it made me realise how much positive action for sustainability is happening and how important it is to keep on pressing for change in whatever ways we can.   I am still hoping to join them in October in person.”

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

CEP to deliver a new EEA project on Urban Sustainability

CEP has been awarded a new project to assist the EEA in finalising various products on urban transitions towards sustainability

Europe’s State of Environment Report (SOER2020) published at the end of 2019 by the European Environment Agency (EEA) has created a clear mandate for the EEA to work at the urban level.  The SOER2020 built on the previous report in 2015 that concluded “Living well within environmental limits will require fundamental transitions in core societal systems, including food, energy, mobility, urban, fiscal and finance systems. To achieve such purpose profound changes in dominant practices, policies and thinking are needed”.

In 2017 the EEA established a stakeholder process to help develop its integrated work on urban transitions towards sustainability.  This work has been supported throughout by a CEP-led team which has undertaken three previous EEA contracts on urban sustainability.  These projects have been awarded under the CEP-led framework service contract for the EEA which provides assistance on forward-looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions.

Continuing this work, a CEP-led team will be undertaking a new contract to support the final preparation of various products including: a report on environmental sustainability in cities (ESIC); a report on the analysis of eight urban environmental sustainability nexuses; and a report on drivers of urban environmental transitions.  CEP will again be working in partnership with LSE Cities , and will be supported by experts from cChange.

For more information please contact CEP’s Ric Eales (Managing Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant) for more information.

New UK Government Futures Framework

CEP is a supplier on the new UK Government Futures Framework

CEP, in partnership with Cranfield University, have been appointed as a supplier to the new ‘Futures Framework’ which is supporting departments and agencies across UK Government in undertaking futures work and developing foresight capabilities.

The framework launched in February 2020 and will last for four years.  Through the framework UK Government departments and agencies can access support in relation to:

• Understanding emerging trends and developments that could impact policy;

• Understanding systemic consequences of policy or strategy;

• Exploring underlying drivers and issues in scoping policy or strategy;

• Identifying trade-offs and synergies in policy or strategy design;

• Determining visions of the future for new areas of policy or strategy;

• Use scenarios to test the future resilience of decisions;

• Literature and evidence reviews; and,

• Designing participatory processes including workshops.

Our partnership with Cranfield University builds on the ongoing successful collaboration to support the European Commission in implementing the European Foresight System for Emerging Environmental Issues (FORENV). 

CEP and Cranfield’s collective futures expertise includes:

• Conducting foresight and policy research, and developing forward-looking processes (e.g. emerging risk identification, horizon scanning, scenario building);

• Designing strategic foresight processes (e.g. scenario building and horizon scanning processes) and toolkits;

• Conducting foresight research to support the long-term vision, and strategic orientation of organisations and their policies;

• Providing expert assessment of emerging issues and their consequences;

• Conducting UK and EU-wide policy/programme evaluations across all stages of the policy cycle; and,

• Designing and delivering training and capacity building to public and private sector organisations in the use of strategic foresight processes.

More details of our partnership and a prospectus which sets out the collective expertise CEP and Cranfield are able to offer is available through the Cranfield University website.

Please contact Owen White (Technical Director) for any further information.

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability? A new paper explores this…….

Thiermann U, Sheate W (2020), Motivating individuals for social transition: The 2-pathway model and experiential strategies for pro-environmental behaviour and well-being Ecological Economics (in press) (2020)

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?  Well, there is certainly an ever-growing literature in this field trying to explore it. 

Ute Thiermann (a PhD student at Imperial College London) and Bill Sheate (Associate Director, CEP) have just published a theoretical framework for understanding what might be the complex web of relationships between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. In other words, people’s awareness, desires, willingness and ability to act in the present to change the impact they have on the environment.

The literature points to lots of possible links; the challenge is to prove whether being mindful makes people more likely to take pro-environmental action, i.e. to prove causality.  And if so, why?  Is it because of a greater sense of connectedness with nature that comes with mindfulness?  Or does more connectedness with nature enable you to be more mindful? And how might environmental behaviour link with personal well-being and good mental health?

The paper lays the groundwork for testing new experiential strategies in order to understand whether mindfulness programmes might be helpful as potential policy interventions for motivating people to change their behaviour in ways that can reduce impact upon the world’s environment. 

A fruitful area for future research……

You can access the paper here.

For more information, please contact Bill Sheate (Associate Director).

CEP Research on Consumer Attitudes towards Emerging Food Technologies Published by the Food Standards Agency

CEP recently completed a research project to help the Food Standards Agency understand consumer views on emerging food technologies. The final reports are now available on the FSA website.

The development of new and emerging food technologies and their applications is a fast growing area.  The Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s focus on protecting consumer interests in relation to food means it needs to understand and keep up to date with consumers views towards these technologies.  The FSA commissioned Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP) to undertake research on consumer views on emerging food technologies to update its evidence base.  

The research involved:

• A rapid evidence assessment (REA) on consumer views towards genetically modified (GM) foods, nanotechnology applied to foods, functional foods, cultured meat, novel food (in the UK) such as insect foods, food from a cloned animal, 3D printed foods and synthetic biology applied to foods.

• A programme of public dialogue events in different parts of the UK to further explore views towards GM foods, nanotechnology in foods, food from cloned animals and cultured meat.

The final reports from the research are available on the FSA’s website here .

For more information please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).

Blog Post: New Magenta Book 2020 Supplementary Guide on Handling Uncertainty in Policy Evaluation

New Magenta Book 2020 Supplementary Guide on Handling Uncertainty in Policy Evaluation

Blog Post by Paula Or

The Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity at the Nexus (CECAN)’s Guide on Handling Uncertainty in Policy Evaluation which was published by HM Treasury at the beginning of April, throws a virtual lifeline to those buffeted by the current storms of uncertainty who are still seeking to make meaningful evaluations of policy interventions.

CECAN was commissioned to write the Supplementary Guide for the Magenta Book - the cross-government guidance on evaluation. The Guide is the product of three years’ research and development of evaluation methods by CECAN. CEP was part of the first CECAN consortium led by University of Surrey between 2016-2019. 

Understanding how to evaluate policy interventions characterised by complexity and uncertainty is crucial to CEP’s work. Our experience of policy evaluation spans forward-looking / prospective or ex ante evaluation; process, outcome, impact and economic evaluations; and reflective or ex post evaluations. CECAN describes complexity as ‘made up of many diverse components that interact with each other in nonlinear ways and can adapt’ (Source: CECAN, 2020). Most of the areas CEP evaluates are complex; many of our evaluations explore the interactions between natural and social systems.

The new Supplementary Guide provides greater understanding of complexity and its challenges as well as providing practical tools for those who commission these evaluations and the practitioners who undertake them. 

Policy is developed with the intention of managing systems. The more complex these systems, the more difficult they are to manage. For example, path dependency is a property of complex systems which means that the way the system develops in the future depends on how it got to where it is as well as on its current state. In the natural world, organisms mutate and adapt from what they were, they cannot radically change. In social systems, we are getting better at recognising that important changes in behaviour, for example, are rarely produced by single actions (such as making people aware of the need to change or providing an economic incentive to change) but require a whole sequence of processes or changes across overlapping systems (material, social and individual). 

CECAN’s Supplementary Guide usefully describes eleven properties of complex systems, providing diagrams of each, to help create a common language or reference points for people from different disciplines.

Evaluation is crucial to help understand and navigate complexity. Evaluations of interventions involving complex systems and uncertainty benefit from building in learning throughout the process - and recognising that learning may bring with it a need to adapt or tweak the evaluation to ensure that it is still focusing on the right questions and collecting relevant information. CEP’s experience of using learning as a tool for going beyond the question ‘What works?’ to understand ‘What has changed?’ and explore the reasons for unexpected outcomes has generated unexpected insights. Examples are the evaluations of the Catchment-Based Approach and the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinders, both carried out for Defra.

Evaluation can also help to bring stakeholders into the process of planning and managing complexity in interventions. Stakeholders can help to make sense of how the existing situation came about and relationships within the system, for example. This can suggest ways that change might happen in the future. This gives access to deeper understanding as well as building a sense of agency and ownership.

CECAN’s Policy and Practice Note on Learning lessons from complex evaluations across the nexus, led by CEP, found that time is a key element in complexity and must be taken into account in designing evaluations. This theme is taken up in the Supplementary Guide:

• it is difficult to predict at the start of an intervention what change will happen or how long it will take for evidence of change to emerge

• change may continue longer than expected and usually goes on well beyond the end of a project or intervention

• it can take time for ‘complexity’ features to become apparent in a policy intervention.  

This has important implications for the design of evaluations. Both those who commission and those who design and carry out evaluations need to adopt a different ‘mindset’, taking an adaptive management approach to interventions, with ‘evaluative practice’ happening alongside and evolving with it.

In the current uncharted waters, the Supplementary Guide does not offer a path to calm seas - quite the opposite. It asks us all to be more agile and flexible to change. What it does offer is an immensely valuable set of insights and tools to help make sense of the signs and processes along the way in order to navigate uncertainty.

CEP to attend upcoming virtual Defra/Environment Agency TAG meeting

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be attending the upcoming virtual Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Theme Advisory Group meeting

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be attending the virtual Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Theme Advisory Group meeting on behalf of CEP on 6th May.  This meeting brings together the three advisory groups Policy, Strategy and Investment (PSI), Incident Management and Modelling (IMM), Asset Management (AM) who all support Defra/Environment Agency in their FCERM research and development.  The groups consist of a range of experts from across different areas of flood and coastal erosion risk management. At this meeting the groups will be updated on the latest research and also meet separately to discuss the upcoming research programme. 

Clare has been on a theme advisory group since 2004.  She is currently part of the Policy, Strategy and Investment (PSI) group.

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

CEP WORKING ON SECOND ANNUAL CYCLE OF THE EU FORESIGHT SYSTEM FOR EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

CEP is supporting the characterisation of priority emerging issues as part of the second annual cycle of the EU foresight system to detect emerging environmental issues

 In our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV), CEP is now leading the characterisation of ten priority emerging issues.

Now in its’ second annual cycle, this cycle of FORENV is focussing on identifying and characterising Emerging - economic, business, technological and social - innovations in the Green economy of the Future.  This topic was selected by the European Commission and relates to the need to move away from the current linear (take-make-dispose) economy to one that is climate neutral and in which growth is decoupled from resource use, as reflected in the European Green Deal.  The importance of understanding and planning for emerging risks is also highlighted by the current Covid-19 pandemic.

CEP facilitated a series of sense-making workshops held in January and February 2020 from which the ten priority emerging issues were identified.  The issues represent a range of social, technological and economic developments that may become more important in coming years and decades, with implications for Europe’s environment and policy.  For example, how might the sharing economy evolve and develop, in what ways will society and communities interact with a new circular economy, and what might be the future green economy tax and finance regime?

More information on FORENV can be found on the European Commission website, where a short video presenting the FORENV method is also now available.

The final report for the first annual cycle has been published, together with infographics for each of the 10 emerging issues to help communicate the FORENV process and outcomes to a wide audience.

The methodology used for FORENV, which was developed for the European Commission through a project led by CEP, has also been published.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP conducting thematic study on Environmental Youth Leadership

CEP are conducting a thematic study on Environmental Youth Leadership as part of the Our Bright Future Programme evaluation

CEP and partners from ERS are currently carrying out three thematic studies as part of the on-going evaluation of the Our Bright Future programme for the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.  The studies are exploring skills development for Our Bright Future participants, pathways of Our Bright Future alumni (both led by ERS), and Youth Environmental Leadership (led by CEP).  

The overall objective of the youth leadership thematic study is to better understand to what extent, and in what ways, being involved in Our Bright Future projects has empowered young people and equipped them to be active environmental citizens, and should they choose, environmental leaders.

The thematic study will include a literature review, the selection of a small number of case study projects, focus groups and interviews with young people and interviews with project staff.  CEP are developing all aspects of the study and will design and facilitate the focus groups and telephone interviews

In light of the current COVID-19 situation, some elements of the project will be disrupted.  We are taking this into consideration and are currently in conversation with Our Bright Future project managers to decide on the best approach moving forward.  Of course, our main priority is keeping staff, Our Bright Future teams and young people safe and healthy.

For more information about the project please contact Owen White (technical director) or Rebecca Jones (consultant).

CEP successfully hosted Communities and FCERM workshop

CEP successfully facilitated a workshop as part of a project to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework

CEP recently facilitated a one day workshop with a range of key stakeholders to consult and engage them in the development of a Communities and FCERM R&D framework. The workshop, organised by the Environment Agency, successfully took place in London on Wednesday 11th March 2020 before government recommendations around COVID-19 came into place.

CEP, in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW), have been commissioned by the Environment Agency (EA) to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework. The primary aim of the project is to identify the main research gaps in the area of FCERM through a detailed review of the current science.

Information about the Communities and FCERM R&D framework project can be found here.

For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project Coordinator).

COVID-19

COVID-19

The health and wellbeing of our staff, our partners, our clients and the wider community is of great concern to us at this difficult time.  CEP is taking precautions in accordance with the latest advice from the UK government and health organisations to act in a timely and responsible way and therefore do what we can to help minimise the impact of COVID-19.  

Our IT systems enable our staff to work from home and meetings are being held online.  We are therefore fully operational and working on our projects and deadlines as normal.  We remain extremely concerned by this evolving situation and will do all we can as a company to help to contain it.  

We send our best wishes to all our partners, business communities and clients.