20Nov 2015
Defra Pathfinders Film Competition

Defra Pathfinders Film Competition

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Pathfinders Project Film Competition! The videos produced by each of the 13 Defra Community Pathfinders Projects capture the key events and innovative approaches to community flood risk management taken by the projects.

Please cast your vote taking into account how well the films raise awareness of flooding, the involvement of the community in both the Pathfinder Project and film production, and the entertainment value!

The winning video will be announced at the Pathfinder Conference on 2nd December, co-organised by Collingwood Environmental Planning, CIWEM, Defra and the NFF. This conference will be the first opportunity to hear the key lessons learned from the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder projects on working with communities to improve flood resilience. To attend the event click here.

Which video will get your vote? Watch them here. 

Team CEP
20Nov 2015
CEP awarded community resilience project evaluation

Image: East Looe River, Cornwall  by Graham Hogg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

CEP awarded evaluation of project aiming to help communities become resilient

CEP has been awarded the evaluation of the Communities Prepared project that aims to support and train people in local communities and encourage them to volunteer and respond to flooding and other emergencies.

The project is undertaken by Groundwork South who has successfully unlocked a £496,562 Reaching Communities Grant, funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund. 

Key to this new programme will be a toolkit with training to help all communities become more resilient to challenges that they may face. In the first phase of the project eight communities in the South West and two in the North will be supported. Once this pilot has been completed the Communities Prepared Partnership would look to support communities across the country to become more resilient and better prepared.

The Communities Prepared Partnership has representatives from; Groundwork South, Cornwall Community Flood Forum, Cornwall College Business and is supported by the Environment Agency and other organisations and authorities. This partnership has been set up to build on the success of Cornwall’s DEFRA Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Project and the work done through the Cornwall Community Flood Forum to help communities become better prepared and more resilient to flooding and other emergencies. CEP has also undertaken the evaluation of the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Scheme.

More information on this project can be found here.

Team CEP
13Nov 2015
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.

Team CEP
11Nov 2015
CEP endorses report on community engagement around flood risk

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross endorses report on community engagement around flood risk

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross endorsed a new report, launched on 3 November, setting out principles for engaging individuals and communities more effectively around flood risks in a changing climate.The report is a practical resource for practitioners to help build community resilience for future climate impacts as well as develop more productive conversations about climate change within the context of flooding.

The report is a collaboration between Climate Outreach & Cardiff University (with support by the Economic and Social Research Council, Climate Change Consortium of Wales and the Sustainable Places Research Institute) and is endorsed by many of the country’s leading experts on communicating flood risks.

A link to download the report can be found on the new Climate Outreach (formerly COIN) website.

Team CEP
11Nov 2015
CEP at ClimateXChange

Image by Andrew W. Rennie

CEP at ClimateXChange Scotland annual meeting

ClimateXChange is Scotland’s centre of expertise on climate change providing independent advice to the Scottish Government. CEP in partnership with the University of Strathclyde Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have recently completed a project for ClimateXChange developing climate change adaptation indicators for transport infrastructure. The indicators will inform the Adaptation Sub-Committee’s independent assessment of the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme. Dr Neil Ferguson from the University of Strathclyde and CEP’s Dr Peter Phillips presented the results of the indicators project at ClimateXChange’s annual meeting on the 10th November.     

 

Team CEP
3Nov 2015
CEP at European Environment Agency expert meeting

CEP’s Owen White has been invited as an external expert to participate in a EEA forward-looking information and services (FLIS) expert workshop. 

Owen will be in Copenhagen, Denmark 5-6 November to present an emerging methodology related to downscaling the implications of global megatrends at the national scale.  The method is intended to enable EU member states to identify and prioritise potential implications of global megatrends, and link these with national environmental information and indicators.

CEP have been contracted to develop this methodology by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) as part of an ongoing project, and under the aegis of the EEA network of environmental foresight experts.  

Team CEP