27Oct 2016
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.

Team CEP
26Oct 2016
TimberLINK evaluation stakeholder seminar

Photo credit: ‘Inveraray’ by Julian Berry on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

TimberLINK evaluation stakeholder seminar

CEP’s Dr Peter Phillips and Tom Matthew of Reference Economic Consultants delivered a stakeholder seminar as part of the TimberLINK  environmental and economic evaluation, undertaken for Forestry Commission Scotland.  

The seminar took place on Tuesday 25 October in Inveraray, Scotland, and was attended by a range of forestry and timber transport stakeholders from Argyll, Ayrshire and elsewhere in Scotland. Stakeholder participants were presented with the draft results of the evaluation. There was then an opportunity for discussion and feedback to help validate and refine these results.

The results of this seminar and the overall evaluation will inform considerations about the future operation of the TimberLINK service beyond the current funding period which ends in March 2017.

Team CEP
25Oct 2016
The future of SA and SEA

Photo credit: London December 1 2014 001 Bloomberg Place by David Hold on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Practitioners respond to the LPEG’s report TO PROVE THE VALUE OF SA AND SEA

CEP’s Ric Eales and Bill Sheate have co-authored a paper, prepared by a group of sustainability appraisal (SA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) practitioners from eight consultancies (AECOM, Amec Foster Wheeler, CEP, Levett-Therivel, LUC, Ramboll Environ, Steve Lees Planning and TRL) and Oxford Brookes University, in response to the Local Plans Expert Group’s (LPEG) 2016 Report on Local Plans to the Communities Secretary and to the Minister of Housing and Planning.

The paper – ‘Sustainability appraisal: from LPEG’s “little genuine assistance” to making a real sustainable difference’ – challenges the LPEG report’s overall dismissive tone regarding SA/SEA, whilst acknowledging some areas of improvement are needed.  It focusses on developing a ‘next generation’ approach to SA/SEA, within the context of Brexit, which improves plan making and stakeholder engagement and contributes to more sustainable development.

The authors welcome LPEG’s interest in improving the process, but conclude that they believe that SA/SEA is a robust, insightful tool, informative to plan makers and those affected by plans and, if done well, can help plug a key local democratic deficit.

The paper is available here.

Team CEP
19Oct 2016
Webinar taster for ecosystem services and environmental assessment training

Photo: Bill Sheate – managed realignment, Fingringhoe, Essex.

Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment training course – taster webinar recording NOW available

Ecosystem services are becoming increasingly prominent as a framework for linking the environment and people’s well-being. There is strong interest in what ecosystem services mean for processes such as Environmental Impact Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal. One key difference is the framing of the natural environment as an opportunity or benefit as opposed to a constraint or backdrop to absorb impacts.

This webinar by CEP’s Dr Bill Sheate for the Ecosystems Knowledge Network and the Irish Forum on Natural Capital introduces the topic, pointing to some of the resources and examples available. It was recorded on Friday, October 7, 2016 10:00 am and lasts for 30 minutes.

Team CEP
19Oct 2016
CEP at FloodRISK Conference 2016

Photo credit: Flooded River Severn by muffinn on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP at European Conference on Flood Risk Management

CEP has contributed two papers to FloodRisk 2016, the 3rd European Conference on Flood Risk Management, which will be shown in Lyon on 19 and 20 October.  The papers are co-authored by Clare Twigger-Ross, Paula Orr, Katya Brooks and Rolands Sadauskis and draw on evidence from CEP’s evaluation of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Flood resilience Community Pathfinders (2013-15).

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross’s presentation on ‘Citizen Involvement in Flood Risk Government: Flood groups and networks’ will be shown on Wednesday 19 October, as part of the session on Disaster Management and Recovery.  A presentation by Paula Orr entitled ‘Pieces of kit are not enough: Flood infrastructure and community resilience’ will be shown on Thursday 20 October, in the session on Vulnerability and Societal Resilience.

After the conference, the presentations will be available on CEP’s website.

Team CEP