8Sep 2016
CECAN official launch event and workshop

Photo credit:’knot’ by Lindsey Turner on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CECAN official launch event and 2-day Complexity in Evaluation Workshop

The ‘Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus’ (CECAN), a £3 million research centre hosted by the University of Surrey, is being officially launched at the CECAN Event: Policy Evaluation for A Complex World, taking place on 13th September in London. A panel discussion will encourage debate on the Nexus policy areas at the heart of the Centre’s work, and raise critical questions around complexity, evaluation methodologies, and ‘what works in practice’. CEP will attend as part of CECAN’s coalition of experts and leading UK bodies who will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies across the energy, environment, water and food Nexus.

Following the launch event, on the 15th & 16th September, a 2 Day Residential ‘Complexity in Evaluation’ Workshop will take place in Surrey. The workshop will combine participatory design and collaborative problem solving with information and ideas exchange between CECAN and partners. Dr Clare Twigger-Ross and Dr Bill Sheate from CEP will be attending the workshop.

For more information and to sign up to the events please see CECAN’s event webpage.

Team CEP
23Aug 2016
CEP commissioned to evaluate TimberLINK

Photo credit: ‘Kintyre’ by John Lord on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP is Undertaking the Environmental and Economic evaluation of TimberLINK for Forestry CommissioN SCOTLAND

CEP, in association with Reference Economic Consultants and the University of Strathclyde, has been commissioned to undertake an environmental and economic evaluation of TimberLINK for Forestry Commission Scotland.  

TimberLINK is an environmental transport initiative which commenced in 2000 and is designed to provide a sustainable alternative to road haulage. The service, supported by the Scottish Government, ships around 80-100,000 tonnes of timber a year from forests in Argyll to processors in Ayrshire across the Firth of Clyde. As well as helping to ensure economic development around the local ports, the service has been estimated to remove around 8,000 lorry journeys a year from roads between Argyll and Ayrshire.

CEP is carrying out the evaluation of TimberLINK to inform the decision on the future of the service beyond the end of the current funding period in March 2017.

CEP’s Dr Peter Phillips is managing the project under the direction of Dr Bill Sheate.

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16Aug 2016
CEP undertaking a meta-evaluation of its past policy evaluations

 

Photo credit: ‘puzzle’ by Kevin Dooley on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

CEP undertaking a ‘meta-evaluation’ of its past policy evaluations for CECAN

As part of CEP’s role as a partner in CECAN (Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus), CEP is carrying out a meta-evaluation of a sample of the evaluation projects it has undertaken over the last 10 years. The review will seek to learn the lessons from past policy evaluations, and the value of different types of approaches and methods used for evaluating complexity.

This extensive meta-evaluation of projects will support CECAN’s initial scoping stage and provide critical insights in understanding complexity and developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of policies across the ‘nexus’.

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross and Dr Bill Sheate are joint project leads.

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12Aug 2016
EU publishes SEA Directive Effectiveness study

CEP a contributing author TO European Commission Study on the effectiveness of the SEA Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC)

An important review study of the SEA Directive, to which CEP contributed, was published recently by the European Union.  The objective of the Study concerning the preparation of the report on the application and effectiveness of the SEA Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC) was to provide the Commission with information on Member States’ progress and challenges experienced in the application of the Council Directive 2001/42/EC (‘SEA Directive’) on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment for the period 2007-2014.

The study analysed the practical implementation of the SEA Directive across all 28 Member States and then evaluated the performance of the legislation to understand how environmental considerations have been integrated into planning processes and the extent to which the SEA Directive contributes to achieving better and more coherent planning.  The study found that the SEA Directive has brought about some significant benefits to strategic planning, while also making recommendations that could further improve its efficiency, effectiveness and coherence into the future.

Dr Bill Sheate and Ric Eales from CEP contributed to the study as expert advisors, in association with Milieu Ltd, Brussels.

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3Aug 2016
CEP delivered seminar at James Hutton Institute

Photo credit: ‘land lines’ by apalca on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

CEP’s Dr Peter Phillips delivered a seminar on land use policy evaluation at JHI

On 28th July, CEP’s Dr Peter Phillips gave an invited seminar to members of the James Hutton Institute Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences (SEGS) Research Group. His seminar was entitled Evaluating policies for sustainable land use – methods and case studies and built on CEP’s land use and natural environment policy evaluation and research expertise and experience in Scotland and elsewhere. 

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22Jul 2016
CEP’s environmental assessment training in EKN newsletter

CEP’S ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT TRAINING iN EKN NEWSLETTER

An overview of CEP’s environmental assessment training has been published in the latest issue of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN) newsletter‘The UK National Ecosystem Assessment five years on‘. The one-day training courses on Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment in the UK , were delivered in London and Manchester by CEP’s Dr Bill Sheate and Dr Peter Phillips. Trainees were drawn from the public and private sectors and across flood, marine, landscape and policy sectors. 

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7Jul 2016
CEP contributing author to report published by EC on the Health & Social Benefits of Nature

Image: Bench at Isblandskärret by Tommie Hansen on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP contributing author to report published by the European Commission on the Health & Social Benefits of Nature

The European Commission has published a report on the findings of a year long study to identify the Health and Social Benefits of Nature and Biodiversity.The report also incorporates the outcomes of a stakeholder workshop to discuss the research findings. As a lead expert in a consortium led by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), CEP led the development of report chapters on the social benefits of nature, as well as developing case studies of initiatives making use of nature for health and social benefits in the UK and Latvia, as well as delivering a workshop session dedicated to understanding the social benefits of nature. Other partners include Milieu, LUKE, ICLEI, WWF Germany and Rudolf de Groot.

The research team, identified and developed more than 100 case examples from across the EU, with in-depth analysis of 20 cases (see Annex 1). Examples included projects and initiatives aimed at reducing exposure to pollutants, mitigating noise and heat stress, improving everyday well-being, providing therapeutic spaces for rehabilitation and treatment, promoting recreation and sustainable mobility, and facilitating volunteering and local engagement. The report develops a road map for how European cities, regions and countries can realise these benefits and how the EU can support this process.

The Health and Social Benefits of Nature project reports (executive summary, main report, annexes) are available on the European Commission’s website here.

 

 

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23Jun 2016
CEP’S CLARE TWIGGER-ROSS PRESENTING AT IAPS CONFERENCE ON PEOPLE-ENVIRONMENT STUDIES

Photo credit: ‘Wheat’ by Dag Terje Filip Endresen on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP’S CLARE TWIGGER-ROSS PRESENTING AT IAPS CONFERENCE on People-Environment STUDIEs

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be presenting at the 24th IAPS conference (International Association for People-Environment Studies). It is hosted by the Environmental Psychology Research Groups at Lund University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in southern Sweden and takes place from 27th June – 1st July in Lund and Alnarp.   

The conference will address the study of the interrelations between the social, the built and the natural environment, and the impacts on them. The conference theme turns the spotlight on to what is at the core of the bigger issues related to global sustainability – the actions and everyday lives of humans. 

Clare will be presenting at the following sessions, on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29, drawing from the findings of two of CEP’s recent projects to discuss:

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14Jun 2016
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.

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14Jun 2016
CEP runs training course on ecosystem services and environmental assessment

Photo credit: http://photoeverywhere.co.uk/britain/manchester/slides/52-mintownhall1.htm

CEP WILL BE DELIVERING A SECOND ONE-DAY TRAINING WORKSHOP ON INCORPORATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES INTO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT in Manchester

Dr Bill Sheate and Dr Peter Phillips will deliver a second one-day training course on Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment in Manchester on 29 June 2016, on behalf of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN).  The course is being run at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Business School, having previously delivered a very successful event in London in May. Just a few places are still available; booking is available online here.

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