Photo courtesy of NASA/NSSDC Image Gallery

CEP to provide technical support on ‘tipping points’ in ecosystems to the European Environment Agency

CEP has been awarded a contract to provide technical support on ‘tipping points’ in
ecosystems to the European Environment Agency.  The work will assist the EEA in preparing a report on tipping points in ecosystems with a focus on European case studies at the local/regional scale.  CEP’s work will also be helping to operationalize ‘planetary boundary type approaches’ (with a focus on ‘biodiversity/ecosystem functioning/biosphere’) in a European context.

CEP is working with Professor Katherine Richardson (Copenhagen University) and Dr Sarah Cornell (Stockholm Resilience Centre) as expert advisors on this project.  The contract runs from July to November 2015.

Dr Bill Sheate is Project Manager.  Rolands Sadauskis  is Project Researcher.

CEP working with UWE and Defra on ‘Supporting the Uptake of Low Cost Resilience for Properties at Risk of Flooding’

CEP are part of the University of the West of England led team working on the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) “Supporting the Uptake of Low Cost Resilience for Properties at Risk of Flooding” project. 

The project’s aim is to identify barriers and propose solutions to promote low cost flood approaches that would make properties at flood risk more resilient to damage from flood waters.  It includes gathering evidence, good practice and case studies of flood repairable approaches to be tested using an action research approach which will be evaluated so that lessons can be documented and shared.  CEP is leading on the evaluation. 

The project runs from May 2015 – Feb 2016.

For more information contact CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director)

CEP is seeking a Senior Consultant in Social Science

CEP is seeking to recruit a Senior Consultant (Social Science) to be based at our London office. This is an opportunity for an exceptional candidate to join our growing multi-disciplinary team providing innovative approaches to environmental, social and sustainability practice and research.

Closing date for applications: Monday 27th July 2015

Interviews: Tuesday 18th August 2015 

Full details are available on our Jobs page.

CEP to review and consolidate on the mapping, analysis and measurement of green infrastructure in Europe

CEP has been appointed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to prepare a report consolidating previous European research (e.g. from the EEA, DG Environment, Joint Research Centre) on approaches for mapping, analysis and measurement of green infrastructure in Europe. The report will assist policy-makers in understanding which questions the existing approaches can provide answers to and how the information can be used in a policy context.

The project builds on CEP’s expertise in European policy support, land use and spatial planning, ecosystem services and green infrastructure.

CEP’s Ric Eales and Peter Phillips are delivering this project. 

CEP to develop methodology for understanding the implications of global megatrends for EU member states

CEP has been awarded the contract to support, develop and test a methodology to help European member states explore and understand the implications of global megatrends for the environment and for policy at the national level.

This exciting and innovative project is funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and is being delivered under the aegis of the European Environment Agency (EEA) EIONET FLIS .  The project will draw on the EEA State and Outlook Report (SOER) 2015 Global Megatrends report, which CEP also contributed to. 

Owen White is CEP’s lead for this project.

CEP attending the Scottish Government Land Use Strategy annual stakeholder event 2015

Peter Phillips from CEP will be attending the Scottish Government Land Use Strategy annual stakeholder event 2015 on Thursday 11 June 2015. CEP has earlier this year completed the Evaluation of the Land Use Strategy (LUS) Forestry Focused Sub-Regional Pilot Studies for Forestry Commission Scotland. 

Conference on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Sustainability Appraisal (SA) at Oxford Brookes University, 1-2 June

With a growing number of legal challenges under the EU SEA Directive and an increasing recognition of the critical role SEA/SA plays in the preparation local and neighbourhood plans, this is an ideal moment to join the debate on current and future SEA/SA practice.  The two-day conference will include a combination of presentations and workshop sessions with confirmed speakers/workshop leaders from the Department for Communities and Local Government, the European Commission, the Home Builders Federation, Landmark Chambers, English Heritage and Natural England.  The conference will bring together a diverse audience including planning officers, representatives of neighbourhood groups, government officials, environmental consultants, researchers and NGOs to discuss, exchange knowledge and network. 

To sign up please visit http://planning.brookes.ac.uk/events/2015/sea-conference.html

CEP’s Dr William Sheate (Technical Director) and Ric Eales (Managing Director) will be presenting / facilitating at the conference

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross has been invited by Natural Resources Wales to give an overview of current research on community resilience and flooding to the  “Wales Coastal Flooding Review: Project 3 Workshop:  ‘Creating Self Supporting Flood Resilient Communities’”, 14th May, Cardiff.

This builds, in part, on CEP’s evaluation of the Flood Resilience Community Pathfinders (for Defra), the on-going evidence review on locality and community climate change resilience (for the Joesph Rowntree Foundation) and research undertaken for the Cabinet Office on ‘Community Resilience Research:  Theoretical research and analysis of Case Studies‘

We have today added more pages to our new website, providing a number of case studies of our key areas of work, along with examples of the priority topics we are currently working on.