Awards for innovative CREW water research

"The project 'Surface water flood forecasting for urban communities' has won the Royal Meteorological Society Innovation Award 2018, while the 'Dynamic Coast' initiative was awarded the Spotlight Prize at the recent 4th Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards"

Two research projects conducted by Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) have been awarded prizes in recognition of excellence and innovation in water research. The project “Surface water flood forecasting for urban communities” has won the Royal Meteorological Society Innovation Award 2018, while the “Dynamic Coast” initiative was awarded the Spotlight Prize at the recent 4th Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards.

Originally carried out in 2014-15, “Surface water flood forecasting for urban communities” aimed to assist Scotland’s Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in increasing its capabilities through developing an appropriate modelling methodology for surface water flood forecasting that could be operated in real-time. The methodology was successfully put to the test during the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, and the research was recently published as a peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Flood Risk Management.

Likewise, “Dynamic Coast” is an open access web-based tool, offering easy-to-interpret reports and maps of the entire 21,000 km of Scottish coastline, allowing for swift identification of potential areas of erosions and vulnerable assets such as roads, rails, or houses concerned.

Of the 21,000 km of the Scottish coastline categorised, 3,800 km of potentially erodible ‘soft’ coast have been identified with 23% having experienced significant change. Past rates have been projected to 2050 to identify likely areas of erosion and the assets (roads, rail, housing etc.) that may be vulnerable. 

The Coastal Change Assessment aims to create a shared evidence base to support more sustainable coastal and terrestrial planning decisions in the light of a changing climate. The public web-based maps, reports and videos provide easy to interpret maps of the past and anticipated changes on all of Scotland’s erodible shorelines. 

CREW is a Scottish Government-funded partnership between the James Hutton Institute and Scottish universities, and runs the Scottish Government’s Hydro Nation Scholarship Programme and Graduate School.