The MDT Fellowship on Rural Water Security is focused on understanding water security challenges in Scotland and the potential for community action and social innovation.
The fellowship is developed by Dr Diana Valero [1] in close collaboration with Dr. Rowan Ellis [2].
Scotland’s water security is affected by the changing climate and the adopted mitigation and adaptation strategies, requiring the transformation of the provision of water. In many rural communities, this responsibility relies not only on Scottish Water and the broader water sector but critically on the owners and users of private water supplies, whose access to water might be challenged in specific ways. Within this context, this fellowship aims to enhance the understanding of water security-related challenges and opportunities in rural Scotland with particular attention to the social dimensions of WS and ultimately to inform future policies and community and sectoral initiatives. This aim is underpinned by two main lines of research: (1) understanding the challenges and opportunities for WS action in Scotland, and (2) understanding the configuration of social practices around WS in rural areas and the opportunities for transformation (e.g. social innovation).
The research programme is organised in mini-projects that combine conventional and co-produced research oriented to advance theory and support transformative action:
Understanding water security and insecurity in Scotland:
In-depth case study looking into the impacts of Storm Arwen in Aberdeenshire. This study seeks to better understand the impacts of Storm Arwen in the provision and access to water and the lived experiences of water insecurity following the impacts of the storm Arwen (end of November 2021) that left many households in rural Aberdeenshire without running water (linked in most cases to power outages). The research builds on the views and first-hand experiences of key stakeholders and rural dwellers whose water supplies were affected by the Storm. These views are collected through qualitative interviews and trawling of social media posts. Preliminary insights from the study of the digital footprint were published at the Hutton blog: "The digital footprint of #StormArwen and the disruption of water supplies [5]".
In Along with work in the project RESAS JHI-D2-1 on the resilience of Private Water Supplies [6], we are developing the notion “water insecurity in unexpected places” for exploring water-related challenges. Building on the Scottish experience, it proposes a framework to explore water insecurity in places that are water abundant and/or in wet/temperate climates, where there is no mainstream narrative of water supply challenges, there are mature systems of natural resource governance, and water is mostly supplied through centralised provision. A preliminary version was presented at the Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2023 in Ljubljana: “Rural water (in)security at the peripheries of water provision [7]”.
Social innovation and engagement of communities in water services:
A poster illustrating the breadth and depth of the research in the Fellowship was displayed at the 44th TB Macaulay Lecture (October 2023, Edinburgh). The poster is also available at this link [10].
Links:
[1] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/staff/diana-valero
[2] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/staff/rowan-ellis
[3] https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_847766_smxx.pdf
[4] https://esrs2023.institut-agro-rennes-angers.fr/program/2023-07-07/wg-25-rural-narratives-water-and-hydrosocial-dynamics-rural-areas-1
[5] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/blogs/digital-footprint-stormarwen-and-disruption-water-supplies
[6] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/projects/emerging-water-futures-resilience-private-water-supplies
[7] https://events.rdmobile.com/Lists/Details/1802019
[8] https://ruralsociology.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/James-Hutton.pdf
[9] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/projects/wastewatership-increasing-wastewater-stewardship
[10] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Valero_MDT Fellowship poster October 2023.pdf