Dr Kerr Adams

Research

• Emerging Water Futures – Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2022-27 – Co-developing a catchment-scale model to investigate drought risks and their impacts to key sectors in Scotland.
• PaluWise – Horizon Europe 2025-30 – Investigating the potential rewettability of drained and degraded peatlands to investigate the potential scalability of restoration and paludiculture.
• Planning for water scarcity: building resilience and managing water for efficient irrigation – Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters 2025-26 – Developing the latest guidance for agricultural irrigators to increase resilience to drought.

Past research

• Transition to Delivery: Landowner Engagement – Neighbourhood Ecosystem Fund 2024-25 –  Supporting the River Eden Sustainability Partnership in engaging with local landowners to identify and enable water management and river restoration projects across the Eden and Motray catchments, in Fife, Scotland.
• Scotland’s Global Partnership for Knowledge and Expertise in Water and Climate (SPARKE) – Scottish Government 2023-25 – facilitating collaboration with Malawian partners to address global water and climate challenges.
• Creating healthy and resilient river systems across Scotland: prioritising research and development gap opportunities for river woodlands – Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) 2024-25 – literature review of evidence gaps related to the planting or river woodlands in Scotland.
• Future Predictions of Water Scarcity in Scotland: Impacts to Distilleries and Agricultural Abstractors – Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) 2023-24 – reviewing evidence of water scarcity in Scotland and identifying impacts and adaptation options via stakeholder engagement with agricultural and distilling sectors.
• Malawi-Scotland Regulatory Partnership – Scottish Government 2023-24 – reviewing Malawi’s water management information system to promote management and policy action and supporting with project management.
• What lies beneath? Emergent global issues associated with reservoir drinking water provision – Hydro Nation Chair Catalyst Fund 2023-24 – conducting a global literature review of contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water reservoirs to inform Scottish Water’s risk framework.
• Scotland’s freshwater landscape and its resilience to change: an assessment to support future policy – Hydro Nation Scholars Programme 2018-22 – identifying stakeholder knowledge needs and co-developing a decision support tool to inform collaborative and innovative water management actions.
• Irrigation Practice Adoption: Causes and Consequences in the Arkansas Delta – University of Arkansas 2016-18 – investigation of potential returns on investment and groundwater recharge outcomes from the adoption of alternative irrigation practices.