Water Resources in South East England – A Dilemma in Sustainable Development

Rodda, John C.

doi:10.1002/9781444307672.ch14

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…However, the spatial distribution of rainfall in the UK mapped onto the spatial pattern of population density is where – for the UK – the real future challenge lies in terms of water availability. The areal rainfall for the South East region of England is 740 mm year −1 , and the actual evaporation is estimated at 480 mm (Rodda, 2008) giving an effective rainfall of only 260 mm year −1 . Combining this with the high population density of this region gives 610 m 3 of water per person per year.…”

Section: Future Stressors On Freshwater In a Changing Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple stressors on water availability at global to catchment scales: understanding human impact on nutrient cycles to protect water quality and water availability in the long term

2010

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SUMMARY1. Freshwater systems are subject to multiple stressors that include changing climate, changing land use, changing demands on water resources and changing nutrient cycles. Global trends suggest these stressors that impact on water availability will increase over the coming decades, and -without action -will constrain opportunities to sustain ecosystem services to deliver the Millennium Development Goals. 2. Although a key 'service' freshwaters provide is buffering inputs from the land system, predicting ecosystem response through observation and modelling is complex because nonlinear and dynamic interactions amongst a large number of constituents operate to regulate biogeochemical transformations in freshwater systems. 3. Reductionist approaches have been successful at unravelling many of the processes and some of the interactions in freshwater systems. However, reductionist approaches cannot provide the concepts or methods to understand how system properties will emerge in response to a changing climate (particularly the changing spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation); to the consequent change in water availability and water quality in the context of social drivers on the demand for water; and to feedbacks arising from nutrient cycling across a range of scales. 4. This study presents a review of the evidence for landscape-scale filtering of nutrient delivery to receiving waters and examines the role of the internal processing of nutrients at critical interfaces such as the hyporheic in attenuating nutrient loads. Analysis of research on the spatial scales and time step appropriate for catchment and water quality observations indicates the importance of small scale and short time step data for unravelling nutrient cycling in freshwater ecosystems. 5. Thematic implications: leading work in the catchment and aquatic sciences on the importance of diffuse nutrient losses from land, and on nutrient cycling in freshwaters, in governing water quality and protecting water availability, is making an increasing contribution to mainstream environmental science. Critically, the evidence base is starting to grow to inform policy-related debates with respect to food security, to climate change adaptation and for sustaining ecosystem services in freshwater environments.

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Section: Future Stressors On Freshwater In a Changing Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple stressors on water availability at global to catchment scales: understanding human impact on nutrient cycles to protect water quality and water availability in the long term

2010

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“…Second, atmospheric nitrogen pollution remains pervasive (Sutton et al. , 2011); and third, the U.K. already has one of the lowest water availabilities per person in the EU (Rodda, 2008), restricting manoeuvrability to adapt to climate change and, as the population density increases, exacerbating the already high demand on water resources. Given these pressures, protecting the ecosystem services that river systems deliver is paramount.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, only about 30% of the U.K. land area is associated with land uses, such as woodland and upland heath, that make only a small contribution to nutrient enrichment in rivers relative to areas of higher agricultural productivity or to urban land use (Countryside Survey, 2007;Milledge et al, in press). Second, atmospheric nitrogen pollution remains pervasive (Sutton et al, 2011); and third, the U.K. already has one of the lowest water availabilities per person in the EU (Rodda, 2008), restricting manoeuvrability to adapt to climate change and, as the population density increases, exacerbating the already high demand on water resources. Given these pressures, protecting the ecosystem services that river systems deliver is paramount.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing the impacts of nutrient enrichment on river systems: dealing with complex uncertainties in risk analyses

Page¹,

Heathwaite²,

Moss³

et al. 2012

Freshwater Biology

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1. Rivers and their catchments are complex, dynamic and non-equilibrium systems. Although the general functioning of these ecosystems is familiar, the characteristics of particular sites are often poorly known and accurate prediction of future behaviour to inform management decisions is extremely difficult. 2. Simple relationships between river nutrient concentrations and the health of river ecosystems do not exist. Natural variability and practical and technical constraints reduce our ability to set nutrient targets to protect river ecosystems. Particularly challenging is the use of simple doseresponse relationships as regulatory threshold targets, whereby sections of river are classified as either passing or failing to meet good ecological status. 3. Ecologically meaningful frameworks are needed that take account of the epistemic uncertainty associated with our predictions. Such frameworks should have clearly defined goals; be holistic; allow for natural variability; help to define ecologically acceptable environmental regimes; recognise that significant uncertainties mean that we will often be using indices rather than absolute measures; and use measures that explicitly include uncertainty estimates. Such approaches allow those outside the decision-making process to understand the level of environmental precaution included in the management of complex systems.

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Complete parametric investigation of a forward osmosis process using sodium chloride draw solution

et al. 2023

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Water Resources in South East England – A Dilemma in Sustainable Development

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Multiple stressors on water availability at global to catchment scales: understanding human impact on nutrient cycles to protect water quality and water availability in the long term

Multiple stressors on water availability at global to catchment scales: understanding human impact on nutrient cycles to protect water quality and water availability in the long term

Managing the impacts of nutrient enrichment on river systems: dealing with complex uncertainties in risk analyses

Complete parametric investigation of a forward osmosis process using sodium chloride draw solution

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