Catchment Data and Evidence Forum 2020
Organisation: Various
Location: Online
Type: Technical Support & Training
Link: Visit Website
The Catchment Data & Evidence Forum 2020 and Webinar Programme were held online from 18th – 20th August. Bringing together over 200 people throughout the three days, they provided an opportunity to share and learn about the latest developments in catchment monitoring, modelling, data sharing and analysis.
The Forum included a Keynote presentation from Prof. Alex Inman of Exeter University on ‘Provision of data and evidence within the context of changing behaviours’, followed by a mix of lightning talks, discussions and interactive voting.
Discussions and interactive voting focused on a range of issues including data hackathons, the CaBA Catchment Monitoring Cooperative and opportunities for the data and evidence community to support CaBA in engaging communities.
The Forum was followed by a 2 day webinar programme allowing people to delve into more detail on key topics.
Below you can download a summary of the Forum, watch recordings of the presentations and each of the webinar sessions, plus find summaries of the Q&A and links to resources discussed. You can also read the RRC’s Blog summarising some highlights from the event.
The Catchment Data & Evidence Forum Agenda
MORNING SESSION
- Welcome & Introduction – Lucy Butler and David Johnson (CaBA Technical Support Team)
- Keynote: Provision of data and evidence within the context of changing behaviours – Prof. Alex Inman (Exeter University)
Lightning Talks 1: Making data & evidence more collaborative and accessible
- NFM Modelling: Developing collaborative end user scenarios – Barry Hankin (Lancaster Environment Centre and JBA Consulting)
- CaBA Coastal Data Package – Lucy Butler (CaBA Technical Support Team)
- Modular River Survey 2020 Update – Dave Gurnell (Cartographer)
- The SCIMAP Toolkit: Sediment, Nutrients and FIOs – Sim Reaney (Durham University)
- NFM Ponds & Wetlands: Estimating potential storage capacity through GIS analysis – Catherine McIlwraith (The Rivers Trust)
- Drones for Conservation – Adrian Hughes (RSPB)
Lightning Talks 2: Influencing change through data and evidence
- Making Data Engaging – Jayne Mann (CaBA Communications & The Rivers Trust)
- Portable water quality kits: Their use in monitoring and farmer engagement – Holly Pearson (Westcountry Rivers Trust)
- Natural capital investment in catchments – Dan Hird (Triodos Bank)
- The Petteril Catchment Project: An evidence based approach to decision making – Amina Aboobakar (United Utilities and The Rivers Trust)
- Natural capital data cycling under the ELMs trial – Jenny Phelps (FWAG South West)
- Natural capital register and account tools – Rachel Lenane (Environment Agency)
- EA’s inventory and tool for cost effectiveness – Emily Carter (Stantec)
AFTERNOON SESSION
Lightning Talks 3: Environment Agency Monitoring
- Update on monitoring: Coronavirus – Ben Bunting (Environment Agency)
- River Surveillance Network – Rich Walmsley (Environment Agency)
- Sentinel EDM – James Finigan (Environment Agency)
Lightning Talks 4: Monitoring and Citizen Science
- iWarfe Project – Marie Taylor (Dales to Vales Catchment Partnership)
- Water quality monitoring in South Cumbria – Jayne Wilkinson (Becks to Bay Catchment Partnership)
- Intermittent and ephemeral streams, why and how we should keep monitoring when the flow stops – Cath Sefton (UKCEH)
- Shoresearch citizen science and marine champions programme – Tim Ferrero (Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust)
- Wyre Estuary BioBlitz – Thomas Myerscough (Wyre Waters Catchment Partnership)
Developing a Catchment Monitoring Cooperative
- The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative – Liz Chudoba (Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay)
- Developing a CaBA Catchment Monitoring Cooperative – Michelle Walker (CaBA Monitoring Working Group)
Please note, the videos below include all presentations by speakers who have currently given sharing permissions.
Webinar: Advancing data sharing between the UK Water Industry & CaBA
This joint webinar between CaBA and the Water UK CaBA Network was an opportunity for Catchment Partnerships to find out more about water industry data, starting with national datasets available through the CaBA data package. Case studies were then presented and discussed illustrating how CaBA partnerships and water companies are sharing local data in some areas and how this is being used to help develop and deliver joint, multi-benefit projects.
Participants also shared their views on opportunities, barriers and support needs in this area to help further advance data sharing between the water industry and CaBA.
A summary report pulling together the interactive polling, participant comments and next steps will be available shortly.
Webinar: Data & evidence to support habitat restoration and nature recovery
Priority Habitat Mapping for rivers and lakes is being refined, and the mapping will be used to influence both the new Defra Nature Strategy and River Basin Management Plans. This webinar jointly organised by the CaBA Biodiversity Working Group and Catchment Data User Group was an opportunity to find out more about the new Priority Habitats website and data portal which has been developed to support this work and how CaBA Partnerships can share their knowledge on particular sites and help identify river and lake restoration priorities. The webinar also introduced some of the latest data, evidence and tools available to CaBA partnerships to support habitat restoration and nature recovery.
A summary of key biodiversity datasets available to CaBA partnerships will be available soon.
Webinar: Designing a water quality investigation
This was an interactive training webinar for CaBA Partnerships who are involved or interested in undertaking water quality monitoring. Simon Browning, Senior Data & Evidence Officer at Westcountry Rivers Trust, and Pete Lloyd, independent water quality consultant, shared their experience on planning and designing a water quality monitoring programme, including setting objectives, choosing your strategy and equipment and visualising results. There was an interactive breakout session where participants designed their own monitoring programme and a short Q&A session.
You can also find more water quality training resources on the CaBA website by following the links below:
Water Quality Analysis Training
Water Quality Monitoring Training
Webinar: Making catchment data more accessible to end users
Aimed at technical catchment data users, this webinar presented by Matt Fry, Environmental Informatics Manager at UKCEH, introduced some of the latest catchment data, tools and resources developed by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, including the UK-Scape Hydrology API and data integration tool, the Drought Data Hub, the UK Water Resources Portal, the CAMELS – GB dataset and the UK Lakes Portal.
Webinar: Connecting Communities with Natural Capital: An Evidence Base
Ellie Brown, Ribble Rivers Trust’s GIS Data & Evidence Officer, presented the innovative health and wellbeing analysis and evidence base she has developed to help identify priority locations where the improvement of access to and the condition of public open spaces could have the greatest benefits for people and the environment.
Developed for Lancashire, the health analysis is available for the whole of England with plans to update this and undertake the environmental analysis nationally in the coming months.
The webinar was an opportunity to learn about the evidence base, the GIS analysis and datasets behind it, how it’s being used to connect communities with natural capital, and how you can access the national data layers.
You can view the national data layers and find out more via the Story Map link below.
This event was supported by the WaterCo-Governance (WaterCoG) project under the Interreg North Sea Region VB programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Wholescape Approach to Marine Management (WAMM) Project funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).
