W1P8 - Climate change resilient water systems: the sustainability challenge

Sustainable use of water resources is a key challenge facing modern cities, made more difficult by the uncertainties of climate change. Meeting growing demand for water whilst maintaining the health of aquatic ecosystems has been a core problem and focus for environmental policy makers and water managers in recent decades.

Changing precipitation patterns may result in increasing average annual rainfall for some cities and decreasing rainfall for others. Rainfall events are also likely to become more erratic in terms of both frequency and magnitude, leading to increased frequency of both drought and flooding. Adapting to changes in the availability of water is essential for the future success of cities. Adaptation actions will be needed across a range of scales, from the household to the catchment, and can include demand management, rainwater harvesting, water recycling, desalination and building new reservoirs. The adaptation strategies chosen by governments and infrastructure managers need to consider environmental as well as human needs for water.

This project will develop a methodology for  identifying the key vulnerabilities of a city’s water system to climate change and a framework for quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating the sustainability of adaptation strategies.

Title: Case Study: North York Moors National Park – Flooding June 2005
Type: [Publication]
Description: This case study (P17 onwards of report) formed part a NI188 LCLIP study for North Yorkshire County Council and outlined the impact of a flash flooding event in 2005 affecting the North Yorkshire Moors National Park
URL: http://www.scarborough.gov.uk/pdf/ScarboroughBC_LCLIP_v3.pdf

Title: An implementation of the Robust Decision Making framework to assess the robustness of proposed infrastructure portfolios in the Thames Basin
Type: [Abstract]
Description: This abstract has been accepted for a plenary session entitled "Sustainable water management under an uncertain changing climate" to be held at the RGS-IGB Annual Conference, August 31st - September 2nd. I am third author on this publication.
URL: http://conference.rgs.org/conference/sessions/View.aspx?heading=Y&session=33df25ec-4e1a-4bd4-be8b-b13f9c385c7e

Title: Dutch Level 3 (10 week evening course)
Type: [Training]
Description: This was my 4th course of formal Dutch language training which I successfully completed in July 2011. It included weekly 2hr lessons and homework exercises. The courses are helping me read Dutch media articles relating to sustainable urban development for my research

Title: Dutch Level 2+ (10 week evening course)
Type: [Training]
Description: This was my third course of formal Dutch language training which I successfully completed in April 2011. It included weekly 2hr lessons and homework exercises. The courses are helping me read both Dutch and Afrikaans journal articles for my research.

Title: Adapting to Climate Change in the UK: A Water Sensitive Urban Design Approach Applied to NW Cambridge
Type: [Abstract]
Description: Abstract submitted to the 7th Water Sensitive Urban Design Conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia in March 2012.

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Title: Applying Info-Gap Decision Theory to the Thames Basin water resources management systems
Type: [Presentations]
Description: Presentation given to ARCC-Water members at Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE) as part of a workshop on water resources simulations and decision making

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Title: APPLYING INFO-GAP DECISION THEORY TO WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM PLANNING: APPLICATION TO THE THAMES BASIN
Type: [Publication]
Description: Conference paper accepted for CCWI (Computer Control in the Water Industry), Exeter, 2011.

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Title: Including more Climate Change Information within Current Flood Estimation and Modelling Frameworks
Type: [Posters]
Description: This poster was presented at the British Hydrological Society's Yong Hydrologist Symposium in Loughbrough in April 2011. Based on a technique developed from AECOM as part of a climate change adaptation study, this poster was voted the best at the event.

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Title: Thames Basin Water Resource Allocation System
Type: [Map]
Description: This updated map of the Thames Basin included the proposed transfer of water from the River Severn as outline in Thames Water Utilities Ltd (TWUL) latest Water Resource Management Plan (WRMP).

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Title: Forecasting Domestic Water Consumption
Type: [Media Article]
Description: Outline of the use of ONS and GLA data to produce spatially discretised modelling of current domestic water demand and forecasting of changing demands to 2031.
URL: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/applications/forecasting-domestic-water-consumption

Title: An Adaptive Approach to Represent Climate Change Data within Current Flood Estimation and Modelling Frameworks
Type: [Abstract]
Description: This abstract has been accepted for a poster presentation at the British Hydrological Society (BHS) Peter Wolf Early Career Hydrologists’ Symposium to be held in Loughborough in April 2011.
URL: http://www.hydrology.org.uk/meetings/Peter_Wolf_2011_Draft%20programme_bhs-website.pdf

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Title: Challenging Traditions - Chasing Transitions: Water Reuse in the UK
Type: [Abstract]
Description: This is an outline paper submitted for an oral presentation at the IWA Cities of the Future 2011 Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. As second author I am contributing technical skills in the fields of water demand modelling, management and water recycling.

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Title: Sustainable Drainage System for Central London
Type: [Design]
Description: 3D CAD drawing of a SUDS vision for a redevelopment site in central London.

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Title: ARCC-Water Decision theory workshop
Type: [Event]
Description: Nobel Laureate Robert Lempert of RAND Corporation came to UCL to meet with members and affiliates of the ARCC-Water project team to discuss our current research in the fields of Water Resource Management and Decision Theories. I presented the results of my application of Info-Gap Decision Theory to the Thames Basin water management and allocation system as part of this 1 day workshop.

Title: Dutch Level 2 (10 week evening course)
Type: [Training]
Description: This was my second course of formal Dutch language training which I successfully completed in December 2010. It included weekly 2hr lessons and homework exercises. I am enrolled to take the next level starting January 2011 and hope to take a Dutch competency exam with the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) in May 2011.

Title: Dutch Level 1+ (10 week evening course)
Type: [Training]
Description: Level 1+ evening Dutch course run at UCL Language school. Course included weekly lessons (2hours) and home work tasks. I successfully completed this (my first formal Dutch course) in June 2010.

Title: Simulating Options for Future Water Resource Management under Conditions of Uncertainty
Type: [Posters]
Description: Poster presented to Dr Sarah Bell and Dr Julien Harou as part of my viva voce defence of my M.Res dissertation

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Title: Robust Resilient Water Resource Planning for the Thames Basin
Type: [Posters]
Description: Poster presented as part of the UCL Engineering Open House event.

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Title: Climate Change Resilient Water Resource Management
Type: [Presentations]
Description: Presentation given to Nobel Laureate Dr Robert Lempert of RAND Corporation showcasing my application of Info-Gap Decision Theory to the London Water Resource Zone (WRZ)

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Title: Universal adoption of rooftop rainwater harvesting for better management of water resources and urban flash flooding in London
Type: [Abstract]
Description: As second author on this paper, I am contributing technical knowledge of water demand forecasting across London, and modelling the potential impact that rainwater harvesting systems at a range of scales might have to reduce this demand.

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Title: Info-Gap Decision Theory workshop and seminar
Type: [Event]
Description: As part of the ARCC-Water research groups development of decision making tools for sustainable water management, I was invited by Dr Julien Harou to attend a 1day workshop and seminar at Exeter University host by Dr Suraje Dessai.

Title: EngD Project Update
Type: [Presentations]
Description: Short introduction to the taught and research components of the EngD in year 1 and progress during the hand-over of industrial supervision from Charlotte Parkes to Georgia Arnott and Andrew Cripps

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Title: London water demand change (2010-2025)
Type: [Map]
Description: After developing a simple model for predicting small area water demand based on Output Area (OA) level 2001 census data, I have unscaled it to forecast demand in 2025 at the Ward scale across London. Results show changes in ward demand in megelitres per day.

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Title: 2D Groundwater Modelling in the London Basin Using Flowpath II
Type: [Report (incl progress reports)]
Description: This report outlines the research and development of a 2D steady-state groundwater model of the entire Thames Basin.
URL: n/a

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Title: Info-Gap Decision Theory workshop - Durham University, Department of Mathematics
Type: [Event]
Description: This four day residential course was convened by Professor Yakov Ben-Heim who has developed an approach to quantifying the robustness of decisions during periods of deep uncertainty.
URL: n/a

Title: Thames Water Infrastructure Network: Visualised in Hydroplatfrom
Type: [Map]
Description: Thames Water distribution network from Hydroplatform mapped onto a previous GIS output for the project.
URL: TBC

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Title: Thames Water Infrastructure Network
Type: [Map]
Description: Map of Thames Water Utilities distribution network compiled using vector and SRTM (90m) raster datasets.
URL: TBC

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Ashley Woods Mon 9th May, 2011

In April 2011 I won the prize for best poster at the British hydrological Society's Young Hydrologist Symposium. I presented the findings of an AECOM project where I developed and tested a new method for including more climate change data with current flood estimation and modelling frameworks.

 
 

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Ashley Woods Mon 4th Apr, 2011

My investigation into better representation of climate change within current flood estimation methods in the UK as been accepted for a poster presentation at the British Hydrological Society's Young Hydrologist's Symposium on the 12th and 13th April 2011 at Loughborough University.

 
 

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Ashley Woods Mon 4th Apr, 2011

Both my abstracts from CCWI have been accepted. The info-gap decision theory paper for a long presentation and the conjunctive use modelling for a short. Deadline for paper submission is early June 2011.

 
 

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Ashley Woods Wed 2nd Feb, 2011

I submitted two abstracts earlier with week for the Computer Control in the Water Industry (CCWI) conference being held in Exeter in September 2011. The first abstract is for a paper demonstrating the use of Info-Gap Decision Theory for water resources management in the Thames Basin and the second is the development of efficient groundwater modelling for water resource optimisation.

 
 

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Ashley Woods Sat 30th Oct, 2010

Made my first presentation of my application of Info-Gap Decision Theory to the Thames water resource management system the Nobel Prize winning Laureate Robert Lempert of RAND Corporatation and 7 members of the ARCC-Water research group.

 
 

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Sarah Bell Senior Lecturer
Sarah Bell's research interests lie in the relationships between engineering, technology and society as they impact on sustainability, particularly...
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Andrew Cripps Regional Director
Sustainability. Energy, water, materials, construction sector
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