Restoring river woodlands, trees and forests alongside rivers, streams and lochs, is gaining momentum across Scotland. These habitats are vital for improving water quality, reducing flood and drought risks, supporting biodiversity, and boosting community wellbeing. Yet over half of Scotland’s riverbanks are in poor condition, and efforts to restore them still face major challenges.
River woodlands (RW) play a crucial role in protecting river ecosystems, for example by reducing flooding, storing carbon, filtering pollution, and benefiting local communities. However, nearly 55% of surveyed riverbank in Scotland show poor RW health. This highlights a need for RW restoration. While RW initiatives like Riverwoods are gaining traction, scaling them up remains challenging. In 2022, Riverwoods conducted a review of existing research on RW benefits, identifying 60 key knowledge gaps.
Project Status: Project in procurement. Call closed.
Overview: This Capacity Building project aims to explore the emerging area of interest in surface water reuse before the next regulatory planning period (April 2027-March 2033) and demonstrate clear policy/strategic alignment. The project will focus on non-potable uses, such as non-food agriculture, car washing, and cooling systems, which are less regulated, but may still require adherence to local planning and environmental legislation.
NatureScot is committed to reversing the decline in freshwater biodiversity by protecting and improving ecosystem health in protected areas. This effort aligns with Scotland’s goal to safeguard 30% of its land and sea by 2030. This project makes recommendations on a monitoring framework that would inform management decisions to deliver healthy ecosystems. To achieve this, monitoring efforts must shift toward a broader landscape or catchment-scale approach, providing a more comprehensive understanding of freshwater and wetland ecosystems.
Welcome to our new quarterly CREW newsletter, CREW NEWS!
In this spring edition we’re reminding you of our current calls for proposals, highlighting completed projects and feeding back from our project evaluation forms. As it’s our first edition we’ve also included a refresher on ‘who we are and what we do’ and there’s a letter from our comms officer detailing some favourite moments from her first year in post.
We’d love to hear what you’d be interested in reading in future issues of CREW NEWS.
Research led by The James Hutton Institute, in collaboration with Scotland’s Rural College, the University of Aberdeen, and the British Geological Survey, highlights the increasing threat of water scarcity in Scotland due to climate change. Recently published in The Geographer (Winter 2024 edition, Adaption: Are we ready? And how far is it possible to adapt?), the study examines the potential impact on agriculture and distilleries.
Great discussions were held this week at a hybrid hydro-sector dissemination event at the Advanced Research Centre (University of Glasgow), where Professor Richard Williams presented findings from the CREW project, “Environmentally effective and cost-efficient sediment management at impoundments.”
The team showcased their insightful project video, available here and also shared an infographic illustrating how river health relies on sediment flow (pictured).
The event also featured:
Impoundments on rivers are often critical for purposes such as power generation and water supply yet they can also reduce or prevent the natural movement of sediment downstream. Accumulation of sediment behind an impoundment can pose a risk to its intended use and result in adverse ecological consequences downstream due to sediment not being naturally replenished. This project developed initiatives to raise awareness of the commercial and environmental risks associated with sediment discontinuity caused by impoundments.
Scotland Explores New Strategies to Monitor Freshwater and Wetland Ecosystems
A recent mid-project workshop has brought together leading experts to rethink how freshwater and wetland ecosystems are monitored across Scotland. The goal of this current CREW project is to create a more dynamic, resource-efficient approach to ecosystem health monitoring that aligns with Scotland’s commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.
This project aimed to compile an evidence base and offer recommendations informing policy and practice regarding how land use changes may impact the amount of water available to private water supplies (PWS). The focus was on the impacts to water availability from emerging land use trends of tree planting (afforestation and agroforestry) and wind farm development in Scotland.