The £600m Ofwat Innovation Fund has revealed its newest studying report, From supply to sea: harnessing nature and communities for complete catchment innovation.
The brand new report uncovers insights from eight pioneering nature-based tasks backed by the Ofwat Innovation Fund since 2020. By sharing classes discovered, it goals to encourage the broader water sector to construct on every mission’s success and fast-track options to among the sector’s most urgent challenges
Nature-based options reap the benefits of pure techniques to resolve challenges reminiscent of local weather change and air pollution, aiming to guard, preserve, restore or sustainably handle pure environments.
Between them, the tasks have been supported with greater than £18 million of funding. Led by six completely different water corporations, the consortia behind the profitable tasks concerned 77 companions starting from the Rivers Belief and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to expertise corporations, engineering consultancies, universities and native governments.
They embody citizen science initiatives, tasks to combine sustainable drainage techniques (SuDs) into city neighbourhoods and programmes figuring out how you can scale nature-based options at panorama degree.
These options are informing the sector’s “source-to-sea” strategy, demonstrating the interconnectivity of the UK’s water techniques, from upstream catchment administration to water reuse and flood mitigation.
Dr Jo Jolly, Director, Atmosphere and Innovation, Ofwat, stated:
“Our water sector wants modern options, and the tradition to allow it, to navigate the crises we face – from local weather change and biodiversity loss to fast inhabitants development. Proper throughout the sector, we have to collaborate at tempo and drive a serious shift in the direction of nature-based options The Ofwat Innovation Fund has been an important a part of initiating this transition, and our ambition for ever extra pressing progress is a central a part of our new motion plan for 2025-30.”
Marking the launch of the report, Jo Jolly will chair a panel session about nature-based options on the European Wastewater Administration Convention & Exhibition on 18 June, talking with Jack Spees (Ribble Rivers Belief, a accomplice in Mainstreaming Nature Based mostly Options and CaSTCo), Bridget Woods Ballard (HR Wallingford, a accomplice in SuDS-iQ: A Nationwide SuDS Collaboration & Analysis Platform) and Matthew Whaley (Higher London Authority, a accomplice in Creating a market-based strategy to ship SuDS by way of road works).
The report highlights tasks like Mainstreaming Nature-Based mostly Options, led by United Utilities with companions together with The Rivers Belief and WWT. Awarded £8 million by way of the Water Breakthrough Problem 3, the mission tackles flooding, drought, and water high quality at a panorama scale by eradicating boundaries to adopting nature-based options.
One other standout mission, CaSTCo (Catchment Techniques Pondering Cooperative), obtained £6.3 million to rework environmental monitoring. Led by United Utilities and companions just like the Rivers Belief, Earthwatch and ZSL, it’s making a nationwide framework for standardised knowledge assortment to enhance river well being.
Due to this work, over 6,600 individuals joined the primary Huge River Watch, and a pair of,630 took half within the Nice UK WaterBlitz throughout 1,300 places. CaSTCo has additionally supported habitat restoration, together with hedge planting, pond constructing, and river work throughout the UK.
Jack Spees, CEO, Ribble Rivers Belief, a accomplice in Mainstreaming nature-based options to ship higher worth and CaSTCo, stated:
“Nature-based options have the potential to supply a number of socio-economic and environmental advantages by tackling flooding, drought and water high quality points at panorama scale. Nonetheless, there are systemic boundaries presently stopping wider adoption and the advantages of nature-based options from being totally maximised, reminiscent of: fragmented or siloed funding, lack of standardisation and regulatory restrictions. Being a part of the Mainstreaming Nature-based Options programme permits us to deal with these points by working collaboratively with multi-sectoral experience. Due to the Ofwat Innovation Fund, we’re creating and testing new options that can assist work in the direction of eradicating the boundaries, and mainstream nature-based options to ship higher worth for society and the surroundings for the long run.”
The report additionally spotlights two tasks pioneering Sustainable Drainage Techniques (SuDS). SuDS-iQ: A Nationwide SuDS Collaboration & Analysis Platform is led by Southern Water in partnership with HR Wallingford, CIWEM, and others, The mission was awarded over £950,000 as a part of Water Breakthrough Problem 4 to create a nationwide on-line collaborative platform centered on serving to stakeholders plan, design and consider SuDS.
Creating a market-based strategy to ship SuDS by way of road works is led by Thames Water in partnership with Higher London Authority, Transport for London and others. The mission was awarded £1.3 million as a part of Water Breakthrough Problem 4 to create a mechanism for integrating SuDS into routine road works.
Bridget Woods Ballard, Technical Director, Flood and Water Administration at HR Wallingford, a accomplice in SuDS-iQ: A Nationwide SuDS Collaboration & Analysis Platform stated:
“Efficient collaboration between stakeholders is essential to the profitable planning and supply of nature-based floor water administration options – notably these retrofitted into present city area. By funding SuDS-iQ, the Ofwat Innovation Fund is giving us the chance to develop easy, accessible SuDS planning and analysis instruments embedded inside a collaboration platform. This may assist enhance collective understanding of SuDS efficiency, assist stakeholders who don’t have entry to modelling software program to match choices and enhance communications in the course of the scoping phases of a mission.”
Alex Nickson, Head of Partnerships & Catchment Planning at Thames Water, the lead firm for Creating a market-based strategy to ship SuDS by way of road works, stated:
“The chance of floor water flooding in London, as with many locations, is rising due to local weather change, the lack of permeable surfaces and extra individuals dwelling in areas of danger. A key a part of managing this danger is to cut back the speed and quantity of stormwater attempting to enter the drainage techniques by way of Sustainable Drainage Techniques (SuDS). By the Ofwat Innovation Fund, Thames Water and the Mayor of London have secured funding to develop and take a look at a market-based strategy to incentivise utility corporations enterprise road works to put in SuDS when finishing their works. Given the 165,000 main road works in London yearly, if even a small proportion of those holes may very well be refilled with SuDS slightly than highway or pavement, this might meaningfully contribute to the discount of floor water flood danger while additionally decreasing disruption to highway customers and communities.”
From supply to sea: harnessing nature for complete catchment innovation is the fourth within the Ofwat Innovation Fund’s studying report collection. It was preceded by “Circularity in water”, “Supporting water-efficient communities”, and “Rethinking wastewater techniques”.
The Ofwat Innovation Fund is investing £600 million over 10 years between 2020 and 2030 in collaborative tasks which see water corporations working with promising innovators from throughout completely different sectors globally to develop and deploy options to the water sector’s greatest challenges. It’s delivered by innovation prize consultants, Problem Works (a part of the Nesta group), in partnership with Arup and Isle Utilities.
The fund was beforehand highlighted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as one among a lot of promising methods through which regulators are supporting the Authorities’s plan for financial development.
The sixth Water Breakthrough Problem, rewarding collaborative innovation to deal with the big challenges going through the water sector, will open for entries in early autumn 2025, encouraging bold entries from consortia led by water corporations, together with additional nature-based options.
For extra data go to waterinnovation.challenges.org.
