|
|
|
|
|
|
UK Water
Industry
ResearchUKWIR facilitates collaborative research for
UK water operators
| |
|
|
|
| SNIFFER Activities Summer 2008 - SEA and IWRM-Net |
|
|
|
|
|
SNIFFER draft practical guidance for Strategic Environmental Assessments – A chance to contribute
As part of the Environmental Regulation Programme, SNIFFER has commissioned research aimed at providing guidance on how to take account of air, water and soil for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). SEA is now a legal requirement during the preparation of certain types of plans, programmes and strategies. SEA requires plan makers to consider what effects their plan will have upon a wide range of environmental receptors (including biodiversity, human health, population, climate, air, water, soil, material assets and cultural heritage) and to look for ways of eliminating or reducing any potential adverse effects.
The guidance aims to provide detailed advice for practitioners on how to deal with air, water and soil in the SEA process; it should be easy to use, technically correct and consistent with other SEA guidance.
To help ensure that the final guidance will be fit for purpose, SNIFFER began a two-month consultation in June to obtain stakeholder views on the draft documents. The consultation began with launch events in Edinburgh and Belfast, where our contractors, EnviroCentre, gave delegates an overview of structure and approach taken in the draft guidance. Guest speakers from SEPA, South Lanarkshire Council, WWF Northern Ireland, RPS and Department of the Environment then highlighted key policy developments and issues to set the guidance into context. SNIFFER now invites SEA stakeholders to provide written comment on the draft guidance documents. Please click here to access the consultation documents on the SNIFFER “what’s new” page, or contact helen@sniffer.org.uk for more information. The consultation closes on Monday 11th August 2008.
Integrated Water Resource Management ERA-net selects its first research projects
At the project evaluation meeting on the 28th May in Berlin, it was agreed that three projects, totalling approximately €1.2million, would be funded by IWRM-Net including one with a UK partner. This is the culmination of work that started in Edinburgh in April 2007 where SNIFFER facilitated a workshop to identify the priority research needs. We can now see the collaborations delivering outputs with the projects expected to be up and running by the autumn and should provide some interesting results to be shared across Europe.
It also signifies a new phase in the project where partners have increased confidence in collaboration and where SNIFFER is at the forefront of developing the short term research needs for the larger proposed second call. The network is gathering pace - visit the website at http://www.iwrm-net.org/ to keep up to date with developments, or to be involved in setting the research agenda then please contact Stephen Midgley on stephen@sniffer.org.uk
|
|
|
|
|
