Water and adjacent land are finite resources, and their careful management is essential to ensure sustainable, inclusive growth. Our work in Place and Natural Capital explores how land use, planning, and regeneration can support place identity while maintaining balance with the natural capital that sustains us.
Key research areas:
Water and Place Planning
We are working with FORTH2O partners to highlight the importance of water in place planning policy and practice and to review existing place planning approaches and tools to identify opportunities to better integrate water in place.
Understanding Market Demand for Water Outcomes
We are supporting partner-led studies looking at the needs and expectations of ‘water outcome buyers’ at different geographical scales as the underpinning for developing Nature Finance approaches which recognise, value and resource key water outcomes.
Water Resilience at Catchment-scale
We are supporting a series of partner-led studies looking at collaborative approaches to resilience in different parts of the Forth Water Basin (around the Upper Forth, the Gogar Burn and across coastal communities for example). We are also investigating the catchment-scale governance and resourcing models needed to support the collaborative delivery of multiple water-related outcomes.
We still have capacity to respond to partner research enquiries so if there are areas or ideas that you want to explore, please get in touch.
Optimisation Challenges
Harnessing water resources productively and sustainably in the Forth Water Basin.