No Images? Click here CAWR NewsletterAugust 2017 Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on resilient food and water systems.' We're hosting the 8th Annual Conference of the AESOP Sustainable Food Planning group"Re-imagining sustainable food planning, building resourcefulness: food movements, insurgent planning and heterodox economics", 14-15 November 2017 (with a free pre-conference event on the 13th November). Fees include: Attendance to all conference sessions and workshops All coffee breaks, snacks and lunches on the 14th and 15th of November (4 coffee breaks with snacks and 2 lunches in total) Social event with food, music and refreshments (evening of 14th November) Free attendance to pre-conference "meet the authors" book launch evening event (13th November) Free attendance to PhD students and professionals pre-conference event (Morning and afternoon 13th November, maximum capacity 40 people, details on the conference website) Printed and electronic conference programme and book of abstract Wi-fi access Download of Conference proceedings (online after the conference) Focus on CAWR - Issue 2 now available!Interested in the projects that CAWR are currently involved in? Read Issue 2 for updates on our projects that are making an impact! Human-Wildlife ConflictThe human-wildlife conflict monitoring and mitigation project in Zimbabwe continues to yield some interesting data. Camera traps fitted to livestock corrals are providing regular images of night visits by large predators, including jackals, hyenas and prides of lions. Analysis of a pilot questionnaire suggests that lions are responsible for all kills of corralled livestock at night and that goats constitute the highest proportion (48%) of these kills. Attacks by lions appear more frequent during the wet season, suggesting that they are following their prey base out of adjacent national parks at this time. Preliminary analysis also suggests that the strongest predictor of losses of corralled cattle and goats is simply the number of animals the household owns, suggesting lions may target larger concentrations of corralled livestock and that physical deterrents (strength of corral etc) make little difference to a determined lion pride. We now need to see if flashing light deterrents installed at nine households are any more effective in this respect. Back from BelumSue Charlesworth, Marco Van De Wiel and Martin Wilkes returned from leading a Newton Researcher Links workshop in Malaysia, where they were inspired to tackle challenging research on the wellbeing of the Orang Asli (‘original people’) against a background of rapid economic development in the country. The CAWR team will now pursue several lines of investigation ranging from ecotourism and sanitation to biodiversity conservation and water resources, working with the indigenous communities of Belum Rainforest. The photo above shows 22 stakeholders, including government departments, NGOs and the Orang Asli, plus the 32 researchers who took part in the workshop. Marco Van De Wiel can be seen in this photo mentoring (left to right) Zati Sharip (National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia), Mohd Shahrizal Bin Ab Razak (Universiti Putra Malaysia), Mike Simpson (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology) and Balqis Mohamed Rehan (Universiti Putra Malaysa) during our career development session. The start of an exciting project for MoMorwenna Mckenzie, was recently awarded a Postgraduate Research Grant from the British Society for Geomorphology, to carry out an exciting project examining the effects of fine sediment pollution on river invertebrates. Alongside her collaborator, Kate Mathers at Loughborough University, the project will, for the first time, aim to demonstrate physical effects of fine sediment such as abrasion and clogging by exposing organisms in a recirculating flume experiment and using high powered microscopy techniques to assess damage. Sue takes SUDs to China!Sue Charlesworth was based in the Faculty of Environment and Architecture at the University of Chengdu, Sichuan, China (photo 1) for 2 weeks, teaching a course “Sustainable Drainage in Challenging Environments”. There was plenty of evidence that flooding was an issue (photo 2) and that they were reliant on conventional drainage. China has instigated the “Sponge City” concept, which Chengdu has ambitions to become, and Sue was able to visit the Institute for Disaster Management (IDM). The hydraulics labs feature concrete to-scale models of the dams constructed or planned, with research into environmental effects and also the provision of fish passageways and vortex velocity-reducing structures designed into the dams (photo 4). Whilst in Sichuan, Sue visited Dujiangyan and the 2000 year old irrigation system which still works (photo 5). This is situated on the Min River (the longest tributary of the Yangtze), which was built around 256 BC by the State of Qin to tackle flooding and also supply water for irrigation. Assessing the sustainability of English and Welsh farms the 'SMART' wayDuring the summer MSc student Alfréd Szilágyi (Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő, Hungary) and his supervisor Dr Immo Fiebrig visited over 20 smallholder farms comparing certified organic and conventional farms with permaculture systems using the Swiss Sustainability Monitoring Assessment RouTine (SMART) indicator tool. Alfred and Immo have written 5 blogs that show what the pair got up to during their field work which you can view below: International ResilienceCAWR researchers Luke Owen, Jahi Chappell and Sara Burbi presented at the ‘Resilience 2017: Resilience Frontiers for Global Sustainability’ conference which brought together leading resilience practitioners, academics, research students and artists to discuss resilience as a key lens for biosphere-based sustainability science. Sara Burbi presented her work titled ‘Pathways to resilience in small-scale farming - The case of England’. Jahi Chappell presented a thought-provoking paper titled 'Can We Successfully Be Ecological Without Being Deeply Social? (Answer: No)'. Luke Owen presented a poster on a co-authored working paper 'Reconnecting Communities to the Biosphere: Stewardship of urban biodiversity and food diversity through multicultural community growing initiatives in the West Midlands, UK'. Reflective pieces from the many discussions that took place over the three days can be found on the conference website and through the Twitter hashtags #Res2017 and #ResFrontiers. Congratulations!CAWR would like to congratulate two members of staff on their recent success at the University’s Academic Progression Panels; Michael Warne and Lopa Saxena. Michael is now a Professor of Ecotoxicology and Water Quality and Lopa is now a Research Associate. Michael is continuing to work on water quality guidelines for pesticides for Australia and New Zealand and recommendations for new pollutant reduction targets for the Great Barrier Reef as well as proposals for new projects. Lopa is currently working on issues around revival of millet farming and sustainable intensification of agriculture in India; and in the UK context on social supermarkets, austerity and food poverty. Her work will also continue on multicultural community food growing initiatives and their connection to urban biodiversity and food diversity. |