CATSCI · Early Stage Training in Catchment Science

Final Activity Report Summary - CATSCI (Early stage training in catchment science)

The 'Early stage training in catchment science' (CATSCI) project was developed in order to address the gaps in our understanding of the physical and bio-geochemical processes affecting water quality and quantity at the catchment scale, and the links between these processes and ecosystem structure and functioning. The implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) legislation requires management of water at the catchment scale to deliver good ecological quality, and a better understanding of the issues involved is vital for such management. The completion of CATSCI has advanced knowledge, and provided scientific underpinning for decision making. In order to do this, one catchment was chosen (River Don) which exhibited many of the questions that needed addressing. These included ecological quality problems, a waterway where groundwater was a significant contributor of flow, and where both rural and urban influences were important. CATSCI was planned with four work packages: WP1: hyporheic zone processes WP2: catchment scale analysis WP3: novel pollutants in catchment systems WP4: elucidating the link between chemical quality and ecological quality. The projects sat within these packages, but were linked to each other through the catchment and by direct collaboration between the researchers. The projects that were completed by the fellows have furthered our understanding of both physical and biogeochemical processes which affect water quality and quantity at the catchment scale. CATSCI has produced a set of young researchers who have developed skills that cut across the traditional discipline boundaries, and who will be well placed to develop their own research career or to take up appointments outside academia. Several firsts have occurred during the timescale of the CATSCI project. For example, the project has seen the first survey undertaken of hyporheic fauna in the Don Catchment, demonstrating an expansion of knowledge of distribution of subsurface fauna in the United Kingdom. There has been a comparison of benthic and hyporheic fauna distributions and how they concurrently respond to a major flood disturbance (following the Sheffield floods of June 2007). New approaches of assessing groundwater and surface water interactions have been developed, using novel bio-sensors. New models are being developed with particular emphasis on creating frameworks and tools to enable better decision making for river management: a fluvial geomorphological analysis at national scale has been carried out, based mainly on the River Habitat Survey dataset. Guidelines for future monitoring campaigns, and for novel methodologies of geomorphic river processes assessment for management needs have been produced as a result of this work. The social impacts of ecologically driven change were studied in one of the projects, giving a social science slant to complement the engineering and scientific views of catchment management. Two of the fellows were included in the Hyporheic Network (please see http://www.hyporheic.net online), a group aiming at disseminating knowledge and facilitate collaboration between groups in the academic or private sector dealing with stream and groundwater interactions. They were instrumental in the writing chapters of the Hyporheic Handbook, aiming at synthesising the latest research on GW/SW interactions for the science end-user community, by focusing on the United Kingdom context.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union