A Review of Approaches for Determing the Environmental Water Need

Tender description

The aim of the project is to provide evidence that informs policy development required to meet Defra’s stated objective in the 25 Year Environment Plan of providing “clean and plentiful water”. The overarching research question is: how can we calculate how much water and what quality water the environment needs (both surface and groundwater)? The objectives of the project are to: • Undertake a review of what is known about the correlation between water resources and the state of the environment • Identify the risks to/impact on the environment of insufficient water • Identify the different potential approaches and explore their effectiveness, including the Ecological Flow Indicator (EFI) • Review the potential impact of climate change scenarios • Provide recommendations on new approaches that could be used to balance societal and environmental demand • Engage with stakeholders to test the acceptability of these above new approaches