NERC water risk workshop

3Keel worked with the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), WWF UK, Marks & Spencer and WaterAid to plan and run a one-day workshop that brought together more than 40 leading academics and researchers. The aim of the event was to better understand the freshwater resource and risk data needs and challenges of food businesses, NGOs and policy-makers.

3Keel created a highly interactive workshop format to maximize the potential for knowledge exchange and collaboration. We also worked with the client to select a range of speakers with expertise in hydrological and meteorological data collection, satellite remote sensing applications, citizen science approaches to local data collection, freshwater data platforms and freshwater data integration.

The workshop helped to identify existing data sets, sources, models and platforms; where data gaps existed and how they could be filled; how different data gathering approaches could be combined to create new insights and improve data quality for decision-makers; and the priority data needs of the food chain, environmental and social NGOs and policymakers – and how they could be met.

The outputs from the workshop were used to inform the scope and content of a subsequent NERC research call, brainstorm initial project ideas and form collaborative research partnerships to respond to the NERC call.

The workshop video is available online: https://vimeo.com/user11474039/review/159762063/ce74a480bb

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Photo credit: World Resources Institute Water Risk map http://www.wri.org/resources/maps/aqueduct-water-risk-atlas