The call for expressions of interest for the EPSRC Sandpit focused on Innovative Solutions to Flood Risk, which I brought to your attention a couple of weeks ago, has now been announced!
Introduction
Natural environmental hazards, and flooding in particular, have been cited by the National Security Review as one of the key risks facing the UK.
A range of studies have examined future flood risk. Generally these have indicated that risk, both in the UK and globally, is likely to increase in the future in the face of both climate change and socio-economic pressures. The potential societal impacts and economic damages from flood risk are therefore significant.
Given that at least 6 million properties in the UK are at risk of flooding, addressing flooding in terms of prevention and mitigation with due regard for the economic and social costs is a high priority.
The Living with Environmental Change programme (LWEC), a cross-government funding partnership for Environmental Change research, has recently developed a research strategy for Flooding and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM). The report is available on the LWEC website:
UK Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research Strategy (PDF 2.65MB)
In response to the recommendations of the report and in line with EPSRC strategy on water the Engineering and LWEC Themes are planning a Sandpit directed at developing creative and novel research projects to answer some of the challenges identified in the report.
The Research Challenge
The challenge identified for the sandpit is Innovative Solutions to Flood Risk.
Thinking at the Sandpit is expected to span the basic to applied end of the research spectrum identified in the LWEC report and is expected to represent a broad range of disciplines.The scope of the Sandpit will address the three Risk Themes identified in the report:
- Understanding Risk
- Managing Probablility
- Managing Consequence
It is not expected that these themes will operate in isolation as there are many issues which may be seen to cut across these themes. The Sandpit intends to explore the engineering and physical science aspects of these key areas whilst recognising that this is a multidisciplinary area. Potential research questions might address:
- Data and observations and their use in multi-scale multi-user modelling
- Asset resilience, design and whole life management
- Resilience of critical infrastructure to flood risk events
Achieving the Sandpit objective will require the participation of leading researchers from a broad range of disciplines. Participants whould be able to apply their knowledge, skills and experience across discipline areas to develop innovative research with the potential to deliver practical solutions to the challenges around flood risk.
For more information and to download the application form please visit the call page on the EPSRC website.