Community Water Management for a Liveable London
Projects
CAMELLIA projects are developed in collaboration with stakeholders and address a range of water management challenges on different scales, from single rooftops to catchment watersheds.
They aim to:
-
Identify a problem
-
Create a joint vision
-
Provide accessible evidence
-
Develop new tools and methods
Exploring digital water publics
To understand public perceptions of water management in London and England.
Community Modelling in Enfield
Introducing a water quality model with a user-friendly interface that local stewardship groups can use to consider local interventions and explain water quality challenges to the wider community.
Water Data Explorer (WDE)
The WDE is an online portal for centralised spatial information about the water environment. It aims to empower communities to create and understand water quality data in order to influence decision-making and improve their local environment. The WDE also aims to improve the transparency of and accessibility to water management data held by institutions such as water utilities and environmental agencies to improve efficiency and stakeholder collaboration.
Water Futures - a teaching case study
The project aims to incorporate water science in London’s secondary school classrooms. We are working together with Thames21 and London’s teachers to co-design online learning tools to help with teaching students about water resources, water infrastructure, and the problems we will be facing in the future to maintain both.
Assessing the role of natural capital in a sustainable urban environment
Our work is helping improve understand on the role urban natural capital, including wetlands, parks and our many green spaces, plays in our society. This involves linking stakeholder knowledge with system dynamics modelling, building evidence which will allow our natural capital assets to be better designed, maintained and utilised, strengthening our resilience to adverse impacts of change.
Smart water tanks for rain harvesting and flood alleviation
Our low-cost, modular, Wi-Fi connected smart water tank acts as a buffer between water that hits a building’s roof and the sewage system. Models currently in development will allow the tank’s technology to predict heavy rainfall, remotely triggering its drainage and then using it as storage, thus also reducing domestic water consumption.
System Dynamics to capture perceptions and support decision making in Thamesmead
Using a System Dynamics approach, the project aims to identify and bring together stakeholders’ perspectives on issues affecting the area in development, and to model and analyse systemic interventions which would address those problems and lead to effective sustainable design.
Systems water management models for integrated water infrastructure planning and operation
We are modelling the wastewater, water supply and rivers of London at a citywide scale to demonstrate integrated water infrastructure planning. This will support Thames Water and the UK water industry by providing a blueprint for how infrastructure solutions can be made efficient through integrated planning and thus realising a future where the environment is placed central to water management.
Enfield Community Mapping
The project established what local environmental stewardship groups view as the most important water management issues in their area.
Haringey urban rivers restoration
Supporting Haringey Rivers Forum to engage local stakeholders in projects to restore lost rivers, including Moselle Brook and Stonebridge Brook, to identify funding opportunities for future river restoration projects, and to assist citizen science water quality monitoring programmes.
Walworth Community Garden Network (WCGN) watering impact
Supporting the WCGN’s ‘sustainable watering project’ by reviewing existing evidence and producing guidance for retrofitting water infrastructure to new and existing gardens and by developing a water impacts calculator for community garden planning and funding.
Kipling rooftop garden co-design, Southwark
Residents from the Kipling Estate, Southwark, worked with CAMELLIA researchers to co-design a garden that met their needs, fulfilled sustainability targets, and delivered additional benefits for local water management. The project also delivered a garden water calculator for the roof which was used to calculate the water requirements and layout of the garden.
Affiliated PhD projects
Infrastructure ecology framework for sustainable urban planning and water management
Student: Pepe Puchol-Salort
The project aims to develop an infrastructure ecology framework, which will explicitly link urban planning and building solutions with sustainable water management (Blue Green Infrastructure, water reuse and water efficiency) and urban micro climate (urban heat island mitigation and thermal comfort) at a range of urban scales.
Whole-water systems modelling for catchment scale decisions
Student: Leyang Liu
The project is to build a multi-level hierarchical whole water system with integration of environmental, economic and social aspects. Simulations and optimisations will be performed to investigate the interaction between human-nature systems and gain insights for water resources management towards a sustainable future.
Urban Green hydrological performance and impacts on flood retention sustainability under climate change
Student: Ziyan Zhang
Firstly, the focus will be on the hydrological performance of generalised urban raingardens and urban parks. Then the simulation work will be performed for the planned urban canyon in Thamesmead and eventually for the entire London region.
Governance system interactions
Student: Ariel Shepherd
A comparative research between 3 boroughs in London using an exploratory research approach to analyse the relationship between local authorities and multiple- stakeholders to better understand how flood risk management policy functions in practice. This research will provide a more accurate understanding of governance change in general, as well as more added value to resilience thinking.
Incentive Mechanism of Community Engagement in Urban Rainwater Management in London
Student: Yuhong Wang
Focussing on national and local government, community groups, developers, and citizens, the project will help engage with the public and clarify the communal perceptions, goals and approach to rainwater use, building a bottom-up rainwater management system using systems thinking. Physical (e.g. water quality and water reuse) and social (e.g. community awareness) co-benefits will be assessed.
The role of open water bodies on water quality and quantity through the wider water cycle
Student: Fangjun Peng
This PhD project will develop representation of open water bodies (OWBs) in the systems ‘City/CatchWat’ models to facilitate a generalisable and integrated view of OWBs as part of the water cycle. The research project will also represent the interaction between quality and quantity of water in OWBs with biodiversity and leveraging this representation to design interventions to biodiversity improvement.