Tagged / Green Economy

BU team investigate water quality at Poole Park

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

 

A new project to investigate and monitor water quality at Poole Park is being carried out by a team from Bournemouth University.

The work will be completed by Bournemouth University Global Environment Solutions (BUG), after Poole Park was successful in the first stage bid to receive a £2.9 million Heritage Lottery Fund for improvements.

The main boating lake in Poole Park has experienced issues over recent years, with swarms of midges and large amounts of unpleasant weed. The BUG team has already launched an intensive 12 month study to monitor the quality of water entering the lake.

Additional surveys of the ecology of the lake, including fish and other creatures, are also planned. The weekly water quality monitoring programme will help form an understanding of factors which cause the current problems and allow the team to identify a range of management options to enhance the general health of the lake. In addition to the boating lake, the study will also extend to the two smaller freshwater ponds to examine scope for further improvements.

Adrian Pinder, Director of BUG, said:

 “What many people don’t realise is the boating lake originally formed part of Poole Harbour and would have been refreshed with sea water on every tide. “With water exchanges with the harbour now controlled by sluice gates we need to overcome a number of challenges to manage the lake to its best potential.

“We are delighted to be working with Borough of Poole and all stakeholders to provide sustainable improvements to the Park’s water features.” 

Councillor Xena Dion, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for a Prosperous and Sustainable Poole, Borough of Poole, said: “Poole Park is a wonderful and highly valued facility, but as people will know there have been considerable problems in recent years with rather unpleasant smells from decaying weed and huge swarms of midges during the summer months.

“To try and tackle the problems we have tried a programme of lake flushing, dye applications and barley straw – all of which have had some degree of success.

“We are delighted that through the Heritage Lottery Fund we are able to bring on board a team of experts from Bournemouth University to help find more effective and long term solutions.”

BUG is currently one of a number of projects funded through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), co-ordinated through R&KEO.

 

The Wessex Forum Event to be held at BU – – discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region

BU research, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

Date: Wednesday 11 February

Location: Bournemouth University – Executive Business Centre

Time: Starting at 9.30am (all day event)

Event details:

The Wessex Conservation Forum aims to bring together representatives from NGOs, Universities and Government bodies for a free one day conference discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region. The services which nature provides us with, such as clean water, clean air, fertile soil and food, are not only crucial for the well-being of human-kind, they also represent an astronomical value. It has been estimated by economists that the loss of biodiversity was costing the EU €450 billion annually, equal to 3% of GDP. Hence, halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is now a UK and EU priority for 2020.

Confirmed speakers include representatives from organisations such as: the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the Freshwater Biological Association, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, the Dorset Local Nature Partnership, Wessex Water and the Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City Partnership. The conference will be centred around a series of talks in order to showcase research output, identify areas for further research and promote collaboration in order to fulfil these needs.

A complimentary lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day, and there will be plenty of opportunities to make and renew contacts throughout the day.

To book: This event is popular and places are limited.  Click here to register for your free place.

More information: We hope to see you at this event but if you are unable to attend and  want to find out more about the work that BU is involved in why not sign up to receive more information. The Wessex Portal (formerly the Poole & Purbeck Portal  has been developed with the assistance of  funding from the Higher Edication Innovation Fund – HEIF)  as an  online community to promote a better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.

Click here to  sign up to receive more information on jobs,  general news and projects taking place as part of this initiative.

Find out about the Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy research theme

Research themes

Staff and students have been extremely but successfully busy undertaking policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research science aimed at: increasing understanding of environmental change and its impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems services, the physical environment and human livelihoods, evaluating environmental management options and policy responses, developing sustainable solutions to enhance environmental conditions and human wellbeing.

Research into the green economy has included carbon storage and management, renewable energy, green tourism, sustainable design, leadership of sustainable development, and the linkages between the environment and the economy. 

Our research continues to be internationally recognized, as demonstrated in publications in leading journals like Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ISME Journal (Nature’s Group), Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B, PLoS, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Quaternary Science Reviews, and Journal of Human Evolution, amongst many others. We recently launched a globally unique Masters degree in the Green Economy, which is delivered by distance learning.  Fish Ecology was defined as a world leader by SCOPUS citation rankings in 2012.

PhD student numbers have increased by 200% since 2007 due to our success at attracting external funding for BU’s novel match-funded PhD programme, and increased success at winning externally funded PhD studentships.

Our contribution to the Festival of Learning was substantial – we organised 16 events and activities, all of them well attended and enjoyed by attendees. This included a series of events to commemorate the centenary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace. As the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution with Charles Darwin, as well as founding the discipline of biogeography, Wallace has left a substantial scientific legacy. A wildlife walk was held culminating in a visit to the monument marking Wallace’s final resting place. One suspects that Wallace himself would have enjoyed the wildlife walk most of all, complete with encounters with snakes, beautiful butterflies and remarkable slaver ants – all elements of Dorset’s wonderful biodiversity.  Wallace 100 Celebration does not end here! A forthcoming event will take place on 12th of October in partnership with Thomas Hardye School (Dorchester).

The Poole & Purbeck Portal successfully launched in March this year, funded by Fusion. The portal is an on-line community to promote better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.  Exciting opportunities, knowledge and expertise are shared on the Portal, creating a gateway for new collaborations across the region.  We invite you to join us by registering your interest on http://www.pooleandpurbeckportal.co.uk/

Dr Genoveva Esteban

School of Applied Sciences

 

Sign up to the Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy research themes here:

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    September’s Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy Research Theme Seminar- Monday 23rd Sept

    After a short summer hiatus the research theme seminars are back.  This month I am pleased to present something a little different.

    We will be joined by some of the ‘Black Fish’ team as they pass through Bournemouth on their UK speaking tour. “The Black Fish is an international marine conservation movement on a mission to end the industrial overfishing of our oceans. Through investigation and action they work to expose and challenge illegal and destructive fishing practices”.

    For more information see their website http://theblackfish.org/

    Environmental activism is a step away from our daily academic lives so please come along and join the debate!

    Date: Monday 23rd September; Room: K103; Time:  11am – 1pm

    Want to help direct the topic of future EC funding? Then get involved in consultations

    EU

    The European Commission has recently launched various consultations on a range of topics including policy options to safeguard Europe’s waters; interoperability of digital products and services state aid for films and other audiovisual work; protecting the EU’s financial interest and enhancing prosecutions; financial support for energy efficiency in buildings; and on gender imbalance in corporate boards.
    The Consultation on Environment Policy Priorities for 2020, Consultation on Future Network Technologies and Consultation on Blue Growth – Sustainable Growth from the Oceans, Seas and Coasts are all directly related to deciding funding priorities for Horizon 2020. 

    This is your chance to get involved and start shaping the future of EU funded research. Have a look on the Your Voice website and get your voice heard.

    21 Issues for the 21st century- UNEP asserts that Skills and Education are Critical

    The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently completed their Foresight Process,

    led by 22 distinguished members of the scientific community and involving more than

    400 leading scientists and experts from around the world with the aim of  identifying and ranking the most pressing emerging environmental issues

    for the 21st Century. The highest ranking priority was to overhaul global environmental governance to meet 21st Century challenges.

    The Second was:

    Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21 Century – upskilling the global workforce for a Green Economy.

    Good news for those working in the area of SD and Green Economy .

    Number 4  ‘social tipping points’  poses the question that for me is fundamental – how do we catalyse human behaviour change?

     

    the report is available at

    http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/foresightreport/

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    st

     

     

     

     

     

    Century: Meeting Global Environmental Challenges and

     

    Moving Towards a Green Economy

     

    re-tooling

    the global work force for a Green Economy

     

     

     

    – and this from a list of over 90 issues.

    As Bill Scott said in his blog

     

     

    1

    :

     

     

    “…good news for social scientists everywhere that governance, human

     

    capability, the green economy, etc, feature so prominently.”

     

    Find the Foresight Report at:

     

     

    http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/foresightreport

     

     

    View Keynote Speeches from the FSBI 2011 conference

    BU research

    The Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) 2011 Annual International Conference took place at BU in July last year.

    The week-long event organised by the FSBI and BU focused on the damage being done to aquatic ecosystems and fish communities, and discussed how scientific evidence could be used to benefit the world’s fisheries.

    The conference attracted many esteemed Scientists from a total of 22 countries who presented their research over five days.

    Four of the keynote speeches, as well as an overview of the conference, can be seen below.

    An overview of the Fish Diversity and Conservation: Current State of Knowledge

    Julian Olden (University of Washington) – Invasive Species and Alternative Global Futures for Freshwater Ecosystems

    Ya-hui Zhaoyh (Chinese Academy of Science) – Out of Sight Out of Mind: Current Knowledge on Chinese Cave Fish

    David Dudgeon – Asian River Fishes in the Anthropecene – Conservation Challenges in an era of Rapid Environmental Change

    Steve Railsback – Behaviour in Fish Conservation Models: Getting From “why” to “how”

    Paul Skelton – Walking the Tightrope: Trends in African Freshwater Systematic Ichthyology