Relevance
Catchments and their river systems are by definition spatial and the interaction between geographical patterns of topography, climate, land use, settlement, infrastructure etc. will dictate what is and isn’t possible as regards policy and management responses to problems of flood, water quality, etc. within a catchment.
Policy and management actions often require trade-offs be established and realised to satisfy multiple demands on land and water throughout a catchment at multiple spatial scales and across multiple stakeholders, often involving conflicting interests. Geographic Information Based (GIS) -based Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) tools can be used to map and better understand where such trade-offs are required.
Aim
The aim of this Work Package is to develop a desk-based GIS-MCE demonstration tool for the identification of spatial conflicts in catchment planning and management.
Activities
We will:
- Undertake a catchment-wide inventory of relevant spatial datasets including topography, land use, human settlement and infrastructure
- Use these data to derive spatial models of relevant factors and constraints
- Use example weights and priorities derived from Work Package 5 to identify spatial patterns in trade-offs between stakeholder groups and communities in the Aire and Calder catchment
- Explore the need and demand for wed-based decision support tools utilising Web2.0 interfaces and existing research tools (e.g. WEIGHTER)
Team
Project leads – Dr Steve Carver, Professor Pippa Chapman, Dr Cat Scott, and Professor Joseph Holden, University of Leeds
Impact translation fellow – Dr Stephanie Bond, University of Leeds