Led by Prof Dave Hodgson, Deputy Director of iCASP
Participants brainstorming integrated water strategies during the iCASP workshop.
Summary
The group explored integrated water innovation through multiple interconnected lenses, highlighting the need to manage trade-offs, create shared policies, secure green finance and treat water as a fundamental right. There was a strong emphasis on addressing species conflicts in restoration projects, aligning nature-based solutions (NbS) with multiple policy drivers and embedding equity into access and land engagement. Other key themes included upscaling benefits tracking through tools like a “benefits matrix,” and resolving data and regulatory gaps that hinder joined-up action.
Key Discussion Themes
- Address species conflicts in NbS and restoration, especially in conservation
- Use a Benefits Matrix to quantify and communicate the outcomes of projects
- Link NbS to multiple water-related drivers (for example, flood risk, water resource protection)
- Highlight overlaps between NFM and sectors like health and biodiversity
- Create shared tools for water plans at town/city/catchment levels
- Collaborate across authorities, stakeholders and government bodies
- Standardise SuDS and water separation policies
- Align evidence collection for risk regulation
- Advocate for water and nature as rights
- Enable compulsory purchase of 20m buffer zones around water bodies
- Reform land access for restoration projects
- Explore non-governmental funding
- Use platforms like Nature North for private investment
- Promote innovation in natural capital accounting
- Address advisor fatigue and inconsistent communication
- Develop unified engagement strategies
- Clarify landowner roles in climate/biodiversity/social goals
- Resolve skills shortages in SuDS, NFM, mobility, green/blue infrastructure
- Embrace machine learning for predictive modelling
- Acknowledge the human-nature disconnect in policy
- Strengthen project management and funding alignment
What can we do now, and in the future, to facilitate this innovation?
To unlock the full potential of integrated water innovation, the group emphasised the need to create a shared vision backed by action. This includes immediate efforts to connect existing initiatives and ensure accountability across scales, from local to regional. In the longer term, innovation depends on better regulation, citizen involvement in decision-making, and the integration of overlooked ecological actors (like beavers). A vibrant water sector ecosystem will also require resource mapping, regional planning alignment, and inclusive participation models to deliver environmental and social sustainability.
Key Action Points by Sub-Question
- Capture existing good practices and scale them across the region
- Seize current windows of opportunity (for example, policy cycles)
- Make annual River Basin Management Plans more accountable and representative
- Align water planning with Local Nature Recovery Strategies
- Strengthen regulatory coherence and integrate long-term thinking into Asset Management Plan cycles
- Ensure regional coordination of stakeholder feedback and spatial development
- Bring in businesses and unusual stakeholders (like citizen juries) into water governance
- Create resource libraries to share best practices
- Leverage emerging opportunities (for example, nature workforce, water-energy nexus).
- Consider the ecological role of beavers in landscape management