Successful artists chosen for a European project to help capture the importance of restoring peatland

Two artists have been employed as part of an ambitious European project to help share the journey of restoring peatlands at a site covering large areas in the north of England. Laura Harrington and Fiona MacDonald (Feral Practice) were selected from around 200 applicants to work with a team leading the Great North Bog initiative … Read more

Over £300k earmarked for research to make West Yorkshire more resilient to flooding and climate change

Thousands of pounds of Government funding is being invested in West Yorkshire to develop new research projects to help make the region more resilient to flooding and the impacts of climate change. The West Yorkshire Flood Resilience Programme (WY FLIP) has received £310,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will … Read more

Monitoring sediment and water quality on the River Skell

iCASP and the SORBY fluid dynamics lab at the University of Leeds have been commissioned, as part of the Skell Valley Project, to monitor fine sediments and water quality on a stretch of the River Skell. We are working with the National Trust to understand where sediment is sourced from, and how natural flood management … Read more

Plans for a new digital solution to give early flood warnings  

Plans are underway to create a network of sensors across West Yorkshire to give people earlier warnings about the risk of surface water flooding. Board membersfromWest Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme have successfully bid for £97,000 from the Discovery Phase of round six of the Local Digital Fund to test whether using smart technology for such a … Read more

Humble hedgerow have their part to play in mitigating climate change

A new hedgerow standard has been announced as part of Defra Secretary Therese Coffey’s upgraded Sustain­able Farming Incentive package for 2023. Professor Pippa Chapman, expert in soil and biogeo­chemistry, Dr Sofia Biffi, Dr Richard Grayson and Prof Guy Ziv, at the University of Leeds, have written a study –Soil carbon sequestration potential of planting hedgerows … Read more

West Yorkshire communities at risk of flooding gain £187k to become more resilient

Press Release More homes at risk of flooding throughout West Yorkshire will become more resilient thanks to a successful Local Levy bid for £187,000. Partners from five local authorities and the Environment Agency joined forces as part of the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WY FLIP) to secure the funds for their project focused on … Read more

Cool iCASP news – Winter 2023

Welcome to the winter edition of our quarterly news bulletin. In this issue we have news of our work with our partners to tackle resilience to flooding due to climate change, currently flood alerts and warnings are being issued across Yorkshire. It is good news that the Government recently announced that sustainable drainage systems will be mandatory to new developments to help … Read more

New recruits help climate-proof University of Leeds

Two new climate change resilience officers – Juliet de Little and Julie Mair – have joined the iCASP team to undertake a crucial task for the University of Leeds. Their role for the next six months is to conduct a Climate Change Risk Assessment and Resilience Review to identify the climate risks posed to the … Read more

New Standards to address greenwashing in carbon farming

Urgently needed report could be pivotal in preventing greenwashing in farm soil carbon projects Environment Agency funded consortium lays out minimum requirements for UK soil carbon projects  Requirements should unlock investment for farmers and support a scalable, high-integrity market for farm soil carbon  The prospect of a scalable, high-integrity market for farm soil carbon took an important … Read more

Tackling the challenges of surface water flooding

It was a perfect day on Thursday 17 November to be discussing how new surface water flood forecasts could help support resilient decision making.  The heavy rain was a timely reminder of the challenges surface water flooding brings and we had a fantastic turnout at the University of Leeds for our joint workshop with the … Read more