Biosecurity course goes live – reducing the spread of Invasive Non Native Species

Pictured: Himalayan Balsam Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) are any non native animal or plants and they can cause significant damage to our environment. They affect the quality of freshwater, including water in our rivers, can clog up water systems and increase flood risk. Rather than focusing on treating INNS – prevention needs to be … Read more

Lucy Woods

Meet Lucy Woods, our administrator and primary point of contact for iCASP. She will be supporting us with a wide variety of tasks including procurement, helping to manage our finances, responding to queries, supporting and organising events and meetings and maintaining our databases. Her previous role was in communications and administration at the Analytics Doctoral … Read more

Could Meanwood Valley Farm be an ideal site to capture our imagination for what’s possible with Sustainable Drainage Systems? (SuDS)

Pictured: Participants take a tour of the Meanwood Valley Farm Members of West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WYFLIP) are currently exploring using Meanwood Valley Farm as a potential case study to demonstrate the many benefits of blue green infrastructure. Board member Vanessa Allen, principal engineer at Leeds City Council and Dr Sam Ramsden, impact translation … Read more

Anyone for a slice of Blanket Bog cake?

Antony (pictured) with his blanket bog cake More than a million tonnes of carbon are stored in Marsden Moor, in West Yorkshire – and the peatlands can  hold the equivalent annual emissions released by one million cars. These were findings of a four year study by Dr Antony Blundell, Senior Researcher and Martin Gilpin, Senior … Read more

Filming peatlands in the Great North Bog

Pictured: Andrew Walker from Yorkshire Water being filmed by Dan Waters from Adarak at Peat Moss A group of peatland enthusiasts took time out from their working day to join us making a video about vital restoration work which has transformed Fleet Moss and Nethergill. We were lucky as it was a beautiful sunny day … Read more

A network of digital sensors would be an ‘absolute dream’ for emergency planners during a flood incident – Mick Devine and Amy Boyd at Wakefield Council explain why.

Pictured: Flooding incident at Barnsdale Road Around 6,600 homes in the Wakefield district are permanently at risk of flooding from sudden storms. It’s actually surface water flooding that poses a bigger threat to the area than rising river levels as parts of the district’s drainage system could easily be overwhelmed by heavy rain. This is … Read more

SCRIMP – Skills Capacity and Resilience Improvement Programme (WYFLIP)

Relevance There is a critical capacity and skills gap risk to the delivery of flood reduction and resilience benefits in the region. At the same time there are new demands from the  Flood and Water Management Act Schedule including a requirement for green skills associated with climate resilience and readiness. Before SCRIMP, there were two Yorkshire wide … Read more

Tenderbog – caring for our peatlands

Pictured: – Visit to Fleet Moss, photo by Laura Harrington Laura Harrington and Feral Practice (Fiona MacDonald), the UK Artists in Residence for WaterLANDS, have been busy during their first year exploring the Great North Bog – the UK Action Site which is a network of peatlands in Northern England – and getting to know … Read more

How art and science can progress urgent peatland conversations – reflections by WaterLANDSUK engagement lead Josh Cohen

Pictured: Listening event – photo by Laura Harrington Last weekend (Saturday 17 February) Laura Harrington took part in a peat coring and ‘listening walk’ event with Durham Wildlife Trust, site lead Rebecca Clarke, sound artist Tim Shaw, Dr Antony Blundell from University of Leeds and Josh Cohen at St Cuthbert’s Moor Nature Reserve in Durham. … Read more

A cash boost to improve skills & capacity to reduce flood risk

Photo by ALTERED SNAPS Leaders of the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (WY FLIP) have successfully secured almost £300,000 to help make the region more resilient by boosting the skills and capacity of those who manage flood risk. They have been awarded £286,293 in levy funding from  Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee  (YRFCC)  to … Read more