This event is the 18th webinar of the MERLIN Academy as part of the project MERLIN, the EU-funded project which aims to mainstream freshwater restoration through the concept of Nature-based solutions.
Featured guest speaker Chris Spray (University of Dundee) will present on the Eddleston Water project (Scotland). The presentation will cover the challenges and results from the project. Begun with a scoping study in 2010, this is Scottish Government’s long-running empirical study of the effectiveness of using natural flood management (NFM) measures at a landscape scale to reduce flood risk and enhance riparian ecology. In addition to detailed hydrological and ecological monitoring, emerging information on environmental economics and the cost/benefits of utilising an NFM approach will be discussed.
More on the speaker: Chris Spray is currently Tweed Forum’s Eddleston Water Science Manager. He was formerly Director of Environmental Science for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and is Emeritus Professor of water science and policy at the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee, where his research and teaching focusses on freshwater ecosystems, river restoration and science into policy. A founding member of the UK River Restoration Centre and a past chair of the Freshwater Biological Association, Chris currently holds two Ministerial appointments on the Board of the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, and on Environmental Standards Scotland.