Few issues relating to water and catchments are so simple that one person can make a decision about them. In most cases, a number of individual stakeholders or groups wish to be involved in the decision making process, so we need to find a way of impartially providing information to everyone to allow them to make the most informed choices and decisions they can.

In some instances, the stakeholders are brought together because of a legislative requirement, and they are the competent authority or have special responsibility for a specific issue. In other cases, small groups or communities are interested in working with other partners to carry out restoration or improvement work, and look to us for advice and guidance.

An example of where we help to inform by providing sound scientific evidence on issues is in the Lunan Monitored Priority Catchment (MPC) project run by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency with the aim of monitoring water quality within the catchment, and helping farmers and other groups to adopt management practices to mitigate the effects of pollution. We work with the Scottish Agricultural College on their Environment Focus Farms project, where farmers share their knowledge and best practice.

A community-led project on improving water quality is the Tarland Catchment Initiative.

We organise and host meetings of the Catchment Research Consultative Group (CRCG), members of whom are drawn from NGOs, public bodies and other research providers, and whose role is to raise awareness of water related research, promote sharing of knowledge and data, and identify areas of potential synergy between the public and private sectors.

We are responsible for co-ordinating submissions to UK-ADAPT, a clearing house of information on projects relating to waters and diffuse pollution, which is sponsored by the Scottish Government, the Environment Agency, DEFRA, ADAS and representatives of the UK Water industry.

We are currently working with the Esk Fisheries Trust to train ghillies in riparian survey techniques.

We have recently hosted a workshop for catchment management plan coordinators. We hope to use this as a basis for creating a template for catchment management plans, to create a network for project officers to share knowledge and resources, and to provide a forum for discussion of issues surrounding the development, implementation and monitoring of catchment management initiatives.

Our staff are a regular part of the Macaulay’s seminar series, as well as hosting visitors and giving internal talks. If you would like to come and share your own research on water or catchment science with us, let us know!

If you would like to know more about our work with stakeholders, please contact Malcolm Coull, and to see some of the recent papers written by members of the group, go to our publications page.