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Managing drought: an increasing threat on the horizon
APEM have supported the UK & Ireland’s water companies for many years and are widely acknowledged as setting the industry standard. With extensive experience of delivering environmental assessment and monitoring requirements, we’re proud to assist with their drought plans.
Our Environmental Assessment Reports (EARs), Environmental Monitoring Plans (EMPs) and mitigation plans have been acknowledged by the Environment Agency as setting the standard across the industry.
APEM offer a complete package of strategic thinking, environmental assessment, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, mitigation analysis and reporting when it comes to drought plans.
We deliver detailed Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRAs) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEAs), produced by our team of dedicated consultants, field scientists and in-house laboratories.
With our track record of more than 30 successfully delivered drought permit/order EARs and EMPs between 2010 and 2020, our clients have confidence in our reliability, expertise and experience.
Our clients include large water companies such as Bristol Water, Severn Trent Water, United Utilities, South Staffs Water, Yorkshire Water, South West Water and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.
We take a risk-based approach advocated by the latest guidance from Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and CIEEM, in addition to the specific requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
As well as delivering drought plan EARs, EMPs and mitigation plans for water companies, we work closely with environmental regulators to continually improve the tools and guidelines for drought plan monitoring, assessment and reporting.
In 2020, APEM developed a new web-based hydro-ecological model for the Environment Agency, which allows water companies to predict the effects of drought permits/orders on downstream macroinvertebrate communities. Subsequently, APEM have also produced a toolkit to facilitate the development of bespoke hydro-ecological models for use in impact assessment and options appraisal studies.
The team at APEM would be happy to answer any questions you have. Please use the form below to get in touch.
Read one of APEM’s blogs, news articles or case studies to find out more.
Drought is an ever-present threat on the horizon in the UK and potentially for Ireland we look at the challenges and explore how to manage drought
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