Water abstraction and river regulation
Environmental assessment, monitoring, analysis, options appraisal, strategy, reporting and stakeholder engagement for abstraction licensing and reservoir operation
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To disseminate and promote the Environment Agency’s new Hydro-Ecology Toolkit, APEM developed and delivered two bespoke training workshops for hydro-ecologists in water companies, regulators, universities and consultancies.
The Hydro-Ecology Toolkit is an open-source R package for assembling, processing, visualising and analysing hydro-ecological data. Developed by APEM for the Environment Agency, the Toolkit speeds up and standardises the process of developing predictive hydro-ecological models, which can be used to support sustainable abstraction and reservoir management assess the environmental effects of abstraction licences and evaluate the benefits of river restoration projects.
Two online training workshops showcasing the benefits and capabilities of the Hydro-Ecology Toolkit were delivered to over 50 delegates by Dr Andy Davey (APEM) and Dr Mike Dunbar (Environment Agency) in March 2023.
Workshop 1 – An Introduction to the HE Toolkit – is aimed at hydro-ecologists who have some basic experience with the R software package and wish to analyse open-source environmental monitoring data. The training covers:
Workshop 2 – An Introduction to Hydro-ecological Modelling using the HE Toolkit – is aimed at more experienced data analysists who are interested in developing statistical models for understanding and predicting ecological responses to changes in river flow. Building on Workshop 1, it covers:
To provide an opportunity to gain hands-on experience of using the Hydro-Ecology Toolkit, each workshop is accompanied by example datasets and sample R scripts, which illustrate all the functions described in the training videos. To access these resources, register for a free Posit (RStudio) Cloud account and then follow the links below. Full instructions are provided in the introductory videos to each workshop.
Environmental assessment, monitoring, analysis, options appraisal, strategy, reporting and stakeholder engagement for abstraction licensing and reservoir operation
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APEM’s team of hydrologists and hydroecologists have extensive experience in developing and reviewing environmental assessments for abstraction licences.
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Specialist advice on river restoration and habitat improvement projects. The APEM team will also evaluate the effectiveness of completed works.
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