Climate change mitigation and adaptation – implications for inland waterways in England and Wales, April 2009
reduced summer precipitation, a hierarchy of measures is required. In the first instance, measures should be explored which aim to reduce the likelihood of low flow conditions affecting navigation and navigation-related activities and infrastructure. Other measures will then be needed to ensure that the implications for navigation of such events are minimised, and finally strategies will be required to manage such events when they arise. Finally, it is worth noting that measures to respond to climate change will need to be implemented taking into account recent changes in the statutory and regulatory framework including, amongst other things, with the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and the new licensing regime for water abstraction. .
7.2
Responding to low flow conditions
As with high flow events, monitoring, data collection and information management will be equally important in enabling navigation authorities to understand and respond appropriately to low flow conditions. Thus the measures discussed in Section 6.2 apply equally here. Installing or improving telemetry or SCADA systems, maintaining a long-term data base, using this information to set risk-based thresholds, and ensuring effective communication of warnings to users will also be important ‘no regrets’ measures in responding to the issues raised by reduced summer precipitation.
7.3
Strategic planning and management measures
In order to manage limited water resources effectively so as to reduce the likelihood of a low flow event occurring, a number of strategic planning and management initiatives will be required. These will necessarily involve both navigation authorities and a range of partner and stakeholder organisations.
Navigation authorities will need to make more use of the opportunities provided to enshrine relevant inland navigation’s water requirements in strategic initiatives being prepared at national level (for example, through Defra’s Future Water initiative, see http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/water/ strategy/) and regionally, in relevant regional spatial strategies and local plans, water industry plans, etc. Another potentially useful and certainly timely initiative, however, is the preparation of river basin management plans (RBMPs). Under the Water Framework Directive, these statutory plans are being prepared (2009) with the objective of delivering good (ecological and chemical) status via sustainable water management by 2015 (see Section 4.3). Climate change is becoming an increasingly important component of these river basin plans and it is anticipated that the second round plans (due in 2015) will include specific climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Given that other sectors are already making their needs and expectations clear, inland navigation authorities urgently need to engage fully in the preparation and review of these plans. Such engagement will enable the sector to raise awareness of the issues it faces, and to ensure that its requirements are acknowledged and adequately accommodated. Given the current climate change projections, it is conceivable that there will be considerable competition for water in future - for domestic, industrial and agricultural use, to ensure the dilution of sewage and to support environmental interests, as well as for navigation. In certain areas, careful planning to balance these multiple uses will become essential. There will therefore be considerable pressure on navigations authorities to ensure that their interests are considered as far as practicable and to manage their users’ expectations against a statutory framework which will influence the allocation of scarce water resources. 41