In the Chief Scientist’s Annual Review 2024, the Chief Scientist’s Group has said we need to change the way we think about the value and benefits of clean and plentiful water.
The yearly review, published by the Environment Agency, examines how science has supported the work of the Environment Agency to improve places across England for people and wildlife.
On the subject of new approaches to how we think about water, the review states:
“The environment can take a long time to change and for nature to recover, so it is imperative that we act swiftly and think about the future now.
“In this report, you will see how our work is addressing the changing quantity of water available to nature and society – too much and too little at different times of the year and in different places.
“We are researching the effects of the transition to net zero and the changing farming landscape on the water system. We continue to look at the movement and effects of chemicals in our surface and ground waters.
“And we are looking into the opportunities to work more closely with different parts of society and with nature-based solutions to maximise the co-benefits of improving water around the country.
“In the longer term, we are supporting the need to change the way we use the land in the next few decades to rebalance where the current demands on the environment, and the services it can provide, are outstripping supply.
“But the water environment is a complex system, characterised by multiple interconnections between components, processes, functions, uses and stakeholders.
“These interactions determine its behaviour, function and outcomes, and they need to be considered together. Our interventions won’t work to secure overall gains unless we work that way; that means water, land and biodiversity.
“But, further than that, when thinking about the future, a rule of thumb is that to look, for example, 75 years into the future, you need to look backwards twice as far to appreciate the scale of change that is possible.
“If we look ahead 75 years, we should consider what things were like 150 years ago, and that the UK didn’t have any environmental regulation then.”
The full Chief Scientist’s Annual Review 2024 can be found here.
