Reconciling Visions for Sustainable Ecosystems

This will protect freshwater resources from heat in the summer. The Scottish government has planted 200,000 trees next to rivers to protect wild atlantic salmons, and plans to plant a million trees by 2035. Other countries can adopt this as well.

Presented by: Professor David Hannah, Professor of Hydrology, University of Birmingham

Where to plant trees

Human activities like channelisation, dam constructions, and land cover and management have debilitating effects on rivers. There is therefore need to find a balance between meeting human needs and compromising rivers.

Presented by: Professor Angela Gurnell, Professor of Physical Geography, Queen Mary, University of London

Decisions and ecosystem services 

For land cover and management issues, sustainable agricultural practices like crop rotation, irrigation, agriforestry, contour ploughing/strips should be practised.

Promoting Soil Management

For channelisation, rivers should be allowed to move laterally, and build/interact with floodplains. This can be done by either removing all bank protection, and filling over deep channels to allow floodplain builing, or, where channelisation is compulsory, then set back protection measures like embankments, should be constructed as far as possible. This will provide space for river floodplain functioning.

Healthy Floodplains

Dams disrupt the flow and sediment regimes of rivers. To manage flow regimes, water should be released downstream for the benefit of humans and organisms living in the water. To manage sediment disruptions, dams should be located and designed to support downstream transfer of sediments.

The Natural Sediment Regime 

There is a huge micro-plastic concentration in rivers globally, due to poor waste management mechanisms. These micro-plastics are mostly concentrated upstream of reservoirs, which then deposit them in river sediments. Proper waste management, as well as managing flow and sediments of rivers will impact distribution of micro-plastic in rivers.

Presented by: Professor Stefan Krause, Professor of Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry, University of Birmingham

Micro-plastic concentration and river waste management

At the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, under the BiFOR-FACE project, experiments are ongoing into the role of mature trees in forests in curbing carbon emissions through carbon uptake and storage. The 10-year project, which started in 2017, will provide evidence on Earth Systems Models for refining carbon and nutrient budget estimates. Similar projects, as well as funding to support such projects, are needed.

Presented by: Professor Sami Ullah, Professor of Biogeochemistry, University of Birmingham

HOW TREES FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE