Project CAMELLIA: Solving the Problem of Severe Water Scarcity in London as Population Grows

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Project CAMELLIA: Solving the Problem of Severe Water Scarcity in London as Population Grows

Civil engineering experts from London’s top universities have said that the current level of growth means Londoners need to develop new strategies to save water, reports the Evening Standard.

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One of them is Adrian Butler , a professor at the Imperial College London who is leading the Community Water Management for a Liveable London (Camellia) project with a mission to solve how London’s water supply can be sustained in future.

“The concern of drought in London is a real one and will become more and more challenging as time goes on. The worry has always been relying on rain in winter when the water doesn’t evaporate as much as in summer. If you have a succession of dry winters, you are facing catastrophe in summer", he told the Evening Standard.

About the project

Community Water Management for a Liveable London (CAMELLIA) will bring together environmental, engineering, urban planning, socio-economic and organisational experts with institutional and industry stakeholders and citizens to co-develop a systems approach to urban water management, which will provide integrated solutions to enable required housing growth in London whilst sustainably managing water and environment in the city. The research is part of Natural Environment Research Council’s Regional Impact from Science of the Environment (RISE) initiative.

The aim of the five-year ‘Community water management for a liveable London (CAMELLIA)’ project is to bring together environmental, engineering, urban planning and socio-economic experts with governmental and planning authorities, industry, developers and citizens to co-develop solutions that will enable required housing growth in London whilst sustainably managing its water and environment. This aim will be addressed through the following 5 subsidiary objectives:

  1. Develop strategic partnerships with various stakeholder communities involved and affected by water management decisions;
  2. Work with partners to understand communal perceptions of the water system, challenges and common goals;
  3. Collaborate with stakeholders to collate, develop and integrate models to represent all the interacting components of the urban water cycle, thus underpinning joint modelling of the water environment;
  4. Develop system analysis tools so that model information can be translated into a common language facilitating informed dialogue, discussion and decisions between the various stakeholders, enabling them to reach agreed solutions to the challenging water management problems that face London;
  5. Demonstrate effectiveness of approach and accompanying tools through a set of four case studies: urban renewal (Thamesmead); housing development (Southwark); water infrastructure regeneration Mogden, W London); flood risk & water quality (Enfield). These will be up-scaled to produce London-wide models facilitating collaborative water management and decision making across the capital.

Learn more about the Camellia project on UCL.
Learn more about the project's funding on UK Research and Innovation.

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