NEWS

CIWEM CELEBRATES

On 19 May 400 guests, including politicians, senior environmentalists, environmental artists, consultants and contractors joined CIWEM for the 2011 Annual Dinner.

Addressing the room, guest speaker Richard Ottaway MP and member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Population, warned that population is the root cause of many of the world's problems.  He said that if we do not rise to the challenge, the consequences will reverberate for generations to come.

The evening was used as a rallying cry for the audience to address this sensitive political and ideological issue, which exacerbates poverty, hinders development, affects migration, influences job prospects and limits food, water and health security for millions of people worldwide. Ottaway urged the audience to show leadership, so it was appropriate that CIWEM's award winners then showed how a variety of projects from the environmental and cultural sectors can have a profound difference on our impacts and responses to the environment.

There to collect CIWEM's World of Difference Award, sponsored by Black & Veatch, was Kenny Naylor from Scottish Water for the Glencorse Water Project. In its ninth year of sponsorship by engineering, consulting and construction company, Black & Veatch, CIWEM's World of Difference Award rewards the leading proponents of the practical application of innovative science and engineering for sustainable development.

Glencorse Water Treatment Works, which supplies nearly 50,000 residents in Edinburgh, has adopted an innovative treatment solution that allows a simple low energy process to be fed by gravity from raw water reservoirs 25 miles away in the Scottish Borders. As well as hosting the world's first mobile pipe production plant, Glencorse is also home to Scotland's largest green roof, an efficient new water treatment process and a new hydro-electric turbine. With allowances for at least 25 years of future growth, Glencorse WTW will increase the availability of water within the distribution network allowing additional housing and businesses to be built in the capital.

Careful planning and re-routing of the new water pipelines took place in order to avoid badger and otter sites, whilst locally sourced building materials and a sustainable drainage system ensured an environmentally sensitive design. The location of the mobile pipe production plant immediately adjacent to the pipeline route allowed pipes to be hauled directly to the pipeline working area, negating the need to use public highways. The result was a 75 percent reduction in lorry journeys and a reduction of 1,530 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The main process requirement for Glencorse was for a flocculation stage and a rapid gravity filtration stage. This presented an opportunity to incorporate a Counter Current Dissolved Air Flotation Filtration (COCODAFF) process, reducing the overall footprint of the treatment works. In addition, the ability of the COCODAFF to process higher than specified filtration rates allowed Scottish Water to value engineer the number of process units down from ten to 8, realising further savings on construction and M&E costs. A further example of innovation is the fully intelligent and integrated control system. The highly resilient optimised plant network monitoring provides proactive fault finding and enables preventative maintenance, creating reductions in OPEX, both in energy and maintenance.

Scottish Water's largest ever consultation exercise was undertaken on the Glencorse Project and an independent audit confirmed the project's success in carrying out an exemplary public consultation in support of the new Works Planning Application. During the project, 250 engineering students from universities of Heriot Watt, Abertay and Edinburgh were also given the opportunity to attend lectures provided by the project team and to visit the Glencorse site.

Geoff Aitkenhead, Scottish Water's asset management director said: 'Scottish Water is delighted that the Glencorse Water Project has received this outstanding international accolade from CIWEM. The facility is proof that such large-scale projects can be sustainable, non-obtrusive and built with the consent and consideration of the neighbouring community in mind. Glencorse provides state of the art thinking in the delivery of renewable resources in the long term and the innovative use of new pipeline manufacturing methods in the short term. Blending sensitively into the Pentland Hills with the largest grass roof in the UK, Glencorse will supply Scotland's ancient capital with 21^st century drinking water. We are delighted that our efforts and achievements have been recognised in this way.'

As well as receiving a framed certificate and cheque for £2,000, Scottish Water was presented with a specially-commissioned trophy designed by Harriett Christelow, a 17-year old art and design student at East Surrey College. The competition to design the trophy was created by Black & Veatch as a special project to encourage students near its Redhill office to become involved with the industry.

Richard Hellier from the Environment Agency and Katie Lee from Arup collected the 2011 Living Wetlands Award for Beam Parklands, a new 53 hectare multifunctional wetland park in east London. CIWEM's Living Wetlands Award recognises multi-functional projects that demonstrate the sustainable use of wetland habitats.  This year, the award received 20 entries of amazing diversity, including RSPB Dearne Valley, Northumberland 4shores Project, Alkborough Flats Managed Realignment Site and Fishlake Habitat Creation Scheme.

The winning project, Beam Parklands, is a critical element of the East London Green Grid which connects the River Beam wildlife corridor to surrounding green spaces and the River Thames. The site is located amidst the industrial and residential legacy of the Ford works, in one of the most deprived parts of the country. The site has been badly neglected for many years, becoming a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

The project is delivering over 12 hectares of new UK Priority BAP Habitat including reedbeds, ponds, wet woodland, lowland fen, traditional orchards and acid grassland; additional flood storage; a new network of paths and a footbridge inspired by the natural environment to improve access and link fragmented communities; and secured management and maintenance of the site in perpetuity. The scheme is being delivered in partnership between The Land Trust, Environment Agency, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and London Borough of Havering.

Alongside community involvement and delivering social improvements, increasing the ecological value of the site has been a key objective of the project. The creation of diverse habitats supports the wealth of species known to be at the site, including water voles, great crested newts and wetland birds.

From the outset, the scheme has been designed around sustainable principles, which have extended from the preliminary feasibility studies through to detailed design and construction, and will continue through the long term management and monitoring of the site.

On winning the CIWEM Living Wetlands Award, Environment Agency landscape architect Richard Hellier said: 'We are delighted to have won the Living Wetlands Award for the Beam Parklands, a site which reduces the risk of flooding to 400 homes, local businesses and Barking Power Station. We and our partners have used an innovative approach in this project to bring people and nature together. To do this we needed to create a landscape that was robust. We added to the habitats that were  already on site to create 12 hectares of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat, which will benefit great crested newts, water voles and reed bunting, amongst others. Through good design we have really enhanced the local environment not only for rare species, but we have also created an environment that will inspire people and encourage them to get out and explore.'

The judges said: 'As with previous years the quality shown by all entries to CIWEM's Living Wetland Award was excellent but there was one entry that stood out above the rest. The Beam Parklands project shows just what can be achieved when public, private and community groups truly work together. The project has demonstrated real multi-functional benefits - enhancing biodiversity, improving flood storage capacity and providing a community resource - for a truly winning combination. We hope other communities will follow their lead.'

Laura Sanderson, a scientist within Royal Haskoning's Coastal and Rivers Division, won CIWEM's Young Members Award for her proactive role in the Institution and the wider environmental community. She said: 'I was honoured to have been nominated, and am incredibly proud to have won CIWEM's prestigious award. I have a passion for enhancing the environment in which we live and encouraging others within the industry. Being recognised for my efforts gives me confidence that I am in the right job!'

Described by her employer as 'an exemplar graduate', Laura has worked on projects including flood risk mapping, assessment and alleviation, economic analysis, hydrology and hydraulic modelling.

Laura represents Royal Haskoning on a sustainability committee chaired by Solihull Council and is the youngest member of a select group of staff attending Royal Haskoning's Business Development Programme. Throughout this time, Laura has also demonstrated her commitment to CIWEM, becoming the vice chair of the Midlands Region New Members Committee and enrolling on the Royal Haskoning CIWEM structured training scheme.

Judge Mark Etheridge, from award sponsor Jacobs, said: 'Each of the candidates this year were of an exceptional quality.  However, Laura stood out due to her incredible enthusiasm for her work and for CIWEM and its principles.'

The dinner also saw the presentation of CIWEM's second AWEinspiring (Art, Water & Environment) Award, organised in association with The Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World. The award was given to Cape Farewell in recognition of its unique contribution to the public understanding of climate change through art and science

The award celebrates an artwork, project or artist, recognising their contribution to CIWEM's vision of putting creativity into the heart of environmental policy and action On receiving the award, David Buckland, the founder of Cape Farewell said: 'It's an honour for us to be recognised for our cultural activities around environmental issues. Cape Farewell continues to pioneer work that addresses the climate challenge through cultural engagement and we are delighted to receive the CIWEM AWEinspiring Award as a recognition of our past achievements and vision.'

In 2001, the artist David Buckland created Cape Farewell to stimulate the production of art founded in scientific research. Cape Farewell brings together leading artists, writers, scientists, educators and media for expeditions to hot spots of climate change where they can map, measure and be inspired by the environment in order to create artworks that engage the public through creative insight and vision.

CIWEM's executive director, Nick Reeves, said: 'This award symbolises the growing significance of cross-disciplinary approaches in relating imaginatively to the world around us, and in responding to the environmental and cultural challenges of the age. Therefore, I am delighted that we can honour all the work that Cape Farewell does to instigate a cultural response to climate change.'

During the Annual Dinner, Honorary Fellowship of the CIWEM was presented to John Edmonds from the IWAC and Paul Leinster, chief executive officer of the Environment Agency.

Nick Reeves said of the Annual Dinner 2011: 'It was a wonderful night for celebrating the positive outcomes of hard work and leadership, whilst also reminding the environmental, political and cultural sectors of the challenges that lie ahead.'

Many thanks are due to Grontmij and Mott MacDonald for sponsoring the evening. The dinner also helped raise over £2,400 for Tomorrow's Water: CIWEM's Youth Prize.