A. Prysor Williams

The global water crisis, an enormous concern according to the World Economic Forum, poses a significant challenge to long-term sustainability, exacerbated by the high energy demand associated with water supply and treatment. As the renewable energy sector grows, the need for green technologies to support the water-energy nexus becomes evident. However, mere technological advancements are insufficient to address complex water-related challenges. This paper presents a transdisciplinary collaborative effort involving engineers, geographers, management researchers, and environmentalists working with practitioners in a cross-border network. The study explores through action learning research how, in a transdisciplinary partnership, network action learning influences the exploration and implementation of novel green technology and the development of innovation capabilities. The research is structured around three themes: green technology platforms, policy support and guidance, and dissemination and collaboration. It identifies the factors impacting technology exploration and application and how concurrently green innovation capabilities are developed. The study emphasizes the significance of transdisciplinary collaboration and offers valuable insights into addressing UN Sustainability Goals related to clean water, sustainable industry, and partnerships. It contributes to innovation capability theory and provides practical guidance to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, emphasizing the need for holistic approaches to address the water-energy crisis and achieve sustainable development.

Silvopastoral agroforestry and the strategic placement of trees and hedgerows offers potential to improve livestock welfare and production efficiency through the provision of shelter in livestock farming systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between shelter-seeking behaviour of ewes during the lambing period and the microclimate influenced by landscape shelter features. Artificial and natural shelter was provided to Aberfield ewes (n = 15) on an upland sheep farm in Wales, UK, which were then continuously monitored for 14 days using global positioning system tracking devices. Modelling of microclimate influenced by topographical shelter features at the test site was used to generate a 1 m resolution wind field for geospatial statistical analysis of localised wind speed. Ewes demonstrated an increased preference for natural (3.4-fold; p < 0.01) and artificial (3.0-fold; p < 0.05) shelter zones five times the height of the shelter, compared to the exposed area of the trial site. Wind-chill and modelled local-scale wind speeds were found to have the greatest influence on shelter-seeking behaviour, with temperature and field-scale wind speed significantly influencing livestock behaviour. Mean wind-chill temperature during the trial was 3.7 °C (min −5.3 °C; max 13.1 °C), which is within the cold stress temperature threshold (−3 and 8 °C) that requires thermoregulatory strategies such as shelter-seeking behaviour. An improved understanding of the relationship between microclimate and shelter-seeking behaviour in sheep, demonstrated through the agent-based model developed in this project, shall better inform the economic incentives (e.g., reduction in lamb mortality and forage requirements) behind silvopastoral practices that benefit farm productivity, livestock welfare and the environment.

Coupling pressure management strategies with energy generation in water distribution networks could provide an opportunity to reduce energy dependency. Recent laboratory prototypes attested the capability of Pump-As-Turbines (PATs) to manage pressure and generate energy in these settings. When selecting an optimal pump/PAT unit from the market to maximize energy recovery at a Pressure Reduction Valve (PRV) site, the first step usually represents the definition of its optimal design point in turbine mode, i.e., its best efficiency point (BEP) for a selected rotational speed. There are many very different strategies on how to define the optimal design point of PATs, and by far the simplest is to define it as the average operating condition (AOC) at an investigated site. However, the literature does not provide the answer if such a definition is valid. More importantly, of whether it is valid for a general case, meaning regardless of the site’s size, level of variations of operating conditions and other site-specific characteristics. To address this research question, a large database of high-resolution recordings from 38 PRVs was compiled. The optimal design point for each PRV was assessed using an upgraded version of a methodology from the literature employing the Nelder–Mead Simplex Direct Search algorithm and hydraulic control strategy. The upgrade includes the addition of a new design variable representing the maximal operating flow of the PAT. The optimization of this variable also results in the optimization of the size of the generator. The results suggest that the selection of the optimal PAT from the market using the AOC could lead to the selection of the same models as when using the true theoretical optimal design point in the case of 77.14% of the investigated sites. Furthermore, the PAT models selected using the AOCs of the investigated sites were at least the second optimal for 99.14% of sites. Consequently, it was concluded that, for practical purposes (i.e., when a PAT database is not available and the optimal model is found from pump selection charts), it is appropriate to use the AOCs of the investigated site for the selection.

Climate change is likely to have a major impact on future hydrological regimes, impacting numerous sectors reliant on surface waters. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model future (2021–2080) streamflow and water quality variables (nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended sediment, and dissolved oxygen), in five catchments in Wales, under a worst-case scenario of future greenhouse gas concentrations (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5). Results show a decline in annual average flows (−4% to −13%) but larger changes seasonally (spring, up to 41% increase; autumn, up to 52% reduction). The magnitude and frequency of high flow events increasesg in spring (magnitude: Sen’s slope range 0.165–0.589, p < .01), with more low flows in autumn (Sen’s slope range 0.064–0.090, p < .01). Water quality declines, with higher nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentrations and lower dissolved oxygen levels. The findings have economic and environmental implications for abstractors, as water resources could become more unreliable, seasonal, and polluted.

Food service providers like restaurants, cafes, or canteens are of economic importance worldwide, but also contribute to environmental impacts through water and energy consumption. Drain water heat recovery from commercial kitchens, using a heat exchanger, has shown large potential to decarbonise hot water use across food services, but is rarely deployed. This work translates previous findings on the technical feasibility and heat recovery potential for commercial kitchens into a publicly available calculator. It facilitates decision-making towards recovery and reuse of the freely available heat in kitchen drains by estimating both financial costs and payback time, as well as environmental burdens associated with the installation and environmental savings from avoided energy consumption. Environmental burdens and savings include, but are not limited to, carbon emissions. Further, the tool highlights key aspects of the technical implementation to understand installation requirements. The tool is freely available and could contribute to the uptake of heat recovery in the food service sector, ideally in conjunction with policy support through financial incentives or subsidies.

The environmental cycling of antibiotic-resistant bla_CTX-M-15-producing E. coli following release from wastewater treatment plants is a major public health concern. This study aimed to (i) assess the impact of sediment concentrations on the rate of their inactivation following release from human wastewater into freshwater, and (ii) simulate their subsequent dispersal to the nearby coastline during a “worst-case” event where heavy rainfall coincided with high spring tide in the Conwy Estuary, North Wales. Freshwater microcosms of low, medium and high turbidity were inoculated with bla_CTX-M-15-producing E. coli, then exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Typical regional wintertime exposure to UV was found to be insufficient to eradicate E. coli, and in highly turbid water, many bacteria survived simulated typical regional summertime UV exposure. Modelling results revealed that bla_CTX-M-15-producing E. coli concentrations reduced downstream from the discharge source, with ~30% of the source concentration capable of dispersing through the estuary to the coast, taking ~36 h. Offshore, the concentration simulated at key shellfisheries and bathing water sites ranged from 1.4% to 10% of the upstream input, depending on the distance offshore and tidal regime, persisting in the water column for over a week. Our work indicates that the survival of such organisms post-release into freshwater is extended under typical wintertime conditions, which could ultimately have implications for human health.

Ensuring reliable drinking water supplies is anticipated to be a key future challenge facing water service providers due to fluctuations in rainfall patterns and water demand caused by climate change. This study investigates historical trends and relationships between precipitation, air temperature and streamflow in five catchments in Wales, before correlating these with actual total abstraction data provided by the water company, to give insight into the supply-demand balance. Changes in seasonal and annual averages, as well as extreme events, are assessed for a 34-year period (1982–2015) and a breakpoint analysis is performed to better understand how climate has already changed and what this might mean for the future of water supply. Results show a north-south divide in changes in extreme temperature and streamflow; a strong warming trend in autumn average temperatures across Wales (Sen’s slope range: 0.38–0.41, p ρ value range: 0.094–0.403, p r value range 0.073–0.369, p <0.01) in four of five catchments. Our study provides new insight into the relationship between abstraction volume and hydroclimatic factors and highlights the need for catchment-scale water resource planning that accounts for hydroclimatic variations over small spatial distances, as these nuances can be vital.

For an organization to become a low‐carbon community, delivering a range of sustainability initiatives is necessary. Renewable energy (RE) initiatives, offering a source of low‐carbon electricity to offset an organization's energy needs, fit with this objective. This paper examines the role of innovation in achieving low‐carbon energy in the National Trust (NT), a conservation charity and the largest landowner in the UK. It considers how an eco‐design approach to delivering innovative RE projects, specifically hydropower (HP) installations, has supported their transition to a low‐carbon community. Three HP projects delivered on time and within budget were examined; support for each was built through transparent and regular communications with the NT's membership. Despite limited resources and funding for innovation, the NT minimized the associated risk through effective management and external collaboration. It fostered an open environment for creativity and idea sharing, which was key to delivering the RE projects. Innovation was particularly evident in the HP initiatives explored, as eco‐design considerations informed new and innovative design choices and technology selection as each HP project was designed and constructed. Transitioning to a low‐carbon community is an achievable reality for a conservation charity, and this is enabled through the management of innovation to deliver solutions that meet the low‐carbon energy challenge.