Liam Kirkpatrick

Thesis title:

Investigating the Cultural Ecosystem Services of Urban Water Bodies and their use in Environmental and Land Use Planning

Abstract:

This is an interdisciplinary PhD exploring the use of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) for improving environmental policy understandings.The value of urban water is increasingly becoming overlooked in favour of urbanisation land use strategies, with various integral ecosystem services subsequently coming under threat. Moreover, contemporary climate change risk highlights a need for this wide range of urban water ecosystem services. However, a failure to acknowledge key socio-political dimensions of urban water tends to run through these discourses, to the detriment of sustainable land use planning.With an aim to help inform policy, this project focuses on how investigating CES within urban blue space may contribute to developing understandings of social and environmental health and wellbeing, in line with climate change adaptation. Working in close collaboration with the Environment Agency, this research helps to address a key research gap they have identified regarding the value of water quality and management in urban areas. Investigation is warranted to assist with the control and application of urban water resources under sustainable and climate-conscious land use planning.

First supervisor:

Alexandra Collins

CASE partner:

The Environment Agency 

Pathway:

8 – Urbanisation, Social Change & Urban Transformation

Cohort:

2019-20