Pennine Water Group (PWG); Urban Water Systems for a Changing World

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Urban water systems have never been more strategically important - they are one of the key foundations of society. The reliable provision of safe drinking water and effective drainage and sewerage services is essential to us all. Society has developed an increased awareness of a number of environmental, social and economic issues associated with the provision of water services. Factors considered include the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, water security, flooding, drought, energy use, carbon footprint, environmental damage and impact on human health. These factors, combined with the fact that many of our existing urban water infrastructure systems are complex, old and deteriorating, creates significant new challenges for the water industry into the future. They also create significant new and exciting research challenges that the Pennine Water Group (PWG) at the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford is best placed to address.Historically the international reputation of the PWG has been built on delivering high quality scientific research that addresses the needs of the water industry. This has been achieved by taking a multi-disciplinary approach focused on urban water asset management. Our evolving vision for the future requires a transition to 'Sustainable Integrated Urban Water Systems' that 'move beyond the pipe' to a broader system definition. We propose to progress and deliver our future research at a range of scales and to integrate both man-made infrastructure and natural processes in large catchments within a holistic framework that incorporates technical, institutional, economic and cultural issues. This framework will be underpinned by new and novel scientific and technological advances but will involve the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders. The platform grant renewal will support the transition from a multi-disciplinary to a trans-disciplinary group through fostering new inter-disciplinary research ideas combined with an ever more effective integration with industry and other stakeholders. This vision has 3 key development areas (1) Sustainable integrated systems and water sensitive urban design (2) Development and delivery of new technologies and (3) Implementation and governance.The new platform grant will be led by Prof. Saul with a core academic management team of Biggs, Boxall, Horoshenkov, Sharp and Tait. This team will be responsible for the delivery of the all fundamental science and outputs within the three key areas, but also for the monitoring of expenditure, developing future funding strategy, staff and career development and interactions with external stakeholders. The management group will seek support and guidance from both an Industrial Advisory Panel and an International Scientific Advisory Panel.A major strength of the existing PWG academic staff is their enthusiasm for collaboration and wider engagement across the RCUK disciplines. The new platform grant proposes to include four new academic colleagues, Lerner, Osborn, Beck and Molyneux-Hodgson, who will provide significant add-on technical expertise and with whom we are currently collaborating on funded projects. These staff will enhance the core skills of PWG, within a unique team, that will see significant and enhanced opportunities to stimulate and respond to new cross-discipline research ideas and initiatives. Following our successful existing practice, we will use the platform grant as a flexible resource to provide gap funding to support the future long term careers of our key researchers, to provide opportunities to visit overseas research groups and to present our work at major International Conferences. A point of specific importance is that the platform grant will allow the optimisation of the training, networking and mentoring afforded to all our researchers, and here, special emphasis will be given to the skills set required for a future academic career.