CROCUS – Channel RestOration in
Contaminated Urban Settings
River restoration schemes are
increasingly proposed as key
components of urban regeneration
programmes, having the potential
to contribute to meeting a range of
quality-of-life goals. However,
urban watercourse sediments are
also recognised to contain elevated
levels of a range of pollutants.
Hence, a potential conflict can be
seen to be emerging between the
social and ecological goals of urban
river restoration and the possible
risk to public health of increased
access to urban rivers which may contain contaminated sediments.
The Flood Hazard Research Centre and the Urban Pollution Research Centre
at Middlesex University, in collaboration with the Geography Department at
Queen Mary College, University of London have recently undertaken
a research seminar series under the auspices of the NERC-ESRC
transdisciplinary seminar series initiative to tackle this issue by exploring
tensions between the social, environmental and physical goals in this
contentious area, an issue made all the more timely by the on-going
implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.
CROCUS has brought together leading researchers from the social and
physical sciences with key practitioners from a variety of governmental,
non-governmental and consultancy backgrounds for a series of six seminars
over a period of two years to brainstorm key issues associated with urban
river restoration - from the culture-nature debate to the identification and
communication of risk management solutions. The seminars have involved a
combination of keynote presentations, discussion groups and field visits.
The major outputs of CROCUS are the identification of key research
questions and the development of multi-disciplinary proposals through
which such questions may be addressed. These outputs aim to be of direct
relevance to discussions, on enhancing the quality-of-life in urban areas,
between Local Authorities, community groups and environment protection
agencies within the UK, as well as more widely in Europe.