About
Who We Are
Established in 2017, the Birmingham Water Centre (BWC) was formed to combine the efforts of researchers across the University of Birmingham Campus and to integrate water-related research across the institution in a joint-up approach of investigating water quantity and quality challenges together.
The Birmingham Water Centre is closely aligned with the five work streams (Water Technologies, Water and Health, Water Resources under Change, Water Pollution and Water Justice and Socioeconomic Consequences) of the Institute of Global Innovation inaugural theme on Water Challenges in a Changing World that integrate the water-related research across all UoB colleges to improve the preparedness and resilience of socio-economic and environmental systems to globally increasing water challenges (such as drought, flood, water pollution), water-related public and environmental health; and the governance of water to increase security and reduce conflict.
What We Do
The complexity of today’s global water challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration and transformative approaches across subject boundaries, integrating core-strengths of the physical and environmental sciences, engineering, medical research, arts and humanities, including economics, law and social sciences. Crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries, the Water Council pioneers therefore aims to pioneer and facilitate the development of new research avenues by:
- Stimulating interdisciplinary research tackling global challenges and development goals
- Aligning cross-campus water research and enhance synergies between colleges and with local, regional and (inter)national partners
- Facilitating industry – research partnerships, regionally, in the UK, and globally
- Shaping (inter)national research strategies in water related fields nationally and internationally
- Enhancing interdisciplinary in cross-college delivery of water education
Our Impact
The research generated has been used by water managers to support decisions regarding adaptation to climate change and to manage contamination and water quality problems, It also serve as an inputs for business and governmental organizations to inform on how to prepare and reduce the impact of future flood event. It also informs policymakers on how to improve global greenhouse gas estimates by incorporating emissions from surface waters and freshwater sediments.
Research Areas
The highly dynamic and often non-linear behaviour of hydrological processes pose critical challenges to understanding, monitoring, and protecting water resources and environments. Successfully tackling water-related global challenges requires technological innovation. Hence, a main emphasis of this work-stream is on the development of analytical and sensor (network) technologies that support unprecedented high frequency and high resolution monitoring of hydrological and hydro-chemical processes in natural, rural and urban systems, including the build environment (utilising EPS Buried Infrastructure and LES EcoLab and BIFoR facilities as unique testbeds). In addition to the development of innovative experimental technologies, the work-stream focuses on advancing hydrological modelling capabilities to improve the predictive capacity of anticipated changes to the global water cycle.
Globally, for a wide range of diseases water represents either a major disease vector or has substantial control on the environmental conditions of disease hosts, in both cases having direct control of the spread of diseases and thus, public health. The Water and Health research theme therefore addresses the global challenge of analyzing the public health consequences of limited and unsafe access to clean and sufficient water resources as well as the spread and environmental controls of water-borne diseases. Responding to the emergence of recent concerns of critical health risks, a further focus of the research stream will be the investigation of hydrological control on the fate and transport of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes (in particular through reclaimed waters) as well as water quality impacts on maternal-child health in LMIC.
To evaluate how access to potable water resources as well as exposure to hydrological extremes will change in the future due to climate, land-use and management changes, this integral work-stream addresses 3 inter-connected, grand challenges: (i) Quantifying the nature and extent of change in hydrology and water resources, (ii) Explaining the causes of spatial and temporal patterns of change and, (iii) Reducing uncertainty of predictions of change. With its focus on extremes of water resource availability (flood, drought), as well as trends in water quality in response to their use, the outcomes of this work stream are of high relevance to all other work-streams in terms of understanding water availability (scarcity) and security.
To tackle global challenges in water contamination, often caused by interactive impacts of multiple pollutants and building on existing core strengths at UoB, this research stream focuses in particular on the fate, transport and environmental impact of emerging pollutants (such as engineered nanoparticles, microplastics, pharmaceutical) and their interactions with legacy pollutants (such as excess nutrient concentrations, heavy metals, arsenic, organic compounds). Pioneering such integrative approach allows us to challenge current practice of single impact analysis and, for the first time, quantify the complex impacts of multi-stressor interactions on public and ecosystem health.
This intrinsically interdisciplinary work stream investigates the economic and social implications of interrelated hydro-meteorological, water management and governance-related challenges in LMICs. The workstream considers the impact of land use and climate change on the socio-economic impacts of water extremes (flooding, droughts and contamination) and the relationship between water and technology (hydropower production and the impact on households, firms and farmers). We, therefore, develop adaptation and mitigation strategies, with a specific focus on water justice and resilience of LMIC economies, linking storm surge, wind field and hydrological modelling to socio-economic (agent-based) models.
English