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Application form
Please make sure you have read all the notes carefully before you start to fill in the application form. This application form can either be completed by hand or electronically - it is available on the Planning homepage at www.scotland.gov.uk/planning. Please complete all five sections. The deadline for submitting applications is 8 September 2006. An acknowledgement letter will be sent to the person who has completed this form.
1 Please provide a name and contact details of the lead organisation responsible for this work.
Name | Andy Tharme |
Job title | Ecology Officer |
Organisation | Scottish Borders Council |
Address | Planning and Economic Development, Scottish Borders Council, Newtown St Boswells, Scottish Borders TD6 OSA |
Telephone | 01835-826514 |
Fax | 01835-825158 |
Email | atharme@scotborders.gov.uk |
2 If this is a joint application, please list the other partners who had a key role. You should also inform your partners that you are nominating the project for an award.
1 Macaulay Research Consultancy Services | 2 |
3 | 4 |
5 | 6 |
3 Tick the category of nomination
Title of entry | A Borders Wetland Vision: Development of a Strategic Planning Tool for Wetland Biodiversity Conservation |
Please complete the form on the following pages by providing a brief summary of the piece of work you have entered. You must also conclude with a key reason as to why you think this work merits an Award. Only the two A4 pages supplied here can be used and your text must fit within the boxes. The font size should be no less than 12pt.
The judging criteria are set out below. Please tick only the key criteria relevant to your entry:
You must describe, in your written submission, how the criteria which you have ticked relate to your project.
Description of project
The project aim was to develop a Wetland Vision, based on opportunity mapping, for the Scottish Borders to guide the future conservation of multi-benefit wetlands. This includes 12 wetland habitats from open water, through meadows to blanket bog which cover a significant area of the Borders. It provides a strategic planning tool for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, land and water resource management, conservation of cultural heritage and provision of community benefits. It is a broad-scale strategic vision which offers a spatially-based tool, based on rules-based models, identifying where environmental enhancements for wetlands could be delivered in future, based on the potential of the land to support wetlands, and using existing wetland areas of environmental value as a starting point. |
Context - describe the background to the project
Scottish Borders holds nationally important wetland sites such as the Central Borders Specially Identified Wetlands and internationally important lowland raised bog sites as well as also a broad range of existing and historic wetland sites in need of restoration or enhancement. Over 200 basin mires and fens have been identified, representing the major Scottish resource. Many other wetland areas have been lost or degraded through drainage and other land improvements. A LBAP partnership project was developed led by the Council's Ecology Officer to develop a strategic approach to the conservation of wetlands to enable the restoration of wetlands on landscape scale that would bring multiple benefits to the communities of Scottish Borders. |
What are the aims and objectives of the project?
To develop a strategic planning tool to target actions to meet the objectives for a range of key policy drivers and to assist in meeting the challenges of climate change. The decision support tool has been developed to help target actions for biodiversity under the LBAP and Tweed Catchment Management Plan. It will be used to guide wetland management under SEERAD's Land Management Contracts and by SEPA to guide actions under the Water Framework Directive, and is being used to incorporate sustainable flood management into the wider Flood Management Programme. The planning tool will guide the creation of wetland habitat networks that will buffer the Borders environment from the wetter winters and drier summers predicted under climate change. |
Timescale - over what timescale has the project been developed?
The initial concept for the project was formulated in March 2005 and a grant application to the Scottish Executive made in April 2005. The appointed consultants delivered the strategic planning tool for wetlands in April 2006. This was only a period of a year and it required all the steering group and consultants to focus and deliver in a short space of time, coordinated by the Ecology Officer. The process was efficient and effective. |
Action - explain the process and action taken
Following research, the Ecology Officer submitted a grant application to the Scottish Executive's Biodiversity Action Grant Scheme in April 2005, which was successfully awarded in May 2005. The Ecology Officer produced the Consultants brief in June 2005 which was put out to tender in July 2005. The Ecology Officer commissioned Macaulay Research to produce the wetland vision planning tool in August 2005 and set up the project Steering Group that month with partners from SNH, SEPA, Tweed Forum and the Local Records Centre. The interim Steering Group meeting was held in December 2005 with input on modification of the models. The final project Steering Group meeting with final recommendations for modifications was held in February 2006 and the final models delivered on schedule in April 2006. |
Explain the role of the key partners
Macaulay Research is proud to have developed, with the input of the project Steering Group, an innovative approach to strategic wetland management. The Decision Support Tool is a novel rules-based approach that has been guided by the local input of the Council and Steering Group partners. This Decision Support Tool adds to Macaulay's considerable list of applied land use models and they are marketing the uptake of this approach in other regions. |
Results - what results were achieved?
An interactive Decision Support Tool ( DST) has been produced identifying areas of derived and potential wetland habitats. Additionally the Council and its partners can re-run calculations to explore "what-if' scenarios by modification of the existing models or through the easy incorporation of additional datasets. This provides a more flexible approach that can be sensitive to changing circumstances. Under the Council's Flood Management programme consultants have incorporated the models identifying options for wetland management as key components of the sustainable flood programme. This will be crucial in securing major funding to bring benefits to local communities. The DST has been supplied to SEPA, SNH and FCS partners to guide their conservation and water resource management. The DST is being used to inform a developing wetland strategy that will complement the Scottish Borders Woodland Strategy. |
Conclusion - in summary, why does this piece of work merit an Award?
The strategic approach to wetland conservation has produced an innovative planning tool (the first in the UK) that is flexible to changing circumstances and whose rules-basis is transferable to other scenarios such as settlement capacity appraisal. The planning tool has been developed through an efficient process that has required the professional input from a range of partners. The planning tool has been adopted for use by the Council's Flood Management Programme, by SEPA, SNH and Forestry Commission Scotland and by the Scottish Borders LBAP. This planning tool will ensure multiple-benefits from wetlands, particularly with regard to climate change, land use and water resource management, will accrue for the communities of Scottish Borders on a long-term basis, from flood alleviation to education. |
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