CAMERAS: evidence strategy for rural affairs and the terrestrial environment

Sustainable land use that is contributing to the Scottish Economy

Scotland as a leader in innovative and integrated land use management

Understanding of the relative (monetary and non-monetary) values of different land uses and outputs from land in Scotland, including landforms, bio- and geodiversity.

Development of innovative and integrated systems based approaches to address land use management challenges in rural and urban areas.

Understanding how drivers acting at different scales (e.g. climate change, demographics, incentives, demand for and impacts of renewable energy) influence land use change and the implications for managing land use to deliver multiple benefits.

Understanding of the implications of land use change and management practices on:

• Levels, sources and sinks of pollution/contamination
• GHG emissions
• Energy supply
• Biodiversity, ecosystems and geodiversity
• Farming and food production
• Human pathogens and food safety
• Resilience to flooding and other natural hazards
• Tourism, amenity land use and landscape

Understanding the drivers influencing land use decision making, attitudes to change and identifying mechanisms to influence these behaviours at appropriate scales.

Evidence to support land managers, including:

• practical biodiversity, conservation and ecosystems management measures
• identification of sites for and benefits of woodland expansion, agroforestry, flood management and sustainable intensification
• use of an ecosystems approach in decision making

Evidence to enable an integrated assessment of the impact and influence of previous interventions ( CAP, Planning policy, Advisory Services, green stewardship, green infrastructure, biodiversity strategy and duty).

Predictions of the impact of policy/strategy reform and evidence to support the implementation of new approaches, including incentives that can encourage land managers to deliver a range of desired benefits.

Understanding of the relationship and interactions between related land use interventions and desired outcomes.

Realise the full potential of Scottish natural resources to contribute to Scotland's sustainable economic growth.

Scotland as a leader in innovative environmental approaches and technologies.

Development of innovative approaches, tools, techniques and technologies for:

• Waste reduction
• Water technologies
• Water use efficiency
• Influencing consumer behaviour
• Biodiversity and ecosystem management

Collection and analysis of environmental monitoring data for a range of variables in the air, soil, on land and at sea, and development of indicators and proxies for ecosystem health and biodiversity.

Understanding the structure, function and services of Scottish terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, how the natural environment is changing in relation to various pressures, identifying possible management approaches and developing an appreciation of their wider ecological importance.

Understanding the status and trends in Scotland's non-renewable resources that affect land-use and contribute to the Scottish economy (e.g. metalliferous minerals, sand, gravel, limestone etc).

Understanding the impacts of climate and other environmental change, including the changing risk to Scottish biodiversity from invasive species, pests and diseases, the ability of various ecosystems to adapt and identification of possible management approaches.

Evidence to support the application of an ecosystems approach in Scotland.

Monitoring and analysis of risks, presence and impact of invasive non-native species, pests and diseases on non-agricultural plant and animal species (including trees), understanding of potential risk to agricultural species, development of possible approaches to their control.

Understanding of the factors (including agricultural and other land use practices) that influence water quality, nutrient flows, sediment, catchment morphology and developing/providing monitoring and integrated management solutions at appropriate scales. Data on water flows and their spatial variation, minimum flow requirements for effective functioning of water infrastructure.

Evidence to evaluate the quality of Scottish soils, their resilience to changing pressures and practices and the impact of poor soil quality on the services they provide.

Understanding of the drivers that influence public behaviours that result in environmental improvements.

Understanding the impact of, and relationship between, access to 'blue/ green' amenities, biodiversity and human health.

Understanding which land use practices negatively impact on human health and the mechanisms involved.

Assessment of extent and impact of antisocial and illegal activities, understanding of drivers of relevant behaviours and approaches to change.

Assessment of the effectiveness of Scottish public body biodiversity protection measures in support of the Scottish Biodiversity strategy through:

• The impact of CAP, WFD and Forestry policy measures
• Ecological status of protected species and habitats
• Biodiversity and ecosystem health indicators

Evidence to help implement and to evaluate the impact and cost effectiveness of policy interventions including:

• Water Framework Directive
• River basin management plans
• Water environment restoration
• Water leakage targets
• Pollution Control, Waste reduction and Environmental policies

Evidence to support the co-ordination of linked policies (e.g. flooding and other water management policies).

Scenarios for the future that consider climate change and other risks, approaches to include risk assessment in decision making and policy implementation.

Development and evaluation of options for supporting low carbon innovation.

Development and evaluation of innovative and cost effective approaches/options for:

• Waste re-use
• Decarbonising transport, heat and energy production
• Low carbon business practices
• Low carbon infrastructure development
• Carbon capture and storage
• Exploiting unconventional energy sources

Understanding public attitudes and behaviours to moving towards a low carbon lifestyle.

Evidence to support options and approaches that will improve energy security, help meet emissions targets and reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the energy and agricultural sectors, including;

• increasing the contribution of renewables
• carbon capture and storage
• risks and benefits of unconventional gas
• reduction of agricultural losses through disease and waste

Evidence for, and analysis of, policy interventions for trade-offs and synergies between economic growth, fossil fuel use and GHG emissions, including improved estimates of GHG emission factors.

Evidence for and analysis of trade-offs and synergies in environmental management interventions for carbon management and for biodiversity conservation objectives (e.g. in peatland systems).

Development of effective approaches to influence behaviours and encourage transition to lower carbon lifestyles.

Evidence to measure policy delivery against targets and to inform targets, e.g. for waste reduction, GHG emissions.

Evidence to evaluate the effectiveness and/or distributional impacts of:

• Waste reduction policy
• Climate change policies
• Heat mapping
• Scottish Sustainable Communities initiative

Understanding of supply chains, systems and factors affecting performance and profitability in the food, drink and farming industries.

Approaches to managing risk from livestock, crop and food-borne disease, including improvements to surveillance and disease control and understanding and managing the influence of emerging pressures such as climate change and land use change.

Development and implementation of innovative tools and technologies in the food, drink and farming industries, including: approaches to sustainable intensification, innovations for resource efficiency, food safety (e.g. food preservation and storage), business proficiency, low carbon production, animal and plant disease control, provenancing tools, agricultural diversification, new crops, improved livestock.

Evidence to support resilience in the Scottish agriculture, food and drink industries, including:

• Resilience of agriculture to climate change, extreme weather events, declining biodiversity
• Understanding potential impacts of emerging pressures such as climate change on different sectors of the food and drink industry at relevant scales
• Surveillance and risk management for notifiable, emerging and endemic diseases of livestock and crops
• Understanding of and contingency planning for major threats to food security in Scotland, including risks of raw materials shortages
• Identifying skills gaps in the food and drink industry and addressing age imbalances in farming

Definition and improved understanding of economic, social and environmental sustainability in a Scottish context.

Understanding of relationships and trade-offs between factors affecting food security (including sustainability, resource use, waste, supply systems, accessibility of healthy diets, demand) and between food security and other desired outcomes such as profitability, productivity and animal welfare.

Evidence to help improve the sustainability of Scottish crop and livestock systems, including approaches to sustainable intensification, to improving livestock health and welfare, to reducing the impacts of crop and livestock disease, to understanding the role of biodiversity in delivering low-input food production systems, to understanding risks to livestock from low-level pollutants, to understand risks arising from raw materials shortages.

Evidence to improve understanding of how agricultural systems and management practices can deliver other benefits, such as biodiversity conservation (e.g. High Nature Value farming), water quality, recreation.

Evidence to support the development of options to improve health benefits from food across all price ranges.

Improved understanding of factors affecting food insecurity and dietary health in Scotland, including consumer behaviours.

Evidence to reduce diet-related ill-health, including improved understanding of prevalence, causation and management of risks from the food supply chain.

Evidence to evaluate the effectiveness, influence and impact of policy interventions including:

• The agri-food package of EU public health legislation
• CAP
• Measures to reduce fat and salt in foods

Evidence (including possible tools and incentives) to help the public sector support the agri-food industry and the delivery of multiple benefits, including sustainable use of land and natural resources, production of healthy food, sustainable rural communities.

Evidence to support policy interventions to improve dietary health and reduce food insecurity.

Understanding of fragile (local) economies.

Evidence to assess relationships between innovations/new industries/local branding/community capacity and economic performance.

Evidence to support the development of improved and innovative infrastructure such as local energy production, broadband access, ecotowns, sustainable and reliable treatment of water and wastewater and housing resilient to flooding.

Communities that are responsive to change and resilient to emerging pressures

Effective flood risk management

Sustainable rural communities that are interconnected with urban areas

Place-based demographic, health, economic and environmental data at appropriate scales.

Approaches to improving and assessing community resilience, evidence of impacts of community engagement and empowerment on economic and social sustainability.

Approaches to improving flood and flood risk management, including monitoring occurrences and defences, drainage and sewer management and integration with other water policies.

Understanding the impacts of climate change and climate change adaptation policies at community level.

Methods to measure community well-being and approaches to using well-being in financial and policy decisions.

Evidence on delivery of public sector services in remote rural areas and how they can be improved through spreading best practice, community engagement and government intervention.

Understanding the relationship between access to green space, people's connection with nature and physical and mental health.

Evidence of the impacts of flooding on health and well-being.

Understanding the Scottish Government's role in supporting communities to become more sustainable.

Developing scenarios for the future of rural areas.

Understanding the mid- and long-term impacts of policy instruments including, LEADER, CERB, patterns of land/property ownership on rural communities, identifying those that aid social, geographical mobility and economic growth at the local level.

Evidence to evaluate the impact of policy reform ( CAP, Welfare) on rural communities and the rural economy.

Systems approaches for evaluating multiple policies, multiple outcomes and their impacts and costs.