Hydro Nation: annual report 2021

Annex C - Hydro Nation scholars

Scholar: Kathleen Stosch

Cohort: 2015-21

Project

Building Resilience to Respond to Future Environmental Change Across Scottish Catchments.
Community Impact: Better understanding of the complex interactions in catchment management will contribute to strategies to improve resilience and reduce harmful outcomes impacting on those living in catchments.

University

Stirling

Scholar: Carolin Vorstius

Cohort: 2015-21

Project

Safeguarding and Improving Raw Water Quality by Increasing Catchment Resilience.
Community Impact: Better integrated catchment resilience enhances environmental protection and reduces treatment costs resulting from compromised catchments.

University

Dundee and
James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Kirsty Holstead

Cohort: 2016-20

Project

Governing Water One Drop at a Time: Responses to, and Implications of, Community Water Management in Scotland & Beyond.
Community Impact: will help optimise community engagement to protect and maintain raw water quality, improving quality of supply and reduce treatment in remote rural communities.

University

St Andrews and
James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Jonathan Fletcher

Cohort: 2016-22 (p/t)

Project

Optimising Multi-Pollutant Phytoremediation Strategies to Sustainably Improve Raw Water Quality.
Community Impact: Contribution to increased raw water security will develop more sustainable and innovative treatment options, reducing environmental impact and costs.

University

Stirling

Scholar: Sughayshinie Samba Sibam

Cohort: 2017-21

Project

Epidemiology of Private Drinking Water Supplies in Scotland.
Community Impact: The primary aim of this project is to have a better understanding on the relationship of water contamination by microbial pathogens in PWS, with the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases.

University

Aberdeen

Scholar: Lucille Groult

Cohort: 2017-21

Project

Socio-Legal Responses to the Challenges of Contaminants of Emerging Concern.
Community Impact: The objective is to improve availability of "safer" products and assess feasibility of potential legal improvements. Furthermore, the project will look for ways to support consumers to make informed choices.

University

Dundee

Scholar: Victoria Porley

Cohort: 2018-22

Project

Water Purification in Rural India Using Sunlight and Low-Cost Materials.
Community Impact: The objective will be proof-of-concept of a low-cost, solar photocatalytic materials and system, enabling future roll-out of the approach in rural India and in other developing countries with similar communities and climates.

University

Edinburgh

Scholar: Craig McDougall

Cohort: 2018-22

Project

The Role of Scotland's Inland Waters in Promoting Blue-Health of Rural Communities.
Community Impact: The objective, through a programme of integrated natural and social science research, is to determine how future scenarios of land use and climate change might alter the blue health impacts (positive and negative) of inland waters for communities.

University

Stirling

Scholar: Kerr Adams

Cohort: 2018-22

Project

The Scottish Water Landscape and Its Resilience to Change: An Assessment to Support Future Policy.
Community Impact: The objective is to provide a systematic insight into the future of Scottish land use/management/industry and its relationship with water quality and quantity, and provide the necessary evidence (for national strategy, planning and policy) of the resilience of policy and management options to uncertain drivers of change.

University

Edinburgh

Scholar: Elliot Hurst

Cohort: 2018-22

Project

Adaptive Engineering Solutions to Water Abstraction and Control for Developing Countries.
Community Impact: The objective is to provide solid evidence to support best practice guidance for rural communities on the application and adaptive needs of wetland treatment systems utilising different vegetation types, and how effectiveness may vary across wet and dry seasons.

University

Stirling and
James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Hanna Peach

Cohort: 2018-22

Project

Optimising Microbial Communities for Removal of Priority Chemical from Water.
Community Impact: The objective is to characterise in detail the degradation of the OMPs diclofenac and triclosan by microbial biofilter communities formed in a range of Scottish source waters. This information is an essential prerequisite for targeted design of biofilter microbial communities for OMP degradation.

University

Edinburgh and
James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Sydney Byrns

Cohort: 2019-23

Project

Co-developing strategies to promote inclusive water governance in Malawi
Community Impact: Through cross-scale analysis of social network structure, dynamics, and beliefs, this project aims to strengthen national and institutional water policies together with the methods of providing feedback between water sector stakeholders, with the objective of this leading to more adaptive water governance in Malawi.

University

Stirling

Scholar: Julius Cesar Alejandre

Cohort: 2019-23

Project

Blue-green prescribing for a healthier population and a healthier water environment
Community Impact: The study aims to investigate the feasibility of adopting a blue green prescribing strategy in local health boards by examining the components of existing models of prescribing green pharmaceuticals and blue space interventions; mapping out key stakeholders and policies that influence the uptake of pharmacological and non-pharmacological prescribing; and analysing viewpoints of stakeholders about blue green prescribing. This information is useful in the development of a bespoke blue green prescribing strategy that fits in the context of Scottish healthcare system and considers behavioural, environmental, social, and systemic facets of intervention adoption.

University

Glasgow Caledonian

Scholar: Rita Noelle Moussa

Cohort: 2019-23

Project

Conversion of wastewaters and organic waste into chemicals, energy, and organic fertiliser
Community Impact: The objective is to establish an anaerobic digestion process for the bio-decomposition of wastewaters and organic waste to be able to provide cleaner and healthier water before being discharged into the environment. Moreover, the process will produce valuable chemicals such as ethanol, short chain organic acid for industrial use and hydrogen, methane for energy production (biofuel and electricity).

University

Aberdeen

Scholar: Diana Souza Moura

Cohort: 2019-23

Project

Microplastics as a vector for micropollutants in aquatic environments.
Community Impact: Affect societal attitudes in respect of the use of plastics and provide tools to influence policies by understanding the mechanism of interaction between microplastics and natural toxins, such as microcystins, and pharmaceuticals, as well as the effect of microplastics loaded with micropollutants on aquatic biota in freshwater, and the potential dangers of underestimating these pollutants in drinking water as current water sampling protocols do not account for adsorbed pollutants.

University

Robert Gordon

Scholar: Martyn Roberts

Cohort: 2020-24

Project

The role of place and scale on effectiveness of temporary storage areas for surface runoff attenuation

Community Impact: To provide a decision support framework for policy and practitioners. This will communicate the functioning of temporary storage areas (TSAs) in various scenarios and provide a useful tool for effectively targeting and managing future TSAs.

University

Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Ilgaz Cakin

Cohort: 2020-24

Project

Reed Bed Use Within Scotch Whisky Distilleries to Treat Wastewater: A New Toolkit to Help Maximise Performance

Community Impact: To research sustainable, high-performance green wastewater treatment technologies for the Scottish whisky sector.

University

Highlands and Islands

Scholar: Indira De Menezes Castro

Cohort: 2020-24

Project

Elimination at source of biocidal agents from fresh water environments by TiO2 photocatalysis

Community Impact: To research developing a pilot scale modular photocatalytic treatment unit that can be deployed for source management of biocide discharge, i.e. in drainage channels, waste gutters, rural SuDS, or waste water ponds.

University

Robert Gordon

Scholar: Sayali Pawar

Cohort: 2020-24

Project

Future proofing Scotland's water security: delivering safe and resilient water supplies

Community Impact: To relate past drought periods to observed water quality in drinking water supply catchments (chemical and biological status) to examine empirical evidence of drought impacts in Scotland in terms of water quantity, quality and ecosystem resilience, with a special focus on private water supplies and users.

University

Dundee and the James Hutton Institute

Scholar: Manuel-Thomas Valdivia Moya

Cohort: 2020-24

Project

Nanomaterials and photonic solutions: Novel 'at source' approaches to stop hospital-derived priority substances reaching the sewer network

Community Impact: To study the nature and extent of the emerging problem of pharmaceuticals in wastewater prior to developing novel at-source solutions to eliminate the risk, particularly with respect to healthcare facilities (e.g. at hospitals).

University

Highlands and Islands