Scotland the Hydro Nation: annual report 2017

The Hydro Nation – 4 ^th Annual Report – Highlights

The Hydro Nation Forum continues to provide guidance and advice, and to track progress at its biannual meetings. With the Forum's help we continually review our overarching strategy across the four key interlinking themes set out below to ensure the Hydro Nation programme is fit for purpose, and is working to support the sector's needs.

The last year has seen considerable activity against each of the themes including the following highlighted examples:

National: Supporting Communities and Scotland's Water Economy

Two major projects to tackle flooding that has affected 47 properties in the Springburn area of Glasgow have been completed by Scottish Water. The projects, which involved a total investment of more than £16m, will reduce the risk of flooding which has affected 34 properties in the Elmvale Row area and 13 in the Avonspark Street area nearby.

International: Utilising Our Expertise Abroad

Over the course of this year the Water Industry Commission for Scotland ( WICS) has continued to develop a range of international links to learn from and share expertise on delivering effective regulation. WICS has worked closely with the OECD and the EU Structural Reform Support Service in support of the Romanian regulator.

Drawing on and tailoring Scottish Water's excellence in public-sector utility expertise, Scottish Water International ( SWI) continued to be active across the world and has completed a major contract to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water services in the Canadian city of Calgary. The expertise SWI brought helped The City of Calgary in its on-going efforts to improve its business and demonstrate value to its citizens.

Knowledge: Expanding Perspectives

The Hydro Nation Scholars Programme goes from strength to strength. We currently have a cohort of 16 talented PhD scholars from Scotland and around the world studying a wide range of topics identified by a Steering Group drawn from Hydro Nation family including government, industry and the academic sector. Dr Christopher Schultz is the first Hydro Nation Scholar to complete his studies.

Scottish scientists joined forces with the first Hydro Nation International Fellow (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) to tackle Nitrate Contamination of Groundwater. The project is developing and testing predictive models of nitrate contamination of groundwater in the Berambadi catchment. The outcome is to better understand the sources, transport and fate of nitrate in groundwater and to identify potential options for managing and mitigating the risk of nitrate pollution.

Innovation: Developing New Technologies

The Hydro Nation Water Innovation Service ( HNWIS) is making good progress in helping to bring new technologies to market. We have commenced the process with key stakeholders including Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Funding Council, SEPA and Scottish Water Horizons to develop an improved specification for the next iteration of the Service.

There has been good progress in relation to the Hydro Nation Development Centres which are now being utilised by companies referred through HNWIS and to test technologies that can help improve rural supply provision.