Watery Worlds

Consultancy is often depicted as working towards an urbanised developed environment, but what if they are working towards the greater good? The UK has 80% of the global chalk streams (viewed as the UK rainforest) but are in decline both in number and quality. The main threat to chalk streams is the direct and indirect effects of climate change and abstraction, leading to an increasing number of chalk streams vulnerable to drying out. To mitigate against such challenges, AECOM has been working with Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Trust in partnership with the Environment Agency, to undertake an investigation into low flows within the Waithe Beck upper catchment and identify restoration opportunities.

Agriculture is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity losses globally, impacting both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Agriculture covers ~ 70% of UK land, and has led to the loss and homogenisation of natural habitats at different spatial scales. This is most evident for ponds and small waterbodies, with estimates suggesting that up to 1/3 of ponds have been lost between 1880 to 2000. Despite pond losses, pond ecosystems are widely acknowledged as one of the most abundant and biodiverse aquatic habitats at a regional scale and support the greatest number of endangered taxa.

Many ponds located on agricultural land have limited or no protection, leading to the Agri-Environment Scheme (AES); providing financial incentives to farmers to encourage sustainable farming methods, promote biodiversity gains, and to conserve unique habitats.

We present enhanced methodologies for the identification, quantification, and characterization of nano plastics, utilizing nano-fluidics and tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS).

Despite ongoing efforts, the current focus on ‘plastic pollution’ predominantly dwells on macro and micro scales, neglecting the potential health threats posed by nano plastics. Most existing research relies on Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), a technique limited to providing information solely on particle size and unsuitable for mixed sized samples due to its low resolution. Our innovative approach involves integrating charged surfaces into an established microfluidic setup. This is applied to local freshwater samples, compared and combined with common chemical pretreatments, to investigate the optimal treatment of fresh water samples using resistive pulse sensing for nano plastic investigations.