Collaborative research aims to make rural Wales more resilient to storms

Cardiff University researchers are set to help rural communities in Wales to increase their resilience against climate change-induced rises in storm intensity.

Welsh farmers play a crucial role in sustaining ecosystem services of clean water, air and habitat provision, as well as food production. In addition to pressures to produce food cheaply, farmers are vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, which is already increasing summer storm intensity and sediment runoff.

To help farmers cope with these changes, Cardiff University is partnering with NFU Cymru to increase engagement with sustainable land management actions in rural farming communities.

Dr Elizabeth Follett and Dr Catherine Wilson, Hydro-Environmental Research Centre, Professor Jo Cable, School of Biosciences, and Nuffield Farming Trust scholar, Lorna Davis, will work with Welsh farmers to increase the environmental, social and economic resilience of rural communities.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project will deliver a series of workshops, public engagement and outreach activities, including live demonstrations and participatory art in partnership with designer Penny Turnbull. The workshops will allow researchers and farmers to co-produce a soil management toolkit and provide practical instruction that farmers can use to apply sustainable land management concepts on their own farms.

Through public engagement and outreach activities, the researchers hope to empower farming communities to maintain ecosystem services and make more sustainable land management decisions.

The project is funded by the NERC as part of the NERC Wales Showcase 2021 and aims to encourage academics and members of the public in Wales to work collaboratively on research projects.

Get involved in the project

We are looking for participants who are willing to attend two online workshops, each lasting 1.5 hours over the weeks of 19-23 July and late September to early October, and including a 1:1 farm visit.

More details are available on the environmental resilience for water in rural Wales project website.