Safe & SuRe: A new paradigm for urban water management

What is Safe & SuRe?

Safe & SuRe is a EPSRC funded fellowship that aims to develop sustainable and resilient solutions for urban water management at a time of global uncertainty. Researchers are developing new paradigms so that existing urban water systems can be better used, managed, regulated, planned, operated, rehabilitated, retrofitted and redesigned to cope with global uncertainties. The researchers are collaborating with a range of practitioners and policymakers including the Environment Agency, Water Industry Forum, Northumbrian Water, and the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network, to ensure that they meet the needs of stakeholders.

Why is resilience important in the water sector?

In the UK, the Water Act 2014 places a duty on the water and wastewater sectors to “further the resilience objective”. It highlights a need for long-term planning of water, wastewater and service provisions under increasing global threats. Last year Ofwat released the ‘Resilience in the Round’ document (Ofwat, 2017) which stresses that resilience needs to be assessed holistically and go beyond the more traditional operational views of resilience to include financial, corporate and related natural environment, social systems, economy and other wider factors.   

Applying Safe & SuRe research to the water sector

The Safe & SuRe team have invested in a wide range of impact activities to engage research findings to assist in creating a resilient and sustainable urban water sector, working with major water providers in the UK conducting workshops and talks. One example of a successful working relationship has been with Scottish Water. Roi Otero (Resilience and Regional Strategy Team Leader) said “It has been very worthwhile to learn about the findings from the Safe&SuRe fellowship, and to explore ways the framework can assist us with some of our water management challenges in a holistic manner” 

The multidisciplinary research team have worked on the following topic areas:

• Sewerage, drainage & flood resilience
• Wastewater treatment resilience & sustainability
• Water supply & distribution resilience
• Support Decision Tools: Global Resilience Analysis software add-on, screening methods, flexible design
• Intervention technologies: SUDs, multi-purpose rainwater harvesting
• Household perceptions and intentions towards coping with drought and flood events
• Emergency planning for flood and drought in the water Sector
• Organisational resilience within the water sector

Meet the Safe & SuRe team

Prof David Butler

David Butler is Professor of Water Engineering in the Centre for Water Systems (CWS) at the University of Exeter with 30 years of experience in the water industry. He jointly leads the CWS with over 30 researchers working mainly in the areas of urban water, system optimisation and hydroinformatics. Professor Butler is Principal Investigator on the fellowship and leads the Safe & SuRe project team.

Dr Raziyeh Farmani

Dr. Raziyeh Farmani is Co-Investigator on the fellowship and a senior lecturer based in the Centre for Water System. She has led Exeter’s contribution to several projects funded by EPSRC, the British Council and the EU and has authored over 50 publications.  She led research in two EPSRC Sustainable Urban Environment consortia. She is also co-investigator in FP7 project (iWIDGET, Improved Water efficiency through ICT technologies for integrated supply-Demand side manaGEmenT) and EPSRC funded project (Local Nexus Netwrok - Building sustainable local nexuses of food, energy and water: from smart engineering to shared prosperity).

Dr Guangtao Fu

Dr. Guangtao Fu is Co-Investigator on the fellowship and a lecturer based in the Centre for Water Systems. His research focuses on conducting fundamental and applied research at the interface between water systems and decision making to tackle water and environmental issues under uncertainty. He has managed or contributed to a number of research projects funded by EPSRC, RAE, and EU Framework Programmes and has over 30 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr Sarah Ward

Dr. Sarah Ward is research Co-Investigator and now is an interdisciplinary researcher-practitioner. She is currently working on a portfolio of projects relating to sustainable water management and climate change from a business and community engagement with research perspective. Dr Ward works in different roles/Centres at the University of Exeter. She has led/worked on a number of JISC and EPSRC projects.

Dr Chris Sweetapple

Dr Chris Sweetapple is an Associate Research Fellow working for Safe & SuRe project in the Centre for Water Systems. Chris is responsible for developing and applying a quantitative option assessment framework that can be applied across water sub-systems in Safe & SuRe project.

Dr Fanlin Meng

Dr Fanlin Meng is an Associate Research Fellow working for the Safe & SuRe project and project manager for the BRIM project. Fanlin is responsible for developing new resilience assessment frameworks and investigating intervention measures to build resilience into water systems.

Dr Kate Baker

Dr Kate Baker is a postdoctoral research fellow working for Safe & SuRe project in the Centre for Water Systems. Kate joined the fellowship in its final year and is responsible for the industrial dissemination strategy and assisting to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

Dr Seyed Sadr

Dr Seyed Sadr is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in water and wastewater engineering at the Centre for Water Systems (CWS), University of Exeter. Dr Sadr joined the CWS in 2014 and worked on a number of projects before joining the Safe & SuRe project in March 2017. In this project, Seyed leads the part that explores the relationship between system resilience and sustainability and looks to link the concept of adaptation pathways as a contribution to both resilience and sustainability.