On Tuesday I had the exciting responsibility of organising and holding a Cafe Scientifique event in the Allan Water Cafe, Bridge of Allan on Natural Flood Management. What is a Cafe Scientifique you ask yourself? Well, a Cafe Scientifique is an event that brings scientists or experts in their field, into an informal environment to give a short talk followed by a question and discussion session with the public. The aim is to bring scientists to the people and connect the public with the current work that is being done on a certain topic. With the recent media outpouring on flooding, if you excuse the pun, we could not have picked a better time to have the event!
A view of the Cafe Scientifique set-up
The topic was Natural Flood Management (NFM), which uses natural processes to slow and store water upstream or on less profitable land to minimise flood risk to residential/urban areas further down the river catchment.
The guest speakers for the event and the topics they covered were:
Charles Perfect (CRESS, Stirling University) – What is NFM?
Chris Spray (Dundee University and Tweed Forum)- Why is NFM needed (policy)?
Lawrence Belleni (me) (TCV and CRESS)- How is NFM established?
Hugh Chalmers (Tweed Forum)- Case Study of NFM on the Bowmont Catchment.
Me setting up, with guest speakers Chris Spray and Hugh Chalmers in the background
The first slide of Charles Perfect’s talk
The speakers were fantastic and gave exciting and rather innovative talks that were very informal, fun and engaging. This was reflected by the audience during the question and discussion sessions whose questions and points came from a great range of the people present.
It was a fantastic event to be a part of, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the Allan Water Cafe had to close, I believe the questioning and discussion session could have gone on for at least another half hour!
Some of the thought provoking points raised from the audience included:
Implications of flooding on the floodplain to farmers that farm there, such as animal welfare.
A townhall style meeting for landowners and farmers on the benefits to them of NFM may be beneficial, especially with pro-NFM farmers speaking at it.
NFM shouldn’t be just about putting trees everywhere but about creating a network of NFM measures in a catchment. (Which we all agreed with!).
A local landowner discussing his views
It was a very beneficial event for me to hear people’s concerns, and raise very interesting and thought provoking points. In addition a couple of the landowners came up to me after the event and told me that it had got them thinking of some NFM measures that could potentially be done on their land. So the event must have had a positive effect. Thankfully a good indication that the public enjoyed the event was that we received a round of applause at the end! For me, that was one of the best bits, and I gave an inner sigh of relief! Organising the Cafe Scientifique felt a lot like organising a house party when you have no idea who will turn up, if anyone! So I was quite nervous beforehand…. However, I was happy to have a good attendance that represented a range of people that NFM is of interest to in the Allan Water Catchment, and importantly, that the event was warmly received.
I would like to say a big thank you again to all involved in the organisation of the event including the speakers, the Allan Water Cafe and their staff, and Alan Law who welcomed and introduced the event. If you are interested in NFM, I have provided a couple of recent media articles about NFM below that are definitely worth a read and highlight the type of flood management we are working to achieve on the Allan Water.
Article 1 Guardian click here
Article 2 BBC click here