Research Strands
CCCR’s Research Objectives
CCCR’s Research Objectives are to:
Improve understanding of the effects of changes in climate and land use on riverine, estuarine and coastal ecosystem functioning and biodiversity (including fisheries) and, in particular, to improve understanding of river sediment system responses to future climate and land-use change, and to determine whether changes are likely to propagate down- or upstream between river catchments and the coastal zone.
Improve understanding of the factors that control fluxes and health impacts of sediment-associated pollutants (most notably heavy metals and microbial pollutants) and nutrients in aquatic systems, particularly those remobilised from secondary and diffuse sources and their effects on biota and to elucidate the environmental implications of the translocation of large carbon stores in Welsh soils via aquatic ecosystems to the oceans.
Create comprehensive datasets and time series of state variables in the Welsh aquatic ecosystem so as to predict future sustainability and effective numerical and empirical models of fluvial, estuarine and coastal morpho-dynamics.
Inform management decisions concerned with ecosystem sustainability in terrestrial, coastal and marine environments at local, regional and global levels and in particular to support the appropriate implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive in Wales, so as to ensure compliance is achieved and improve Welsh flood-inundation maps and to identify those Welsh floodplains and estuaries most at risk from accelerated erosion and sedimentation.
Undertake detailed studies of the Conwy, and Dyfi river systems and, from its base in Wales, to contribute significantly to the understanding of catchment and coastal issues throughout the world.