Future Plans:
End January 2009 Birmingham Learning Alliance external assessment available to LA to comment on
Feb/Eary Mar 2009 Visit to green/brown roof demonstrations for Young Switch Members-please nominate members of your organisation who could benefit from this
March/April 2009 Institutional Mapping and Stakeholder Analysis meeting
May 2009 A review of the Vision for Birmingham in the future (downloadable from http://switchbirmingham.wordpress.com/reports/) and scenario planning and strategy building
November 2009 Feedback from Demonstrations (background information available from http://switchbirmingham.wordpress.com/reports/ and http://switchbirmingham.wordpress.com/research-demonstrations/)
City Water Introduction-February 2009
The Birmingham LA are invited to attend a workshop on the City Water Decision Support System. The workshop is aimed to introduce the tool, how it operated and looks and to gain valuable feedback from the LA members on it. For further details, including how to book a place, click here.
Expo, Zaragoza-September 2008
The Birmingham LA Facilitator attended the Expo in Zaragoza in September 2008. The site had exhibits from across the globe demonstrating excellence in sustainable water management, in addition to specialist pavillions on areas such as water and energy. She also attended the EU Water Research Day which showcased the 6th Framework Projects, including the SWITCH project and debated how the knowledge in current projects can feed into future ones. For photos click here.
SWITCH LA City Reviews-August 2008
The Birmingham LA Coordinator and Facilitator travelled to Hamburg in order to review the work being undertaken and to learn from other cities, and simiarly, the Accra Facilitator and a representative from Greenwich University came to Birmingham and interviewed members of the LA, the research team and the LA facilitation team. The results of which will be available for download shortly.
Eastside Utility Study
The Birmingham LA were asked to look into the energy requiements of the Eastside developement in Birmingham. Although slightly out of the “urban water” remit, it is intrinsicly linked. The report is available from here.
Visioning Exercise
A number of workshops were held to look at Birmingham in the future, and ultimately obtain a vision of Birmingham. In addition to the workshops, questionnaires were issued and similar visioning documents were reviewed. The Birmingham City Vision is downloadable from here.
Stakeholder Analysis
It is an important to be aware of the stakholders who are involved in integrated urban water management at all levels within Birmingham. A stakeholder analysis was undertaken which not only looked at the stakeholders within the city, but the linkages to other stakeholders and the contribution they make. The output from this can be found here.
Activities for months 13-30
Field research initiated in the current 12 months will be continued through the next 18 months (WP2.3 (Extensive green roofs), 3.2 (Viral migration in aquifers), 5.3 (NA at the stream-aquifer interface). Development of the Learning Alliance activities will be furthered through consolidation of the LA meeting programme, expansion of the stakeholders through links with other actions taking place within Birmingham related to water, expansion of training opportunities for LA partners; collation of the spatial data sets required for the systems modelling under WP1.1 and WP1.2; gaining a deeper exploration of action research needs within the LA membership; reviewing the status of the Birmingham LA and evaluation of the approach taken to its implementation in the first 18 months.
For Birmingham work packages click here.
