Project Events

Urban river management and the Water Framework Directive

4th and 5th May 2005, Austin Court, Birmingham, UK.

Since starting in 2002, the Sustainable Management of Urban Rivers and Floodplains (SMURF) project has been investigating how implementing sustainable land-use planning and water management techniques could tackle the problems associated with urban rivers.

The final project conference was an opportunity to review the progress made during this three-year LIFE-Environment project and critically assess the project's outputs.

The conference also explored some of the progress being made towards implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the relationships with the management of urban rivers. Invited speakers reported on a range of topics and projects related to the Water Framework Directive and urban river management. Delegates also haD the opportunity to participate in workshop sessions exploring aspects of both public participation and river basin planning for the Water Framework Directive.

Conference Programme

You can download the programme here.

• Smurf Conference Programme in MS-Word Format [497 kb]

Previous Event: Sustainable Urban River Management Workshop

8th and 9th March 2004, Birmingham, UK.

This 1½ day workshop reported on three of the main components of the project:

• A GIS-based catchment planning system;
• A transferable set of Sustainable Indicators for urban rivers;
• Citizen and stakeholder involvement in urban river management and planning.

The workshop included site visits to rivers in the Tame catchment, a number of presentations about the project with plenty of opportunity for extensive discussion and debate and demonstrations of the application of the GIS planning system. There was also a session for delegates to present posters to the workshop.

Please be aware -- some of the following files are very large

• Introduction to day 1 in MS-Powerpoint Format [3,911 kb]
• Introduction to day 2 in MS-Powerpoint Format [1,650 kb]
• GIS Planning System in MS-Powerpoint Format [17,314 kb]
• Severn Trent Water Perspective in MS-Powerpoint Format [2,582kb]
• Sustainable Environmental Indicators in MS-Powerpoint Format [725 kb]
• Water Framework Directive - a UK perspective in MS-Powerpoint format [5,176 kb]
• Citizen Engagement in MS-Powerpoint Format [926 kb]
• Forward Look in MS-Powerpoint Format [187 kb]
• Final Delegate List in MS-Excel Format [33 kb]

A Selection of Posters that were shown at the event will be made available on the Project CD-ROM, to be distributed at a later date.

Workshop Programme and Briefing Notes

For further information about the workshop please download the briefing notes:

• Sustainable Urban River Management workshop programme in MS-Word Format [294 kb]
• Sustainable Urban River Management workshop briefing notes in MS-Word Format [173 kb]

Previous Event: Know-How Workshop

On 25th April 2003, the SMURF project held a workshop at the University of Birmingham. This 'Know-how' gathering workshop brought together delegates to consider information, best practice and the latest relevant R&D results from across the EU. The workshop was attended by 55 delegates from the UK, Europe and the U.S.

The workshop considered and debated three main topics:

• The proposed land-use planning and river basin modelling methodology;
• A set of Sustainable Indicators for urban rivers;
• Best practice in citizen and stakeholder consultation in land-use and river basin planning.

The workshop was a key event in helping to determine the methodology to be adopted and used during the remainder of the project. A full report on the workshop, including copies of presentations made by project partners and delegates, is available for downloading from the Project Reports Section.