Analysis

In this article, we examine how innovation is being explored by the water sector. Here, innovation needs to be understood as new methods, ideas, products, or solutions for adoption by environmental practitioners.

We look at three different domains within which innovation has played a significant role: ecosystem services, nature-based solutions (NbS) and greenhouse gas emissions quantification (although we acknowledge that there are many other domains within the water sector where innovation is an important factor). Recent regulatory ambitions and investments have provided an opportunity to innovate in the way the sector actively engages in the protection, conservation, restoration, sustainable use and management of ecosystem services through NbS. Innovation can lead to more effective NbS when systems approaches, multiple capital approaches, multifunctionality, hybridised solutions and standardised approaches are considered. We describe these key principles in the next sections, and then focus on how technological innovation helps quantify methane emissions, improving understanding of carbon sequestration contributing to the ecosystem service of climate regulation.

Innovation and ecosystem services
What do ecosystem services mean to the UK water sector, and what is their link with innovative nature-based solutions? UK water companies have recently published their business plans for 2025-2030, and this provides a timely opportunity to review and understand their individual proposals for ecosystem services. Using word frequency analysis for “Ecosystem Services”, UK water companies’ current and future Asset Management Plans (AMP) (AMP7, 2020-2025, and AMP8, 2025-2030) were explored. In both AMP7 and AMP8, “Ecosystem Services” was mentioned infrequently (0.03 and 0.01 per 1,000 words respectively). Does this mean that UK water companies are not committing to protecting and maintaining ecosystem services? Not quite. 

Ecosystem services can include provision of clean drinking water, wetland habitat provision, and recreation. UK water companies typically use NbS as the mechanism to deliver ecosystem services, and if we look at the word frequency analysis for “Nature-based Solutions” there is a significant increase in the average mentions within business plans from AMP7 to AMP8 (0.0004 to 0.27 per 1,000 words). NbS are clearly a future focus for UK water companies, driven in the most part by Ofwat’s ambition for AMP8 to deliver greater environmental and social value through an expansion of NbS schemes and opportunities.

With increased focus comes greater potential for innovation, which is already being capitalised upon by the funding of a multi-partner, water company-led ‘Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value’ project, which was awarded over £8 million through the Ofwat Innovation Fund.¹ Looking through a flood resilience lens, UK water companies are involved in eight projects delivering NbS as part of the Defra-funded, EA-managed Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme.²

Small site-level scale innovations for NbS include a nature-based treatment technology combining microbial electrochemical technology and constructed wetlands, an algae-based wastewater treatment technology, and an eco-friendly digital tool to measure, report and verify carbon emission and sequestration at an ecosystem level. In the pipeline we can expect to see digital twins for ecosystems (a virtual representation or model of a system), which will facilitate the optioneering of NbS. Innovation within financial mechanisms could enable economic ecosystem service value to be generated from and for NbS. The Wyre Catchment Natural Flood Management project is the first UK example of private investment enabling the delivery of natural flood management.³

People are always the greatest concern when considering innovation options. Water companies are all at different stages of innovation maturity with respect to nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. A recurring theme in conversations within the sector is the requirement and desire to learn from each other. Collaboration between water companies combined with innovative approaches will be the most important factors if the sector is to successfully deliver NbS at the economies of scale and pace required in AMP8 and beyond.

Innovation and nature-based solutions
The water environment is facing ever-growing pressures ranging from quantity (too little or too much) to hygiene and quality (water that is too dirty). These are exacerbated by climate change, biodiversity crises, socio-political factors, economic challenges, and ageing assets. It is clear that there are too many problems to be solved separately, as these pressures are all interconnected. Addressing these effectively will require the water sector to work in innovative, collaborative and adaptive ways. The solutions to these problems cannot be provided by traditional approaches alone. NbS can play a critical role in addressing multiple challenges, creating future resilience, adding socio-economic value, connecting the landscape, and in supporting sustainable development.

There are a number of innovative ways in which NbS can deliver more value for water, people and the environment:

• NbS should be designed for multifunctionality, whereby one solution can deliver multiple improvements at the same time and therefore provide social, environmental and economic benefits.
• NbS should hybridise, and be integrated within, engineered solutions and the built environment in order to optimise synergies and trade-offs with traditional infrastructure. This includes reducing impacts associated with carbon-intensive methods, and providing more resilience to current and future risks.
• With relevance to scale and aggregation, the value of NbS can be maximised when taking a systems-based approach to how they are planned, designed, and delivered across the landscape. The benefits of working in this way can drive the aggregation of ecosystem services and wider value, and it can attract multiple funding and investment opportunities. A key example is the use of innovative market approaches, such as in the Wyre NFM project.⁴
• A multiple capitals approach should be used in assessing value for NbS by considering the impact across the landscape. By calculating the value of the many ecosystem services that NbS can provide (including reflecting the significance of ecosystem services that are inherently not monetizable or quantifiable, but that matter to local people and ecosystem functioning), solutions can be designed to achieve much more added value for customers, society, and the environment beyond cost savings.

However, this requires new ways of working and more collaborative approaches, with much more joined-up and coordinated planning and delivery, at a greater scale than what has been observed to date.

This is one of the main goals that the ‘Mainstreaming NbS’ project is hoping to deliver.⁵ An innovative five-year programme of work funded through the OFWAT Innovation Fund, ‘Mainstreaming NbS’ involves a partnership of over 22 multi-sectoral organisations that have experience within and outside of the water sector. The project aims to bring fresh perspectives that will maximise uptake and benefits arising from NbS by addressing the numerous challenges within the water sector and moving away from siloed working. The project will form a coalition of unlikely allies from different disciplines and cultures (including policymakers and regulators) to reframe existing problems, identify obstacles of change, to learn and co-create new solutions, and to drive the transition to transformational change within AMP8 and beyond.

The project proposes using policy and regulation, tools, processes and knowledge resources to facilitate the dissemination, expertise and standardisation of best practice. It thereby accelerates the transition of NbS from a solely innovative approach into a standard practice, resulting in multi-million-pound investment to be delivered across the UK in novel ways.

Innovation and Net Zero
The UK water industry has made a pledge to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030. The accelerated pace at which the impending deadline is approaching is driving the industry to take up new technologies, especially those that can provide accurate and rapid quantification of gas concentrations, enhancements and fluxes. In the last few years, the water sector has significantly invested in the uptake of technological solutions that enable the estimation of total CH4, CO2 and N2O emissions, amongst other greenhouse gases. An excellent example is the application of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs also known as drones) for measuring CH4 concentrations in wastewater treatment plants. Within the context of CH4 emissions, drone technology deployment has been curtailed in the past decade by sensor weight and size. Until recently, the minimization of commercial sensors had not been achieved sufficiently for them to be installed and used on drones. Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) sensors have now been successfully miniaturized to enable their integration in rotary drones, and wastewater treatment plants are pioneers in the use of this newly marketed emerging technology.

Drones with embedded TDLAS sensors can be easily deployed when they are required, enabling rapid collection of crucial environmental data. They have been proven extremely useful when it comes to collecting path integrated CH4 concentrations at an unprecedented spatial resolution over target assets. Their ability to record measurements at pre-determined waypoints, and their “hovering in one spot” function, offers a wide range of possibilities to characterise fugitive emissions from diffuse and point sources. Drones also enable the integration of a wide range of bespoke sensors, such as thermal and infrared cameras, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors.

Current technology does have its limits and constraints. Operational constraints need to be carefully considered before making any capital commitments to the technology. There are limitations around drone deployment under windy and rainy conditions, and frequent software and technological upgrades are also necessary to ensure capability is fit for purpose. Other limitations, such as battery endurance and payload, may constrain the range of variables that can be measured. There is often resistance to the uptake of new technologies, even when they are not innovative or disruptive approaches. Sometimes this is because alternative methodologies have been used for decades to comply with policy and regulations, and these are primarily reliant on the outputs from an existing technique. There is also the time and cost associated with learning the new technology. Social perception also plays a key role. The identification of solutions for overcoming such challenges is required to maximise the benefits of innovation within the water sector.

From an in-situ deployment perspective, there is uncertainty as to how the sampling programmes should be executed. Such uncertainty is not specific to greenhouse gas emission monitoring, but also applies to other applications of drones within the water sector. Surface water flood management is another well-known example where the combined use of artificial intelligence and high-resolution drone imagery has informed management decisions. The flight plan, the location of waypoints, the type of sensors and their orientation all have a role with respect to the assessment of the current environmental challenges. The need for data collection, processing and visualisation standards is clear, and the water sector could lead on this development.

Final thoughts
The use of NbS to deliver multiple ecosystem services is emerging as a key mechanism in the water sector. Innovation within this context spans multiple domains, from new ways of working, to the development of treatment technologies, and the use of digital technologies for greenhouse gas emissions quantification and reporting. Technology has played a key role, empowering organisations in both the private and public sector to collect data for the estimation of total emissions. Environmental monitoring technologies have advanced significantly in the last few years, enhancing our surveying capabilities through the provision of enhanced data sets with improved quantity and quality. The water sector is a pioneer in the uptake of such technologies and should continue to be a sector of reference for innovation in the future. This great potential for innovation in different domains and scales offers a unique opportunity to engage in the development of multi and cross-disciplinary solutions that tackle many of the pressing environmental issues facing the water sector. Interconnected environmental challenges require interconnected innovative solutions, and the success of such solutions will ultimately depend on how the sector empowers individuals to collaborate.

The Institution for Environmental Sciences⁶ offers multiple platforms for environmental practitioners to identify subject-specific experts and initiate collaboration, such as the Land Condition Early Careers Network.⁷ Similarly, the UK Government offers multiple funding mechanisms available to initiate multidisciplinary cross-sector collaborations. Enterprises can access Innovate UK-driven initiatives, and UK Research Councils (such as the Natural Environment Research Council, NERC) will fund scientific research collaborative programmes between research institutions, and the public and private sector. Separate from the source of funding, successful multidisciplinary collaborations will always require individuals to step up and embrace inclusive, diverse, flexible, and adaptive approaches that depart from siloed working.

References

1. Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value (2023). https://waterinnovation.challenges.org/winners/mainstreaming-nature-based-solutions/ ↩︎
2. Guidance: Flood and coastal innovation programmes (2020). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/flood-and-coastal-resilience-innovation-programme ↩︎
3. The Wyre Catchment Natural Flood Management Project (2023). https://www.greenfinanceinstitute.com/gfihive/case-studies/the-wyre-river-natural-flood-management-project/ ↩︎
4. Wyre NFM Project (2023). https://thefloodhub.co.uk/wyre-nfm-project/ ↩︎
5. Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value (2023). https://waterinnovation.challenges.org/winners/mainstreaming-nature-based-solutions/ ↩︎
6. IES ↩︎
7. Land Condition Community (2023).https://www.the-ies.org/sector/land-condition ↩︎