Defra’s areas of responsibility cover a wide range of interacting natural and human systems. Changes that affect one outcome are often likely to have knock-on implications for others. Policy in areas such as land management, biodiversity conservation, pollution prevention, food security, fisheries, and waste management, need to be designed in the absence of perfect knowledge of how human and natural processes interact. It can be particularly difficult to attribute cause and effect in such complex systems where evidence is often partial and fragmented.
Consideration of the issues that Defra deals with as parts of systems, i.e. in terms of relationships between the parts can help us to unpick complex or seemingly chaotic situations, and better deliver robust positive outcomes for society. To facilitate more effective decision making, a range of approaches and specialties need to be applied to the above challenges.
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This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Natural Capital is a fundamental component of an economy's stock of resources upon which human health, well-being and wealth depend. Economic growth and development are conditioned by the economy's overall capital stock ...
Funded by: SPF
Lead research organisation: University of East Anglia
The project ADVANCES focuses on assessing changes in natural capital, which is directly relevant to the question about assessing current and future challenges in the UK.
This project implements a programme of public dialogue on the methods, analyses and recommendations of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA, 2011) and its recent follow on work (NEAFO). The UK NEA/NEAFO draws tog...
Funded by: NERC
Lead research organisation: University of Exeter
The project on public dialogue about ecosystem change in the UK is partially relevant as it addresses the implications for policy development, but does not directly answer the question about assessing current and future challenges.
The UK faces significant challenges in the 21st century due to mounting pressure on air and soil quality, water and food security, and the conservation of biodiversity. To provide effective solutions to these problems a ...
Funded by: NERC
Lead research organisation: NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019)
The project UK-SCaPE focuses on understanding the status and dynamics of environmental assets, which is partially relevant to the question about assessing current and future challenges in the UK.