Urban Stream Restoration in Belfast - Identifying opportunities to improve stream management and increase the ecological and societal worth of urban streams within the city.

Background and significance of research

Rivers and streams provide a wide range of natural, economic and societal services. However stream ecosystems in urbanized catchments are often badly degraded, with activities such as channelisation, culverting, storm water discharge and pollution negatively impacting the environment and the ecosystem services these rivers provide. The impacts of urbanisation on streams go beyond habitat loss, and affect the quality of our drinking water, recreational amenity, resilience to climate change and ability to control flood waters.
Legislation such as the Water Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive have helped to drive restoration and sustainable water management in the UK. Building on improvements already achieved, this interdisciplinary project will look at several streams within Belfast, working with local community groups and Belfast City Council. The project will bring together elements of freshwater ecology, environmental hydrology and eDNA monitoring techniques to identify opportunities to improve stream management and increase the ecological and societal worth of urban streams within the city.
The candidate must be someone who is willing to learn, work hard and who enjoys both fieldwork and data analysis.

Research aims
• Collect data on the ecology and hydrology of selected urban streams in Belfast.
• Identify how hydrological and physical habitat differences influence species diversity and community composition within Belfast streams (comparing urbanised and ‘natural’).
• Develop novel eDNA monitoring tools.
• Identify the major barriers to improving water quality within Belfast streams, and work with local groups on all aspects of urban stream restoration.