Project Leader: Jim Skea
Sponsor: Environment Agency
Period: February-April 2000
Background
The Environment Agency's principal aim, as set out in Section 4 of the Environment Act 1995, is to discharge its functions so as to contribute to the objective of achieving sustainable development.
The Environment Agency's R&D Programme includes a stream of work on sustainable development. The aim of this study was to review the sustainable development programme. The goals of the review were:
· to appraise the coverage of the Sustainable Development research
programme in light of the Agency's duties and responsibilities;
· to assess how appropriate the individual projects are to the Agencies needs;
· to ensure that the proposed work is innovative;
· to indicate possible further links that should be forged with partners and
collaborators;
· to recommend alternative project proposals that fit well into the Agency's
business and sustainable development needs; and
· to highlight any notable omissions from the programme.
Project Design
The review was conducted by: assessing documentation describing the Agency's Environmental Strategy, its R&D Strategy and other documentation relating to the Agency's R&D activities; and assessing the specification of projects within the programme which were either current in 1999/2000 or planned for 2000/01. Informal discussions were also held with Agency staff about possible developments in the Agency's Environmental Strategy which were relevant to the review.
Importance of Research
The review will assist the Environment Agency in formulating its forward programme of research on sustainable development issues within the framework of its Environmental Strategy and its R&D Strategy.