The Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) is joining with partners to transform how the UK understands and responds to water scarcity.
In 2023, the Environment Agency published its largest ever review of drought science, working with leading drought scientists from 13 universities, research institutes, and consultancies. The review set out what is known, and not well known, about the physical and social factors that come together during drought.
To build on these findings, the Environment Agency, with FDRI partners - the University of Bristol and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) - convened 48 experts for a national workshop in 2024. The workshop focussed on understanding catchment processes during drought conditions and identified the most urgent research priorities.
“This is exactly the kind of challenge FDRI was designed to support,” said Dr Glenn Watts, Associate Science Director of Water and Climate Science at UKCEH. “By providing open-access data and infrastructure, we’re enabling researchers to tackle drought from every angle.”
Supporting a National Research Agenda
Despite the recent hot, dry weather, serious droughts happen rarely in the UK. This means there’s little observational data to tell us how water systems behave when soils are very dry and river flows and groundwater levels are very low.
The workshop addressed these complexities and identified four priority areas for future drought research:
- Monitoring and data collection
- Drought management and interventions
- Understanding drought processes
- Water demand and public engagement
“These research priorities come together to tackle the whole drought problem,” said Dr Watts. “It will help us understand how people act during drought, how environments respond to drought, and which management measures are most effective.”
Building a Community of Practice
The workshop also aimed to help build a community, one of FDRI’s key objectives.
“Because droughts are complex events that are difficult to predict and adapt to, they require lots of different expertise,” said Dr Gemma Coxon, Associate Professor in Hydrology at the University of Bristol and FDRI Capacity Building Lead. “That’s exactly why we wanted representation from climate, hydrology, ecology, social science, water systems engineering, and beyond.
“Having a community means we can share knowledge and ideas, establish new connections between disciplines, and foster innovation to provide solutions to drought challenges.
“FDRI will help sustain the drought community of practice by supporting community events and delivering training to the next generation of drought scientists,” said Dr Coxon.
Next steps
We plan to co-host a dedicated drought event in 2026, with a stronger focus on translating discussions into action. This next event will aim to co-develop practical steps and research priorities to address the knowledge gaps identified during the workshop.