CASRI unites Environment Protection Agencies (EPAs) and similar partners from 13 European countries to support national policy makers and societies to address the Global Challenges and Sustainable Development Goals. EPAs are direct or semi-governmental organisations responsible for monitoring and protecting the environment. CASRI EPAs highly value environmental and sustainability research and innovation (ES R&I), i.e. R&I that is systemic, actionable and transversal. These EPAs and the European Environment Agency have formed an Interest Group (IG) to enhance ES R&I collaboration in the EPA Network representing 37 countries. This CSA HEU-WIDERA Topic proposal aims at facilitating the IG through Collaborative Action coordinating and enhancing systemic, actionable and transversal Sustainability Research and Innovation (CASRI) related to research, policy and R&I funding. CASRI capitalises on the unique capacities of the EPAs and, for the first time, aligns them with the European Research Area. CASRI aims to identify and coordinate ES R&I needs, align national ES R&I programmes and facilitate and converge the application of ES R&I results at both the multilateral and European level while also complementing existing EU and Member State programmes. To achieve this, CASRI addresses eight objectives: 1) Conduct a comprehensive review of national ES R&I funding, exploitation programmes and knowledge needs; 2) Identify national and transnational gaps; 3) Derive transnational commons and develop a Strategic R&I Agenda; 4) Identify opportunities for co-implementation of the SRIA; 5) Bring together funders to collaboratively invest and synergistically deliver the SRIA, or parts thereof, at regional, national and transnational scales; 6) Prepare the implementation of multiannual joint calls; 7) Implement other joint supporting activities for ES R&I; 8) Improve the mid to long term capacities for the collaboration of EPAs and the European Research Area stakeholders.

Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) are on the rise due to the synergistic effects of climate change and habitat destruction. The impacts of AIS on Biodiversity, human health, and loss of ecosystem services are well known, but their control and management has now become a worldwide priority. Successful management of AIS is challenging because it requires several steps in succession: (1) early detection, (2) identification of routes of introduction and pathways of dispersal, and (3) development of efficient control measures. However, public awareness and stakeholder involvement are also critical .The main research goal of AQUAINVAD-ED is to exploit novel molecular advances combined with the power of citizen science to develop innovative methods of early detection, control and management of AIS. This will be achieved via a multi-disciplinary network of experts in invasion biology, aquatic biotechnology, citizen science and environmental policy working from 3 different countries. The inter-sectoral dimension of the consortium consists of fundamental and applied scientists from 3 universities, 1 technological institute, 2 government agencies, 1 NGO and 5 SMEs. AQUAINVAD-ED will catalyse research and commercial activity in the detection and management of AIS, as well as in the implementation of codes of good practice for the European industry and Government agencies. This will be achieved by training the next generation of researchers on the principles of invasion biology, providing them with the skills necessary to detect and quantify the ecological and socio-economic impacts of AIS and the ability to communicate science to the general public. The training program will be delivered through individual research projects, active participation in network activities and a unique combination of specialised courses, designed to increase employability in the consultancy sector, government, academia, and the water industry.

Human activities are directly and indirectly depleting the World's natural resources. At the same time, we rely on these resources for our livelihoods and well-being. Urgent action is thus needed to better manage our impact on the natural world. A key factor driving these negative impacts is that the decisions that people, businesses and governments make tend to be based on a limited set of nature's values that tend to be linked to economic markets. In biodiversity economics, these values are called 'instrumental' values: the predominantly monetary benefits of goods and services people obtain from nature. However, the global assessment on the value of nature has identified several other 'non-instrumental' value concepts, which include: relational values (the value we have for our relationships with nature); transcendental values (our overarching principles and life goals); shared values (collective values that expressed by groups, communities and cultures); and intrinsic values (values for nature independent of human welfare). NAVIGATE aims to enhance our understanding of these non-instrumental value concepts and explore how these values might be better integrated into economic thinking and policy decisions. Our research will undertake detailed reviews of the 'non-instrumental' value concepts. We will draw on a range of scientific perspectives to provide greater clarity on definitions of these value concepts, how they might be measured (using both monetary and other indicators) and how they might best be integrated into policy and business decisions. We will also ask decision makers whether they currently consider these values, and if not, how they think they could incorporate them. Based on the above, we will develop methods for assessing these values and feeding them into policies. To test our ideas, we will apply our methods to four case studies that will value the non-instrumental values associated with forests and woodlands. Our case studies include: the UK national forest; a new woodland that has recently been planted in Wales to store carbon, reduce flooding and promote outdoor recreation; urban woodland in the City of Helsinki, Finland; and conservation woodlands in Tanzania that provide timber products to the UK market. With the help of local stakeholders and policy makers, we will explore options to feed our findings relating to the value of our case study forests / woodland into actual policy decisions, through a range of existing and new approaches, such as cost-benefit analysis, natural capital accounting and deliberative democratic valuations. Conventional economic measures tend to only consider the instrumental values of nature, but it has been argued that better decisions could be made for our planet if the policies also account for a wider range of values including non-instrumental values, expressed in both monetary and non-monetary terms. The outputs from our research will include: a series of scientific papers and policy guidance documents for embedding non-instrumental values into decisions. We will also produce a video and infographics to explain the implications of our research to the public.

Keywords: Remote sensing; unmanned aerial vehicles; sediment; intertidal; monitoring; This study will assess the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to measure sediment type such as sand and mud on beaches. Measurement of sediment type is vital to fully understand the environmental impact of coastal development. Industrial developments in the coastal zone may affect wave and tidal processes which can change the spatial coverage of sediment type. Each sediment type has varying properties which affect rates of erosion and deposition. Furthermore, different sediment types provide a diversity of ecological habitats and regulators must ensure that the coverages of different habitat do not change to an unacceptable amount. Planned tidal lagoon schemes have caused regulators, in particular Natural Resources Wales, to question which survey tools would be suitable to monitor such changes in high tidal range regions where lagoons are likely to be constructed. High tidal range regions have wide intertidal expanses (sometimes in excess of 1km cross-shore) which means direct measurement of sediment type is difficult; both due to health and safety considerations and time constraints. Existing remote sensing techniques require manned aircraft; are expensive; and thus are not suitable for repeat surveys. Repeat surveys are needed to assess change as the natural environment responds to changes in forcing conditions over time. More cost-effective tools are therefore required to improve frequency of measurements. UAVs represent a possible low-cost alternative. Different sensors will be tested: a standard camera, a multispectral camera and a thermal camera. Multispectral and thermal UAV based sensors have been applied to measurement of sediment properties in soil science but not to high tidal range intertidal regions. The sensors will be tested in Swansea Bay, the proposed location of the UK's first tidal lagoon. Methodologies to remotely sense intertidal sediment types using these sensors will be developed. The suitability and accuracy of the developed methodology will be evaluated. Evaluation will be made both at Swansea Bay and at a range of other test sites around the UK. The feasibility assessment will be based on the results of these trials and consideration of other limiting factors such as UAV flight regulations. This project is important for industrial developers, environmental regulators and for the survey consultancies who conduct assessments of sediment type. This work is particularly timely since new low cost tools to monitor changes to substrate type will provide impact by feeding into the adaptive environmental monitoring plan protocols for future lagoon developments. The tools demonstrated will also be of use to identify changes caused by other natural and anthropogenic factors. More frequent and higher spatial resolution datasets will enable greater understanding of the natural variability in substrate type and hence be of great interest to the academic community. For developers, the use of UAV remote sensing will facilitate significant survey cost reduction. The techniques developed will substantially improve the safety of current operations for survey consultants who currently undertake sediment type monitoring on foot. This can be unsafe due to the presence of mud around the lower intertidal which is difficult to walk over. The methodology will extend the area that consultancies are able to measure sediment type in, providing an improved service and increasing the value of their offer to new clients. The project partner group includes: Tidal Lagoon Power, a developer; Natural Resources Wales, a regulatory body; Natural England, an advisory body; and AG Surveys, a survey consultancy. Therefore, representatives of all interested parties in the use of UAVs for the purpose of sediment mapping are included in the group.

Historical disposal of wastes from domestic and industrial sources often took place with little regard for potential environmental impacts. Wastes were often deposited in landfills that can release potential pollutants to the surrounding environment. Such 'legacy landfill' sites are a particular concern in coastal areas where they are likely to be affected by increased flooding, greater erosion and more extreme cycles of wetting and drying as our climate changes. Managing such environmental issues is of critical importance, but currently we do not have a systematic framework by which we assess and understand the nature of the risks posed by different waste types in coastal areas. Given the UK's rich industrial past, there are a wide range of legacy wastes deposited in estuarine and coastal settings such as municipal waste, mine wastes, steel industry by-products, metal-rich wastes from smelting and chemical process wastes. This proposal brings together a team of researchers specialising in assessing the environmental risks of legacy wastes to (1) provide a national assessment of the environmental risks associated with legacy landfills in the coastal zone, and (2) provide a framework for effective management of these risks now and in the future. The first part of the project will bring together various national databases (e.g. on location of landfills, mining waste, coastal erosion rates, coastal management plans) to provide a single map-based database of legacy landfills within the coastal zone. We will then liaise with regional specialists in government agencies and academia to collate detail on documented risks and identify high risk priority sites (e.g. those with the greatest contamination risk and / or those most affected by erosion or flooding). This will allow us to produce an overview of the different types of waste in coastal landfills, assess the broad risks posed by them (e.g. pollutant release, physical erosion etc.) and consider potential options for resource recovery from these sites (e.g. scrap metals that could be recycled). The second component of the project will improve our understanding of the environmental behaviour of different waste types in coastal settings. Most risk assessments for wastes are undertaken assuming they will be in contact with freshwater (e.g. leaching tests that simulate wastes in contact with rainfall). We will provide a significant advance on assessing environmental risks in coastal settings by testing how pollutants are released from different waste types (e.g. municipal waste, mine waste, processing wastes) under a range of environmental conditions. These conditions will simulate the current and future environmental scenarios in coastal areas such as variations in salinity and extremes of wetting and drying that are anticipated with climate change. Crucially, we will undertake experiments that test how these wastes behave across a range of experimental scales (e.g. from beaker sized experiments, through skip-sized experiments, to measurements at real sites). This is important to have confidence that small scale laboratory experiments give us information on how pollutants are released from waste that matches with data from real field sites. Such information is crucial for extending the risk assessments completed in part one of the project. Effective long term management of legacy wastes relies on many different agencies working together (e.g. councils, regulators, land owners, engineers). The final part of the project will therefore bring various stakeholders together in different parts of the UK to (1) evaluate approaches to remediation, and (2) consider management priorities put forward by the early stages of the project. A series workshops will take place in the different administrations of the UK to produce a national management framework for legacy wastes in the coastal zone.