Building a community network for nature-based adaptation on Barra and Vatersay

This socio-environmental context generates a number of questions. Which sites of erosion are most acute and risk the most harm? What communities will these affect most and are they involved in the conversation around management? What engineered solutions will enhance biodiversity while addressing erosion? How might the community take informed collective action? A sustainable response to these questions requires community leadership and participation. This involves a co-production of knowledge between environmental scientists, engineers, and community members who have generations of knowledge of environmental stewardship. This stage of the project will aim to build a community network that is equipped to make decisions on the priorities and approaches to a longer-term research programme that promotes effective adaption to coastal erosion on Barra and Vatersay. Objectives and associated outputs are:
- Extend our community network to include all sectors of the population.
- Create a living archive of knowledge that brings together the scientific and social knowledge that we have generated through our engaged research. This work will produce two outputs, first, a physical archive of images, texts, film, stories and documentation of citizen science accessible in Barra Cultural and Heritage Centre. Second, a digital interactive map that provides online access to this material.
- Establish a steering group for the second stage programme that includes representation from different sectors of the Barra and Vatersay community. This group will produce a research development plan and stage 2 application