TAP Annual Report 2024

TAP Annual Report 2024-2025: Safeguarding Our Groundwater

The TAP Annual Report highlights a year of impactful initiatives aimed at protecting groundwater through innovative community engagement, environmental education, and sustainable infrastructure. Key achievements include the continuation of the Wild Park Rainscape project, strengthening partnerships with The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere, and the expansion of the “Our City Our World” education program, fostering climate literacy among students.

The report also showcases TAP’s research efforts in sustainable urban aquifer management and advancements in rainwater drainage systems. Collaborative projects, such as the development of SuDS in schools and the successful integration of new members into the TAP team, underline the commitment to sustainable water management and community involvement.

From hosting national conferences to engaging with local communities and delivering practical projects, TAP remains at the forefront of urban environmental stewardship. Read all about it below or download the PDF summary here

• Dec 2024 – participated to the British water conference in Brighton & Hove with Nick Bean, Principal Engineer at B&H City Council and TAP Board Member, presenting the Wild Park Rainscape featuring the TAP partnership: Wild Park Rainscape: Brighton’s Innovative Nature-Based Project Featured at British Water Conference – The Living Coast and Cabinet Member for Transport, Parking and Public Realm Cllr Trevor Muten introduced the event: Nick Bean & Trevor Muten to speak at the British Water Conference
• Dec 2024 – had an introductory meeting with Jacob Diamond, UNESCO Programme Specialist on Water quality and eco hydrology.
• Jan 2025 – organised the Biosphere Partnership meeting named Sustainable economic development in action, featuring TAP on the Biosphere’s promotional material and mentioned in introduction, with over 90 participants
• Feb 2025 – Jennifer Okorie, Brighton & Hove City Council’s recently appointed Flood Risk Manager, presented BHCC’s Flood Risk work and TAP on SuDS, Surface Water Management and Aquifer Protection to Professor Andrew Coleman’s MSc Planning students at the University of Brighton
• March 2025 – Introduced Sean Ashworth as Vice Chair of the Biosphere and TAP partner to the City Downland Estate’s Downland Advisory Panel lead at, Jessica Hamilton. Organised the Nature starts on our plate – Biosphere Partnership meeting, featuring TAP related topics
• March 2025 – Organised site visits and a reception at the Brighton Pavilion as part of the UNESCO Biosphere gathering, where the TAP partners’ senior managers were invited: The Living Coast Hosts National UNESCO Biosphere Gathering: A Celebration of Nature and Community – The Living Coast

• Sept 2024 – featured TAP as one of the Biosphere’s strategic delivery projects to UNESCO UK, UNESCO Venice and UNESCO Paris as part of The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere’s Periodic Review report: The_Living_Coast_Visual_Summary_report_for_Stakeholders.
• Sept 2024 – presented at the Sussex Marine And Coastal Forum (SMACF) meeting – featuring our work on the Biosphere and TAP to the SMACF forum in the presence of Leasa Williams from Southern Water and Nick Bean from B&H City Council
• Sept 2024 – presented the Biosphere core activities including TAP to Cllr Rowkins, Brighton & Hove City Council Cabinet Member for Net Zero & Environmental Services
• Oct 2024 – Met with David Hannah, UNESCO Chair of Water Science, together with Professor Martin Smith
• Oct 2024 – Sean Ashworth, Vice Chair of the Biosphere, TAP Board Member and Southern Water Catchment Management Strategy Manager, speak at The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere Rivers Partnership meeting to present Southern Waters role in the catchment area: Our Rivers – Our October Biosphere Partnership meeting in Lewes – The Living Coast. The whole presentation is available here: Biosphere-Partnership-Meeting-Our-Rivers-16-10-24.pdf

1. Education

• April 24 to Summer 25 TAP enabled the continuity of the Our City Our World programme – press release issued in March 2024: Environmental education to continue with new funding

Our City Our World is a transformational whole school, whole city approach to climate change, sustainability and environmental education. Through a structured framework, schools ensure young people have the knowledge, skills and attitudes they’ll need to live in a changing climate whilst ensuring the school as an institution, has a systematic approach to reduce emissions and increase biodiversity. The programme supports young people’s mental health, allowing them to be changemakers at school, influence family behaviour and retain a sense of hope for the future. The programme is recognised nationally as an example of best practice in climate education and is being rolled out in 5 additional local authorities after funding from a national body.

It provides ongoing training, support and guidance to all schools in the city, with at least 90% of secondary schools and 60% of primary schools engaged in B&H.

It ensures all schools have a sustainability lead and works so schools have a Climate Action Plan in place.

It provide specialist training, support, resources and networking to enable whole school engagement on termly themes: energy, water, transport, food, consumption & waste, biodiversity

The programme uses the UNESCO framework: UNESCO launches new initiatives for “greening education” in classrooms | UNESCO

Examples of what has been achieved specifically on water include:

• ‘What’s under our feet’ – webinar on soil, water and the aquifer attended by 5 classes from 4 schools. Contributions from Robin Kelly from Southern Water and Farmer David.
• Teacher workshop at Moulsecoomb Primary School with a focus on the raingarden and how they can use it on a visit to the school.
• Raising awareness of the aquifer in teacher training sessions and business manager Climate Action Plan sessions.
• Promotion of Southern Water’s free water audits for schools.

Research

• August 2024 – Polly Walters, University of Brighton Master of Research student represent The Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere and TAP, at UNESCO Venice gathering with 14 other biospheres
• September 2024 – Handed in the final report on the Sustainable Management of Urban Aquifers to UNESCO Venice, including a research piece providing data and evidence to assess the performance of Sustainable Drainage Systems (“SuDS” or “rainscapes”) on water pollution
• Oct 2024 – Met with Zoe Greenslade, Project Officer in the Brighton & Hove City Council Transport Team, and Professor Martin Smith on how to improve Suds’ engineering on roads to consider water pollution especially with heavy metals, and start considering how to implement the TAP research project on sustainable management of urban aquifers
• December 2024 – Submitted a paper for the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (2024-2033) – IDSSD, introducing our continued experiment and toolkit development for SuDS engineers to optimise SuDS efficiency on water quality
• Feb 2025 – Submitted a piece of research for potential publication to Springer Nature via UNESCO Venice on the road run off water quality
• April 2025 – Continued ongoing communications including on research: featured in the Biosphere April 25 newsletter

Capital projects delivery

• November 2024 – March 2025 – Followed up the construction start of the Wild Park Rainscape project at the Wild Park Nature Reserve.
• March 2025 – Seeds and Trees acquisition and planting at Wild Park Rainscape enabled by Environment Agency £5k funding
• Suds in School maintenance progressed at Carden Primary School (see imagery above)