Our client UKWIR, asked Cascade to assess the potential impact of predicted climate change on water quality in UK rivers, and its implications to the UK water industry. This was examined using a newly developed, fully distributed catchment-scale hydrological and water quality model, CAS-Hydro.
This model, developed at the landscape scale, allows an improved representation of how material is processed and transported across land and into the river channel network.
Modelling of the River Derwent in Yorkshire, and a simulated catchment in southern England, demonstrated a risk of climate-induced hydrological and water quality impacts on UK rivers, for a UKCIP medium-high emissions scenario in the 2080s.