Dr Iain White

Dr Iain White joined the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Spatial Planning in
2005.  His main research interests lie in exploring the interdisciplinary nature of environmental planning, adaptation to climate change and the management of water within society.

Within this field Iain has a strong track record of peer reviewed academic publications and has been involved in a number of related research initiatives.  These include two work packages of the EPSRC/NERC/DEFRA/EA Flood Risk Management Research Consortium, two Defra Sustainable Flood and Coastal Management projects and a project focusing on the adaptation to climate change within the retail sector. In addition to producing academic outputs, Iain works closely with non academic collaborators to ensure any findings are disseminated to the wider community and has undertaken advisory work for agencies such as DEFRA, DCLG, the Treasury, the Environment Agency, HR Wallingford and the RSPB.

He is also a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Co-Theme Leader of the Sustainable Consumption Institute, Chair of the UK and European Flood Research Group, a member of RTPI Environmental Planning and Protection Network, a member of the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology and on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Mersey Basin Campaign.

Iain’s research interests primarily relate to understanding the relationship between the planning system and environmental threats. His specific research interests are related to flooding, adaptation to climate change and Sustainable Drainage Systems.

European Union FP7 - SMARTeST

The Smart Resilience Technology, Systems and Tools (SMARTeST) project starts in January 2010 and will run for three years. The research involves ten different European partners collaborating to develop, design and test ways to make urban areas more resilient to flood risk. The project employs one full time RA and one part time RA at Manchester for the three years duration (Principal Investigator 4.78m Euros).

Environment Agency – WaterProof

‘This project aims to develop scenarios to aid Water Framework Directive and water management decision making in the North West region. It will analyse future drivers relating to the water environment and develop scenarios up to 2030 to aid future decision making and shape response to future challenges in meeting the WFD’s goals. (Co-investigator £80k).

Sustainable Consumption Institute – Supermarket Adaptation to Future Environments

This research aims to facilitate the development of the next generation of supermarkets by developing and analysing future environmental scenarios for stores so that supermarkets and their associated infrastructure can adapt to climate change and be better integrated into the local environment. The outcome of this proposal will involve the recommendation of a suite of design features which can provide the basis for ‘climate proofing’ stores, including the consideration of adaptation options which:

• Reduce the potential negative effects of climate change on stores and their neighbourhoods; and,
• Maximise the positive environmental influences of stores on their local environment, for example through exploiting opportunities provided by climate change. This research employs three PDRAs within the School (Co-investigator - £152k).

EPSRC – Sustainable Development of Floodplains and Wetlands

The EPSRC/NERC/DEFRA/EA and Scottish Executive have commissioned an interdisciplinary Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (FRMRC) to explore how to better manage flood risk within the UK. This strand of research involves relating the results of previous studies focused on managing flood risk via spatial planning into a practical applied context within the Trent river corridor. Specifically, the study examines the potential of river corridor-based Area Action Plans to assist the development of a locally relevant and effective flood risk management policy. This research employed one PDRAs within the School (Principal Investigator – £50k).

• More information on Sustainable Development of Floodplains and Wetlands.
  

EPSRC – Planning Policy and Flood Risk

Recently the planning system has undergone significant changes, including the development of a range of new strategic and local policy mechanisms with the potential to contribute to flood risk management. This research is focused on increasing the effectiveness of the role of planning within flood risk management by examining these new opportunities, identifying current problems and recommending good practice solutions. On a strategic level, the study examines the potential of Sustainability Appraisal to contribute to the delivery of flood risk management by embedding flooding considerations within spatial plans.  At the local level the investigation focused on unpacking the difficulties experienced by Local Planning Authorities in delivering effective flood risk management and examined the potential of river corridor-based Area Action Plans to overcome these problems. This research employed two PDRAs within the School (Principal Investigator – £85k).

• More information on Planning Policy and Flood Risk.
  

European Union – ERANET-CRUE

This is a transnational EU initiative focusing on the development of tools to assess flood probability and assess how they could be used to decrease flood risk. The research involves forming a European consortium to compile a State of the Art report focused on Urban Flood Risk. The project is developing a methodological framework for flood management in small urban catchments. Based on case studies of urban river catchments of the cities Hamburg, Manchester, Bradford, Glasgow, Cologne, Dresden, Paris, and Lyon, the effectiveness and efficiency of non-structural measures to reduce flood damage is being analysed and evaluated (Co-Investigator - £63k).

• More information on the ERANET-CRUE programme.
  

European Union – COST C22

The main objective of the Action is to increase knowledge required for preventing and mitigating potential flood impacts to urban areas by exchanging experiences, developing integrated approaches, and by promoting the diffusion of best practices in Urban Flood Management. Since 1950, Europe has witnessed on countless occasions a growing number of floods in urban areas. Climate change and rapid urbanisation will exacerbate this trend. Flooding incidents in urbanised catchment areas can lead to great public concern and anxiety and the economic impacts are often severe. Besides structural measures aiming at a reduction of the probability of flooding, new integrated approaches need to be developed and implemented to adapt the urban environment to climate change by further reducing its vulnerability (Co-Investigator).

• More information on COST C22 Urban Flood Management.

Undergraduate

Year 1

• Studying Place
• Study Skills.
• IT skills course.

Year 2

• Sustainable Cities
• Managing Rural Environments

Year 3

• Dissertation

Year 4

• Professional Practice and Management.
• Client Based Project
• Planning Policy and Practice

Postgraduate

• Research Design and Methods
• Planning for Environmental Change
• Dissertation

Current Postgraduate Students

2009 - 2012 Jessica Soraya Pineda Zumaran, A Spatial Planning Framework for Including the Environmental Perspective in the Context of the Free Market Economy Policy in Peruvian Middle-sized Cities. Case Study: Arequipa, Peru. (Co-supervised with Prof. Cecilia Wong).

2009 - 2012 Félix Aponte-González, Concerning Caribbean Climate Vulnerabilities and Adaptation in Small Island Cities. (Co-supervised with Prof. John Handley).

2009 - 2012 Dan Strosnider, The Future of Sustainable Transport: a comparison of the UK and US. (Co-supervised with Dr. Phil Bell).

2009 - 2012 Junfang Xie, To examine the planning, design and management of green infrastructure in order to improve future settlements. (Co-supervised with Adam Barker).

2005 - 2008 Rung Jiun Chou, Sustainable Urban Waterfronts: the case of Taiwan (Co-supervised with Prof. Michael Hebbert)

2006 – 2009 Wan-Yu Shia, Integrating Ecological and Social Benefits within Green Space Networks (Co–supervised with Prof. John Handley)

Academic Journal Papers

White, I. and Alarcon, A. (2009) Planning Policy, Sustainable Drainage and Surface Water Management: a case study of Greater Manchester (PDF, 220KB), UK, Built Environment, 35 (4) pp. 516-530.

Carter, J., White, I and Richards, J. (2009) Sustainability Appraisal and Flood Risk Management: Exploring Linkages within the English Planning System, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 29, 7-14.

White, I. (2008) The Absorbent City: urban form and flood risk management (PDF, 1050KB), Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Urban Design and Planning, December (DP4), 151 – 161.

Richards, J., White, I. and Carter, J. (2008) Local Planning Practice and Flood Risk Management in England: is there a collective implementation deficit? Urban Environment, No. 2, pp 11 -20.

White, I. and Richards, J. (2007) Planning Policy and Flood Risk: the translation of national policy objectives into local policy, Planning, Practice & Research, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 513 – 534.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2005) Unpacking Barriers to Sustainable Urban Drainage Use, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 7 (1), 27-43.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2004) Like a fish out of water: The relationship between planning and flood risk management, Planning Practice and Research 19 (4), 415-425.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2004) The Mismanagement of Surface Water, Applied Geography 24 (4), 261-280.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2003) Flooding, pollution and agriculture, International Journal of Environmental Studies 60 (1), 19-28.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2003) Planning and the European Union Water Framework Directive, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 46 (4) 621-631.

Howe, J. and White, I. (2002) The Geography of the Autumn 2000 Floods in the UK, Geography: An International Journal 87 (2), 116-125.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2002) Flooding and the role of planning in England and Wales: A critical review, Journal of Environmental Management and Planning 45 (5), 735-745.

Howe, J. and White, I. (2002) The potential implications of the Water Framework Directive on Domestic planning Systems: A UK case study, European Planning Studies 10 (8), 1027-1038.

Howe, J. and White, I. (2002) Farming, flooding and pollution, ECOS 23 (2), 45-54.

Howe, J. and White, I. (2001) Flooding: are we ignoring the real problem and solution, Regional Studies, 35 (6), 368-371.

Howe, J. and White, I. (2001) Sustainable urban drainage: a neglected area of planning, Town and Country Planning, 70 (9), 242-249.

Howe, J. and White I. (2001) Urban Food, Urban Agriculture 17, 295-303.

Authored Books

White, I. (2010) Water and the City: planning for a sustainable future, Taylor and Francis, Abingdon. (part of the Natural and Built Environment series)

Book Chapters

Tourbier, J. and White, I. (2007) Sustainable Drainage and Conveyance Systems (SUDACS), in Ashley, R.; Garvin. S., Pasche, E., Vassilopoulos, A. and Zevenbergen, C. (Eds) Advances in Urban Flood Management, Taylor and Francis, London, pp 13-28.

Douglas, I., Kobold, M., Lawson, N., Pasche, E., and White, I. (2007) Characterisation of Urban Streams and Urban Flooding, in Ashley, R.; Garvin. S., Pasche, E., Vassilopoulos, A. and Zevenbergen, C. (Eds) Advances in Urban Flood Management, Taylor and Francis, London, pp 29-58.

Official Reports

Cavan, G., Handley, J. F., Howard, L., Lindley, S., Sherriff, G. and  White, I. (2009) Supermarket Adaptation to Future Environments, Sustainable Consumption Institute, Manchester.

Douglas, I., Lawson, N. Garvin, S. and White, I. (2008) Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Small Urban Catchments, Defra Research project FD2603 - Era-Net Crue, University of Manchester, Manchester.

White, I., Richards, J. and Carter, J. (2007) Planning Policy and Flood Risk: Key Issues Linked to the Effectiveness of Strategic and Local Policy, Final Report for Flood Risk Management Research Consortium, February, University of Manchester, Manchester.

McEvoy, D, Handley, J, Cavan, G, Theuray, N, White, I. and Wilson, S. (2006) Informing Regional and Local Adaptation Response to a Changing Climate, (unpublished research report for the Environment Agency), March, CURE, Manchester. 

Richards, J, Carter, J and White, I (2006) Key issues emerging from draft Planning Policy Statement 25 on Development and Flood Risk, Report for ODPM, February, University of Manchester, Manchester.

White, I. and Howe, J. (2004) Planning and Development Control, in DEFRA and Environment Agency, Sustainable Flooding: Planning and Development Control, in Sustainable Flood and Coastal Management: R&D Technical Report FD2015, Environment Agency, Bristol.

White, I. (2003) Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive in the Northwest: the research agenda, Proceedings of a research workshop, Mersey Basin Campaign.

White, I., Howe, J. (with Entec) (2003) A Comparative Legislative Review of the Water Framework Directive, SEA Directive and land Use Planning (Unpublished Research Report for Environment Agency), ENTEC.

Other Publications: Research

White, I. and Lawson, N. (2008) Flood Risk Management in Small Urban Catchments, Report for the Select Committee of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, January, University of Manchester, Manchester.

White, I. (2007) Surface Water Management, Encyclopedia of Earth. Ed. Cleveland, C. J. (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). See www.eoearth.org.

White, I. (2004) Water In Your SUDS, Source, Issue six, Autumn 04.