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The charity making life better by water

New research partnership helps unlock waterways’ potential

We've teamed up with Cardiff University to examine the social, environmental and economic impacts of waterways across the UK. The aim is to demonstrate the existing and potential public benefits waterways deliver and support work to protect and preserve them for future generations.

In the first three years of the partnership between the Trust and the University's Sustainable Places Research Institute the aim is to provide evidence for the benefits well-maintained waterways can and do deliver and, in particular, highlight the potential health benefits of some of the activities undertaken around the waterway system.

Professor Terry Marsden, director of the Sustainable Places Research Institute said: “Our aim as an Institute is to bring together leading academics and research clusters across a wide-range of disciplines and develop place-based approaches and solutions to some of the key question we now face in society. Canals and rivers are national treasures, rich in history and wildlife. We are very excited to work with the Trust through a research framework to help build an evidence base to further demonstrate their importance, and to help sustain them for future generations.”

Wider understanding

Simon Salem, director of Marketing at the Canal & River Trust, adds: “We are very pleased to be partnering Cardiff University, by working with them, and everyone who uses the canals and rivers, we will be better able to demonstrate how the waterways bring real benefit to people and communities. Since becoming a charity we have set-up a number of partnerships with major organisations, and this agreement with the University will support wider understanding of the potential of our waterways in England and Wales.”

Last Edited: 01 November 2013

photo of a location on the canals
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