Cottenham Open Manifesto

Community Engagement 1, ... 12, 13 & 14

[ Update 3: Next installment in this series is here

Update 2: see Fens for the Future and UNESCO Great Fen Biosphere Project

Update 1: Item #5 has already started  at ARU Peterborough, see bottom clip ]

The previous post tallied three series - community engagement, and geo-info and pandemic maps & stats - since starting cottenham.info almost 18 mo. ago. Not only will Anthropocene East Anglia give a geo-historical framework for it all, it also highlights the opportunities and challenges in the future, which we proposes to address. Let's detail our proposed road map issued from all this as well as discussions with local councils, ecologists, and neighbouring village revival planners:

1) re-wilding, forests need to be restored - for ex. expanding current remnant woodlands some of which are coppiced as in Gamlingay Wood - so the entire woodlands husbandry industry can be revived and areas possibly expanded into sustainable alternative agro-economy

2) likewise the restoration of wetlands - as around Peterborough right now - forms part of a countrywide undertaking, to return to:

•  a fishing economy - a healthy and moderate alternative to red meat, as a renewable resource if done right - as still seen in the current rural areas if one knows where to look
• a sedge economy - returning grasslands into originally managed waters edge reed beds (in conjunction with re-wilding above) that not only expand hedgerows as wildlife havens (why restrain it along a line when you can spread it on a surface are?), but allows to grow prime materials renewably for roofing (thatch is still the most efficient heat insulator), cane and willow crafts (fences, green fences on one hand, and basket weaving and  other arts that will help us return to pre-plastic sustainable, fixable and affordable household goods) - a described here and below:





Wicken Sedge Fen

3) re-canalising, restoring ancient waterways to their original state:

• alternate transport to polluting, noisy & invasive roadways, that pushes traffic away from villages (a new idea that could be spread to England using its canal network the country has turned its back on - viz. restoration plans just outside Cambridge and in Surrey for example)
• expanding the Norfolk Broads boating holidays inland idea to promote stay-cations - like the sail clubs in Waterbeach and Huntington, in coordination with existing campsites that are a sorely underutilised resource - to help promote a tourism economy

Dark Hart Travel

4) reviewing and restoring topographic infrastructure:

• bank-and-levée (described here) restoration or construction and maintenance along inland rivers as below, also a source of work toward a sustainable infrastructure 
• reviewing coastal inundation defence infrastructure against high tides and storms that are increasing in frequency with climate change





dredging boat at Clayhithe (geograph/Sutton)

5) revival of colleges peppered across rural areas to create local skilled  manpower relearning and reteaching all of the above to help face an uncertain future [ see update at bottom ]:

• this could be one focus of bringing in seniors out of retirement to meet young adults and share their knowledge as proposed in a mock press release
• this will create generalised education at the base for local employment, rather then peak researchers to be siphoned off by multinationals, which we haven't seen discussed so far

Witchford Village College

6) (re)creation of local government programs &/or philanthropic support/investment to promote local skills and industries to:

• replace "Brefugees", those  returned to mainland Europe après-Brexit
• help (re)launch businesses in a different configuration post-pandemic, based on local talent and initiatives with different focus mentioned above

Eventbrite

Here are the resources brought to bear from all we've done already on open data:

• OS Open Greenspaces depicted here
• Digital terrain and flood risk & sea level rise modelling in greater detail than here
• OS Vector Tiles from newly released OpenData to (re)map those networks and analyse them
• our Wikimedia data and ONS population distribution (bottom of this post), even looking at poverty maps to find areas that could use a boost

The plan is to put together as a three-part electronic portfolio:

• a process portfolio linking workflows, costs and resources via linq.it
• 'story map on steroids', using Esri's new Experience platform:
  - currently used to make "digital triplets" of our dashboard with a "single URL to rule them all" for desktop, tablet or mobile usage: bit.ly/CamCOVIDinfo
• wrap all this on Wikimedia to make it open, public and searchable

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The ultimate goal is to not only revive local infrastructure and economy, but to "return people to the land" - not necessarily in agriculture per se, but to raise our awareness of the environment we live in - that separation is clearly documented among East Anglia children - how can we sensitise our selves never mind tackle climate change if we're detached from our surroundings? - and since children will inherit what we propose, we must help create an environment receptive to tackling climate change. Only then will we have the basis for a resilient society to face the issues to come.

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Update to 5) that's already started (from LinkedIn, may need screen refresh):