Davis Langdon, an AECOM company, believes so.

In the UK, we need to increase our production of renewable energy, become more food independent, and improve our transport links in as sustainable a way as possible. In this proposal, David Weight, a senior consultant for Davis Langdon, an AECOM company, presents the environmental and economic business case for building a canal from Scotland to the south of England.

The paper envisages a large canal running south from at least as far north as the Northern Pennines, possibly from as far as the Western Highlands of Scotland. The canal would co-exist with High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines though these would extend further, starting on the north-west coast of Scotland and supplying renewable electricity to the south of England and other places in between.

Transportation by canal rivals rail as the most energy and carbon-efficient form of in-shore transport of bulky goods. While it is slow, and not suited to all goods, it is suited to bulk raw materials, such as aggregates or timber. The improved infrastructure would support the challenge the UK government has set itself to increasing its use of biomass for energy generation.

With the spring of 2011 being by far the driest recorded in a hundred years, it has been estimated that the loss suffered by British farmers of the UK’s combinable crops such as wheat and barley was about £400m. It is now time to address the need for large scale water transfer across the UK which was first researched by the Environment Agency in 2006, and could be executed most cost efficiently through the use of an irrigated canal system.

Please click on the link to the left to download the full paper