The UK Status, Change and Projections of the Environment (UK-SCAPE) programme is one of UKCEH’s major activities delivering significant UK National Capability. Its vision is the development of a whole system approach to addressing environmental challenges in the UK. This requires recognising that land, soil, water, air and biodiversity are deeply interconnected systems.

The UK-SCAPE mission is to:

  • Work towards and promote an integrated understanding of the dynamics of our environment
  • Support the community in the provision of data, models and knowledge based resources
  • Shape the direction of future ecological and hydrological research
  • Enable the UK to deliver a world leading, sustainable system of environmental management and conservation.

UK-SCAPE draws upon UKCEH expertise and capability to deliver monitoring and observation across a range of environments. This underpins new research and data science activities that build upon and extend established areas of UKCEH's portfolio.

An integrated monitoring programme for the natural environment

This national-scale programme allows better understanding of the status and dynamics of air, land, soil, water and biodiversity. It builds upon established approaches while incorporating advances in sensor technology and data analytics. It provides multi-scale data and metrics to support emerging research priorities.

Lead scientist: David Roy

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Using scientific case studies to develop accessible evidence through a data science framework

We've developed a data science framework (DSF) through selected case studies to enable a step-change in the ability of the research community and other stakeholders to understand, predict and manage the environment. The framework is designed to facilitate the creation of, and access to, new and innovative data products, development of new models and generic analytical methods, as well as the provision of cloud-based collaborative research environments.

Lead scientist: John Watkins

Read more about the Data Science Framework

Providing maps of environmental drivers under different future scenarios (SPEED)

SPEED has generated mapped projections, based on IPCC global scenarios, of harmonised future changes in climate, land use and pollution at discrete time steps up to the year 2100. These provide researchers with a consistent set of spatially-explicit scenarios, enabling integration and prioritisation across research disciplines on impacts and responses to environmental change.

Lead scientist: James Bullock

Read more about the SPEED

Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and the consequences for soil function (SOC-D)

Soil organic carbon (SOC) underpins key soil functions such as water regulation, climate mitigation and nutrient provision. Informed, sustainable management of organic carbon in soils mitigates climate change and secures healthy productive soils for future generations. SOC-D has identified and mapped key biotic and abiotic drivers of SOC change in UK soils, providing new national data.

Lead scientist: Jack Cosby

Read more about the SOC-D

Collaboration

Critical to the success of these activities is working in partnership with experts both within UKCEH and externally. Each science project has its own community and these partnerships are essential for policy or regulatory applications and for ongoing research.

Funding

The five-year UK-SCAPE programme is funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council as part of a National Capability Science Single Centre award.

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