The UK Status, Change and Projections of the Environment (UK-SCAPE) programme was one of UKCEH’s major activities delivering significant UK National Capability, from 2018 to 2024. Its vision was 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 was 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 drew upon UKCEH expertise and capability to deliver monitoring and observation across a range of environments. This underpinned new research and data science activities that built upon and extended established areas of UKCEH's portfolio.

An integrated monitoring programme for the natural environment

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

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

A data science framework (DSF) was developed 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 was 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.

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

SPEED 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 provided researchers with a consistent set of spatially-explicit scenarios, enabling integration and prioritisation across research disciplines on impacts and responses to environmental change.

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

Soil organic carbon (SOC) underpinned 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 identified and mapped key biotic and abiotic drivers of SOC change in UK soils, providing new national data.

Read more about the SOC-D

Funding

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

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