Professional summary

Chris is a land-water systems scientist working in the Land, Soil & Coast team at Bangor. His role entails applied analysis of large-scale, long-term environmental datasets to support UKCEH's national monitoring programmes including for Wales (ERAMMP) and Great Britain (Countryside Survey). He also specialises in integrating spatial data on climate, land cover, soils, terrain, and hydrologic connectivity to understand land–water interactions across catchment systems. His key areas of interest include soil health and land degradation, nutrient and sediment fluxes between land and water, and spatial modelling of ecosystem services to support restoration and management decisions.

Prior to starting at UKCEH in 2020, Chris completed a PhD in fluvial geomorphology and briefly supported research modelling river systems under the UK Climate Resilience Programme project, ‘Erosion Hazards in River Catchments: Making Critical Infrastructure More Climate Resilient’. Currently, Chris's work mostly supports large research programmes including the delivery of UK as well as internationally focussed national capability, and large European projects. He is currently working on the following projects: AUSO [UKCEH project manager]; AI4SoilHealth [supporting WP3: Novel soil health indicators for Europe]; AgZero+ [leading task 10 in WP1: A national digital farmland observatory]; and, The International science for Net Zero Plus programme [leading task 1 in WP2C: Net Zero Plus trade-offs in sub-Saharan Africa].

In 2023, Chris established the UKCEH Soils Network which aims to connect soil scientists across the organisation to share their research and foster future collaborations.

Web tools and apps

Chris has contributed data to multiple interactive web tools, including:

UKCEH Countryside Survey Soil Health Webtool SOil funDamentals (SOD) - developed by Audric Vigier

The Lake Victoria Monitoring Portal - developed by Gemma Nash

Selected publications

Reinsch Sabine et al. , (2025), The fraction of carbon in soil organic matter as a national-scale soil process indicator. Global Change Biology, 31, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70572

Lebron Inma et al. , (2025), Patterns and thresholds for soil pH across Europe in relation to soil health and degradation. CATENA, 260, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2025.109454

Campbell Grant A. et al. , (2025), Continental scale soil monitoring: a proposed multi-scale framing of soil quality. European Journal of Soil Science, 76, https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70174

Robinson David A. et al. , (2024), Five decades' experience of long‐term soil monitoring, and key design principles, to assist the EU soil health mission. European Journal of Soil Science, 75, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13570

Feeney Christopher J. et al. , (2024), Benchmarking soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration provides more robust soil health assessment than the SOC/clay ratio at European scale. Science of The Total Environment, 951, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175642

Thomas A. et al. , (2024), Topsoil porosity prediction across habitats at large scales using environmental variables. Science of The Total Environment, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171158

Feeney Christopher J. et al. , (2023), Development of soil health benchmarks for managed and semi-natural landscapes. Science of the Total Environment, 886, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723025949

Feeney Christopher J. et al. , (2023), Agricultural practices drive elevated rates of topsoil decline across Kenya, but terracing and reduced tillage can reverse this. Science of the Total Environment, 870, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723005405

Robinson D.A. et al. , (2022), Analytical modelling of soil porosity and bulk density across the soil organic matter and land-use continuum. Scientific Reports, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11099-7

Feeney C.J. et al. , (2022), Multiple soil map comparison highlights challenges for predicting topsoil organic carbon concentration at national scale. Scientific Reports, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05476-5

Other Publications

Feeney, C.J., Chiverrell, R.C., Smith, H.G., Hooke, J.M. and Cooper, J.R., 2020. Modelling the decadal dynamics of reach‐scale river channel evolution and floodplain turnover in CAESAR‐Lisflood. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45(5), pp.1273-1291.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/esp.4804

Thomas, A., Bentley, L., Feeney, C., Lofts, S., Robb, C., Rowe, E.C., Thomson, A., Warren-Thomas, E. and Emmett, B., 2023. Land degradation neutrality: Testing the indicator in a temperate agricultural landscape. Journal of Environmental Management, 346, p.118884.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118884