Professional summary

Laurence has over 26 years’ research experience with an international reputation in the areas of ecosystem services, pollution, and coastal ecology.

His work on ecosystem services concentrates on modelling the benefits that our natural capital provides to society, with a particular focus on urban systems. He has an interest in developing and improving ecosystem service models and the interactions between people and the environment that shape those benefits.

He oversees the cross-cutting theme of urban research in UKCEH. He has led work on ecosystem services modelling in seven European projects in collaboration with partners worldwide, and numerous UKRI funded projects for NERC, EPSRC and ESRC. He has helped develop natural capital accounts for urban ecosystem services covering air pollution removal, cooling, noise mitigation, tourism and water storage in the landscape, as well as developing damage costs for air pollution impacts on ecosystem services.

He presents his research internationally and nationally to scientists and policy makers. He has authored/co-authored >115 papers, including in Nature family journals, 15 book chapters and national/international assessments, and >130 reports. He has supervised 12 PhDs to completion, with a further 7 PhDs currently registered.

Web tools and apps

Laurence has helped design the City Explorer Toolkit https://www.ceh.ac.uk/city-explorer 

and the air pollution removal tool https://shiny-apps.ceh.ac.uk/pollutionremoval/ 

Selected publications