Terrestrial and freshwater issues
Scientists supported by NERC are addressing some of the major environmental issues societies face this century.
Sustainable water management
How will a warmer world change water supplies? What do we need to do to improve our detection, understanding and mitigation of pollution in water? In the face of rising demand, how can clean and dependable water supply be maintained without harm to the environment?
Extreme scarcity or excess of water brings environmental hazards. Globally, the ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. Models predict some regions of Africa will become even drier in future, prolonging drought. Improved seasonal weather forecasting can help prepare communities for drought. At the opposite extreme, flooding has killed more people in the last few decades than any other natural hazard. UK assets worth £132 billion are at risk from coastal floods. Despite drier summers, more flooding is predicted.
NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is working on new methodologies for prediction of the magnitude, frequency and impacts of drought and has also produced the Flood Estimation Handbook, giving guidance on rainfall and flood frequency.
Sustainable soil management
Soil organisms break down pollutants, recycle nutrients and produce and consume trace gases that regulate the climate. Soil is essential for much life on this planet, not least ourselves. Climate change and a growing human population are putting enormous pressures on the soil, making soil science a vital area of research. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the British Geological Survey both do important research in this area.
Environment and human health
We need to increase knowledge of emerging infectious diseases. We need to know how chemicals, small particles and micro-organisms move through the environment. In 2006 NERC set up the Environment & Human Health programme.
Nanoscience
Nanoscience offers huge potential economic, health and environmental benefits which in-turn is driving an explosion in research and development on a global scale. But how long do nanoparticles stay in the environment? How do they move through the environment? Do they affect other substances in the environment, making that substance toxic? The Environmental Nanoscience Initiative, funded by NERC and others, is addressing this issue.
Biodiversity
The world is losing huge numbers of plant and animal species and this loss is accelerating. People are overwhelmingly responsible for this loss. Many NERC-funded scientists in many research centres and universities are investigating: biodiversity loss, the implications of this loss, and how best to target conservation efforts.
NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is working on new methodologies for prediction of the magnitude, frequency and impacts of drought.
Flooding
Flooding has killed more people in the last few decades than any other natural hazard. UK assets worth £132 billion are at risk from coastal floods. Despite drier summers, more flooding is predicted.