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Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT)
Programme background
Understanding and tackling environmental issues in urban areas.
URGENT was the most ambitious programme of its kind in Europe. Britain's scientists and engineers spearheaded 40 research projects into the environment in urban areas in four key areas - air, water, soil and ecology.
The projects assessed the size of urban environmental problems and risks, investigated the underlying patterns and processes that affect them, and helped produce effective control and management strategies.
Highlights from the programme include:
- user-friendly software packages that can predict concentrations of atmospheric pollutants and their dispersal
- more knowledge of how climate varies within particular conurbations, and efficient and more cost effective ice prevention methods for urban roads
- new techniques to help clean up brownfield sites.
- improved methods and techniques to monitor and restore urban rivers.
- new ways to help protect and improve urban aquifers.
- information about using tree cover to help reduce atmospheric pollutants in urban areas.
- new ways to help improve biodiversity in urban domestic gardens.
- 'decision support systems' to help planners, industry and regulators improve urban sustainability.
- an integrated environmental database (URGENT Metadata search database) that makes the outputs available to all.
About the programme