Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability

1. Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability Newcastle University Prof David Manning Director

2. What is IRES’ Mission? IRES’ mission is to undertake interdisciplinary research to sustain the natural resource base and to improve the quality of life for people regionally, nationally and internationally

3. Research focuses on: • Energy and the environment • Environment and Health • Environmental change • Environmental policy development • Sustainable resources

4. IRES emphasises interdisciplinarity • Cross Faculty • Cross School • Cross research group

5. Policy I R E S Science Society Technology IRES emphasises interdisciplinarity Key interface role:

6. IRES is a focal point: • Within the University it brings together strengths • IRES is a portal for access to the University’s research • IRES facilitates interaction • IRES supports outreach

7. What does IRES do? • Budget supports core admin staff • IRES facilitates discourse between academics: • Workshops • Seminars • Speed dating • Other networking activities

8. IRES members’ projects: some examples • Urban systems • Engineering soils for climate change • Plant nutrition in developing countries • Management of fluorosis in Tanzania

9. Sustainable Cities Developing spatial analysis tools to monitor and model cities Tyndall Centre - Urban Integrated Assessment Facility SCORCHIO - Sustainable Cities: Options for Responding to Climate cHange Impacts and Outcomes Spatial statistical classification-Classified building type-Heat & energy impact metrics SWERVE - Assessing the impacts of extreme weather events on local communities; predicting temperature change due to future urban development

10. Flooding research Quantified risk analysis of ‘whole’ flooding systems Coasts, rivers, urban areas Realistic representation of infrastructure and failure Probabilities and consequences of flooding Multi-scale analysis Spatial impacts assessment Flood incident management – behavioural response Emphasis on quantification of risks and uncertainty Impacts of climate and socio-economic change on flood risk Core partners and co-authors of the scientific reports in the OST Foresight Future Flooding project Partners in the EPSRC/NERC/EA/Defra Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (Phase 1 and 2) and FP6 FLOODsite project Focus on the Environment Agency’s Thames Estuary 2100 project

11. Flooding Multi-scale flood risk mapping Local-regional-national Shore erosion modelling Evidence-based validation; Impact of sea level rise; visual- isation and decision support Evacuation modelling during floods Thames Estuary 2100 Mapping risks; understanding changing risk from climate and Thames Gateway development; quantifying the benefit of adaptation Urban (and pluvial) flood risk Apportioning the source of flood risk to support infrastructure investment decisions

12. Climate Change Model development for future climate simulation, projections of changes to extreme events, and tools and interfaces to access datasets through the web and the desktop Weather generators Based on statistical rainfall and weather models; 5km grid resolution; use in climate change impact assessment; part of the UKCP09 user interface UK Climate Programme data delivery UKCP09 – 12 TB of probabilistic climate data on 25K grid Land and marine datasets OpenSource implementation using WPS framework Data, map and plot outputs Threshold Detector

13. Soils naturally contain twice as much C as is in the atmosphere and 3 times as much as in plants. Plants each year remove 15% of atmospheric CO2 - this is a very dynamic system that we should plan to intercept and ‘engineer’. Biochar, produced from pyrolysis-based energy systems (including the Pyrolysis Challenge bid from the region) has the potential when added to soil to lock up atmospheric CO2, and to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This gives a carbon negative approach, used at the London Olympics. Engineering soils for climate change We need to understand the long term behaviour of biochar in soil.

14. Potassium is the key limiting nutrient that is almost universally in short supply, especially in Africa. Potash fertiliser raw materials are mined at few locations on Earth (Saskatchewan, Yorkshire, Germany…) We have developed potash sources for organic farmers that are not chemically based - these are commercially traded (MSL-K). The knowledge gained from this ‘luxury’ activity can be applied to any country with a rift valley - because that is where potassium-rich volcanic rocks occur naturally. Plant nutrition in developing countries Dr Mary Idowu was here on a Commonwealth Fellowship to investigate the use of crushed rock as a source of K for tomato production in Nigeria.

15. A project led by North Tyneside Hospital on the incidence of stroke in the Kilimanjaro area identified skeletal deformities due to fluorosis. We have mapped fluoride contents of drinking water from wells put down to provide water that is safe from a microbiological point of view, and combined these with the distribution of symptons of fluorosis. Fluoride in Tanzania Our environmental engineers are developing appropriate technology that removes fluoride from drinking water.