Environmental Modelling and Observation
UCL Geography’s Environmental Modelling and Observation cluster studies everything from climate and ecosystems to air quality, using innovative modelling and observation to tackle global challenges.
Research Themes
We advance methods to understand climate variability and design robust adaptation strategies across scales—from global circulation to local wetlands and coasts.
Highlights
- Global climates (Chris Brierley, Harry Heorton): PMIP leadership; contributions to IPCC AR6; quantifying uncertainty in future projections; new polar sea ice assessments.
- Water, wetlands and risk (Richard Taylor, Julian Thompson): Downscaled climate inputs with hydrological models to assess water security, wetland sensitivity, and ecosystem impacts.
- Coasts and resilience (Helene Burningham, Jon French): Shelf-sea dynamics, storminess drivers, and national-scale models of social, economic and natural resilience to flood and erosion.
We lead the shift from empirical correlations to physically-based Earth Observation (EO) models that retrieve biophysical parameters and track ecosystem change.
Highlights
- Global EO products (Philip Lewis, Mat Disney): MODIS albedo and burned-area datasets used worldwide; data assimilation to constrain ecosystem models.
- 3D forests (Mat Disney, Martin Mokroš): Close range sensing and lidar scanning reveals tree structure, biomass and carbon, and biodiversity from tropics to cities.
- Agriculture and fire (Mat Disney, Phillip Lewis): Multi-sensor approaches to crop status and yield; monitoring disturbance to inform UK and international policy.
We fuse models, aircraft, satellites, lab and field data to quantify how human activities shape atmospheric chemistry and air quality from urban to global scales.
Highlights
- Air pollution and health: Sources of PM2.5 in UK cities; ammonia from agriculture; trends in fast-growing tropical cities; health impacts in India and Texas.
- Space sector impacts: Inventories for rockets and re-entry; modelling effects on stratospheric ozone and climate (GEOS-Chem).
- Reactive nitrogen: New datasets to resolve sources, sinks and processing in the upper troposphere.
Impact and Funding
- 130+ publications across climate, ecosystems and air quality
- £multi-million funding from NERC/UKRI, ESA, NASA, DEFRA, FCDO, UK Met Office and others
- Strong collaborations across UCL and with global partners
Cluster Lead
Mat Disney’s research explores how radiation interacts with vegetation and the land surface to understand vegetation–atmosphere–climate interactions, particularly the carbon cycle. He develops and applies Earth observation and terrestrial lidar methods to measure forest structure and biomass, validate EO products, study fire impacts, deforestation, and urban forests, and inform policy. His work is internationally recognised and cited by the IPCC.
People
- Professor Chris Brierley (Climate modelling)
- Professor Helene Burningham (Coastal and estuarine geomorphology; GIS)
- Professor Jon French (Environmental modelling; geohazards and infrastructure; climate change adaptation)
- Professor Eloise Marais (Atmospheric chemistry and air quality modelling)
- Professor Richard Taylor (Hydrogeology and climate change)
- Professor Julian Thompson (Wetland hydro-ecology and hydrological modelling)
- Dr Martin Mokroš (Earth observation)
- Dr Harry Heorton (Remote sensing and climate dynamics)
- Dr Wanxin Yang (Earth observation; lidar)
- Dr Cecilia Chavana-Bryant (Lidar; ecology)
- Dr Leo Pancrazzi (Coastal geomorphology)
- Feng Yin (Earth observation, crop modelling, parameter retrieval)
- Professor Ray Harris (Earth Observation and data policy)
- Professor Andrew Warren (Aeolian processes; dryland management)
- Professor Philip Lewis (Remote sensing; vegetation modelling)
| Academic | Project title | Funder | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professor Chris Brierley | Palaeoclimate feedbacks and future risk | UKRI/NERC | 2024–2027 |
| Professor Richard Taylor | Groundwater resilience under climate change | FCDO / NERC | 2023–2026 |
| Professor Jon French | National coastal resilience modelling | DEFRA / UK Met Office | 2024–2028 |
| Professor Simon Lewis | Physically-based EO for vegetation | ESA / NASA | 2023–2027 |
| Professor Eloise Marais | Upper-tropospheric reactive nitrogen | ERC | 2025–2030 |
This cluster includes the UCL component of NCEO and collaborates closely with CERU, CWRU and WRU on cross-cutting projects.
Study BSc Geography at UCL
Use cutting-edge modelling and observation to understand climate, ecosystems, and air quality with UCL’s leading researchers.
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