We provide environmental data capturing and information management solutions. The wide-range of applications includes infrastructure e.g. wastewater treatment plants; natural systems e.g. environmental monitoring ecosystems; wetlands; habitats and production systems e.g. agricultural croplands.
Recent examples of our work in this field include:
- Real-time, wireless soil moisture sensing;
- Telemetry-based systems for environmental data collection, including monitoring land use, crop development, agroclimate, soil moisture etc;
- Use of in-situ sensors.
About our research
Our focus is on applied research in order to inform organisations in the business of:
• Growing crops – application of real-time monitoring and sensing of soil moisture and agricultural crop development, monitoring irrigation
• The production of drinking water – water distribution network infrastructure performance in terms of pressure, flow, discharge
• The treatment of wastewater – real-time monitoring of volatile fatty acids and phosphorus in treated waste waters and river water.
Two areas where our work has had significant impact are in:
• Farming: A more accurate and easy to use irrigation scheduling system can save water, energy and labour costs and can increase profitability by improving crop quality, reducing disease, and decreasing the loss of soil nutrients to percolation
• Wastewater: The development of a sensor to detect soluble phosphate in river and wastewater will aid water companies in meeting the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (EU Directive 91/271/EEC) and allow for a fast response should phosphate levels increase.
Our clients include Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Elveden Estate and UK Water Companies.
Our facilities
We are well supported by analytical laboratories, a unique groundwater training facility as well as aquatic field sampling equipment and industry specific computer software.
One of our strengths is in using existing technologies to capture large amounts of relevant data temporally and spatially and our expertise is in managing this data and utilising it to make informed decisions to improve business performance, businesses sustainability (responding to environmental regulation) and profitability (reducing costs from energy).
Working with us
Our capability is strongly aligned with the needs of businesses. We work directly with clients to assist them in collecting large amounts of data, making sense of it, interpreting it for clients to improve business performance, businesses sustainability (responding to environmental regulation) and profitability (reducing costs from energy).
We have a network of business partners across the world and active mechanisms of communication. We both initiate new ideas and bring them to the attention of potential partners, and respond to industrial requests for advisory and research services.
We focus on adding value and maximising leverage from our extensive postgraduate resource base and unique facilities.
Our work with business spans the range including short-term consultants, bespoke training, short-term postgraduate thesis, MSc group projects, PhD projects, and large-scale industrial consortia.
