For over 60 years, UKCEH and its predecessor institutes have adopted emerging technology to build a state-of-the-art, UK-wide network of science infrastructures for environmental observation, experiment, analysis, data and digital modelling.  

Building on the legacy of Victorian naturalists, and of twentieth century ecologists and hydrologists, the UK now has one of the most intensely studied and recorded landscapes in the world, and is a world leader in environmental and climate science as a result.  

UKCEH science infrastructures have enabled and continue to enable scientists, environmental agencies, governments, businesses and citizens to address our most pressing challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, floods and droughts, and sustainable agriculture.
 

Tackling today's environmental challenges

Today, UKCEH science infrastructures continue to provide the capability to monitor and study, in-situ and digitally, a comprehensive suite of environmental variables across land, water and air at relevant scales and resolutions.  We harness observation, experiment, analysis, data and digital models to provide scientific understanding and prediction of how the Earth-system works, how human activities impact upon it, and how we can manage it sustainably.  

Sustained investment in UKCEH’s science infrastructures:

  • Equips the UK’s world-leading environmental researchers to advance scientific discovery and understanding.
  • Equips policy-makers, land managers and businesses to understand and predict environmental processes, inter-connections, status and change.
  • Equips us as a society to respond to environmental emergencies and to deliver sustainable, just, balanced and joined up social–economic–environmental solutions. 
  • Equips us to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies through net zero and clean growth.
     

Science infrastructures

Arc boat used for river surveys

UKCEH's isotope lab in Lancaster specialises in analysing biological components and trace gases derived from terrestrial, freshwater, polar and marine environments.

Our network of soil moisture monitoring stations generates data that supports water resource management, and helps to predict crop yields, floods and droughts. 

Our solar domes at UKCEH Bangor are used to research the effects of air pollution on vegetation and crops

The Auchencorth Moss Atmospheric Observatory is used for long term studies of atmospheric composition, surface-atmosphere exchange of pollutants and carbon catchments. 

Our aquatic mesocosm at UKCEH Lancaster is used to investigate stressors on lake ecosystems.

Drones are used to generate remotely sensed data of the surface of the Earth.

The National River Flow Archive collates, quality controls, and archives hydrometric data. 

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