Manufactured chemicals are essential for the maintenance of public health, food production and quality of life, including a diverse range of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and personal care products. The use of these compounds throughout society has led to increasing concentrations and chemodiversity in the environment. Whilst there has been focus on understanding the impacts of chemicals on a subset of freshwater biodiversity (particularly invertebrates and fish), we understand less about how chemical pollution impacts freshwater microbes. These microbial communities (the 'microbiome') number in the millions to billions of cells per millilitre of water or gram of sediment and form the most biodiverse and functionally important component of freshwater ecosystems. The biogeochemical and ecological functions delivered by freshwater microbes are essential to wider freshwater ecosystem health. The PAthways of Chemicals Into Freshwaters and their ecological ImpaCts (PACIFIC) project will focus on understanding the link between sources of anthropogenic chemicals and their pathways, fate and ecological impacts in freshwater ecosystems, with an emphasis on freshwater microbial ecosystems and the functions they perform. We will investigate the relationship between predicted diffuse and point source chemical pathways and measured chemical concentrations in water and sediments at locations across the Thames and Bristol Avon catchments, chosen to represent gradients of diffuse pollution sources. These locations will be chosen to coincide with Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTWs) to understand how sewage effluent contributes to chemical burden across these gradients. Liquid chromatography coupled with (high resolution) tandem mass spectrometry and QTOF (quadrupole Time-of-Flight) mass spectrometry will be used to perform targeted and untargeted profiling of chemical groups proven and suspected to impact freshwater ecology. A range of microbial community ecosystem endpoints will also be measured at each location to identify the impact of chemical exposure, including bacterial and fungal community composition via DNA sequencing, the expression of nutrient cycling and chemical stress and resistance genes, the production of extracellular enzymes involved with biogeochemical cycling, and the functional gene repertoire of whole microbial communities. We will perform experimental microcosm exposures on freshwater microbial communities, with increasing complexity and realism, deploying high-throughput screening to identify novel chemical groups (and their structural features) with the capacity to restructure these communities. Exemplar microbial community modifying chemicals will be investigated in more detail by applying cutting-edge molecular techniques to determine ecological exposure thresholds that represent different taxonomic and functional aspects of freshwater microbial ecosystems. Novel field based mesocosms will be used to explore wastewater exposures in more realistic, but controlled settings, allowing us to explore how chemical pollution may interact with other ecological drivers such as nutrients and temperature, and how microbial responses scale-up to higher trophic levels and alter ecosystem functioning. Spatially and temporally up-scaled models of diffuse and point source chemical pollution pathways will be combined with novel thresholds developed from the lab and field exposures, to determine chemical threats to freshwater microbes, supporting the development of tools for the better management of the risks of chemical pollution to freshwater ecosystem health. These will be combined with future hydrological, climate and socio-economic scenarios, informed by responses in our experiments, and co-developed with project collaborators, the Environment Agency, to explore future threats to microbial freshwater ecosystems and wider ecosystem health.

Recent events have shown that groundwater flooding is a serious risk to property, infrastructure and social disruption, and is a particular problem for the Chalk of South East England. The nature of this risk is poorly understood, and there is no adequate methodology to assess it. This proposal integrates state-of-the-art models of the soil, unsaturated zone, groundwater and surface water to provide a new modelling tool for risk assessment, and also investigates the use of simpler models for warning of the potential onset of flooding and regional assessment of risk. Experimental data from the NERC Lowland Catchment Research Thematic Programme and historical data from affected areas will be used to test hypotheses and develop and validate the models. The models will be run for future climate states to assess current and future risk using an ensemble of climate models.

We are building a Digital Solutions Hub (Hub) as a gateway to a broad set of inter-connected toolkits that facilitate improved access and better use of NERC data. The digital platform will have especially broad impacts on the environment, society and the economy by facilitating easier access and use of NERC data in business, government and society. Working with our partners, who are the users of what we build, will help grow its use and dissemination. The Hub will be integrated with wider social, economic, health and environmental datasets, to support decision making across a range of sectors. For stakeholders, the Hub will be the user-facing entry point that allows them to explore what NERC offers, ensuring that data and toolkits are findable and accessible. Data science, and the integration it requires, are highly complex and constantly evolving. Our approach recognises that computational tools need to 'sit' in the appropriate place in the technical ecosystem, and that users, particularly those who are new, must be supported in using and accessing them. We will be working with a range of partners in local and national government, the private sector, technology sector, infrastructure providers, health sector, transportation, urban and regional planning, environmental science and a whole range of local and national agencies we will facilitate improved decision making in a wide range of sectors. The Hub will benefit society by improving decision makers' ability to make informed decisions through the integration of data that have potential benefits for the future prosperity of the UK. This ranges from local to national government, the NHS, utility sector, transport infrastructure, insurance industry, housing developers as well as individual members of society. Providing easier access to NERC's environmental data offers opportunities to improving peoples' health and better understanding the impacts of climate change on people, land and property across the UK.

Measurements of ambient air-quality have been made routinely in the UK for many decades. The number of measurements has expanded substantially in the past decade following the implementation of the National Air Quality Strategy. This has increased the number of sites and pollutants measured and the number of local meteorological records taken to help interpret air-quality data. The collected air-quality data are generally used to check if the local pollution climate complies with air-quality standards. For this purpose they are summarised as annual statistics e.g. as annual-average concentrations, or as the total hours per year above a designated concentration value. Although such statistics serve to check compliance, they only use part of the information embedded in the air-quality and meteorological data for the purpose of assessing the performance of sources and policies. There have been several attempts to make better use of routine air-quality monitoring data for purposes for tracking the performance of individual sources and for managing air-quality more effectively. Although such studies have shown the advantages of better methods for presenting and interpreting data (e.g. polar plots of concentrations and wind speed) these advantages have not been generally recognised or the methods transferred into regular use by practitioners. This is in spite of the fact that such information would lead to more robust, rapid and cost-effective decisions for air quality management. Furthermore, few attempts have been made to apply novel forms of aerometric analysis to modelled data. When comparing predictions against observations it is important to check that a model 'gives the right answer for the right reasons'. Opportunities now exist to subject the latest generation of 'one atmosphere' models to rigorous forms of aerometric evaluation. This knowledge transfer proposal therefore aims to demonstrate the advantages of 'smarter' forms of aerometric analysis to a wide range of air-quality practitioners. We will show these advantages in a range of practical air-quality situations both for traditional community pollutants (e.g. SO2, NO2, PM10) and 'new priority pollutants' (e.g. methane) so that such methods become established in regular use. We will show how existing and novel techniques can be used to exploit air-quality data more fully and rigorously, and crucially how the extra information can benefit operational and policy decisions e.g. by giving earlier and clearer advice on the performance of individual sources, or on the progress of specific policies. The methods will not only enable measured concentrations to be better exploited, but will also be applied to modelled concentrations - so helping to improve prediction and management of air quality in future. We will disseminate our methods to practitioners via a range of mechanisms including (i) a website for announcements, progress reports and archived resources, (ii) case summaries & evaluation meetings, (iii) handouts & presentations to user bodies, (iv) conference posters/papers, (v) peer-reviewed publications, (vi) a final report and (vi) a closing workshop. In order to transfer the methods into regular use, we will show users that they can inform practical decisions on air quality (e.g. in management areas), resource use (e.g. fuels, abatement costs), societal behaviours (e.g. on transport, waste), health, (e.g. particulates) and quality of life. Our team has well-established links to professional air-quality bodies including: the Institute of Air-Quality Management, the UK's Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee, and Environmental Protection UK / with its specialist Dispersion Modellers' User Group. We will use these links to consult on the selection of cases studies, to give information on project progress, and to show air-quality practitioners how their decisions can benefit from improved air-quality analysis techniques.

The increased frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change results in the increased risk of surface water (pluvial) flooding, posing a great threat to the integrity and function of critical urban infrastructure. During the winter of 2013/14 twelve major winter storms occurred resulting in more than 5,000 homes, businesses and infrastructure being flooded in southern England. Green infrastructure, in the form of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), has been proposed as a potential measure that is likely to have a significant effect on flood risk in urban environments. However, despite their multifunctional benefits, SUDS often fail the feasibility criteria of Flood Risk Management (FRM) cost-benefit assessment. The Environment Agency (EA) highlighted a number of knowledge gaps concerning the cost and benefits of large-scale SUDS retrofitting schemes, in particular the data to remove uncertainties concerning the economic appraisal of innovative solutions. The scientific community and engineering consultants have also recognised the importance of utilising vegetation to enhance urban water management by delivering a range of essential services to towns and cities and supporting urban adaptation to climate change. The Climate-KIC funded Blue Green Dream (BGD) project gathered eminent partners to develop tools for assessing the interactions between urban water (blue) systems and vegetated (green) areas and hence maximise the multifunctional benefits of so-called Blue Green Solutions (including SUDS). Building on that research, this project will assign green infrastructure interventions as assets by progressing knowledge and understanding of the ability of Blue Green Solutions to provide cost-beneficial Flood Risk Management services. This will be achieved by brining together the expertise from three BGD project partners - Imperial College London, Deltares and AECOM, supported by the EA Water London Team. The Decoy Brook sub-catchment in London Borough of Barnet will be used as a case study for: a) mapping of Blue Green Solutions for infrastructure protection using the Adaptation Support Tool; b) improving the cost-benefit assessment of SUDS by quantifying multifunctional benefits of innovative Blue Green Solutions; and c) producing an advanced tool for full cost-benefit analysis of the proposed SUDS retrofitting scheme in compliance with the Flood Risk Management assessment. This will enable the EA to transparently and objectively assess Blue Green Solutions against the broad range of benefits. In addition, it will provide AECOM an example of a robust business case for utilising SUDS/Blue Green Solutions to protect infrastructure that addresses the reduction in the levels of uncertainty associated with the results from such analyses. Outputs from this project will be used to provide evidence to the Greater London Authority on the development of a pan London approach to delivering sustainable drainage systems. In addition, more accurate and robust valuing of SUDS and demonstrating the full return on each pound invested will enable EA's SUDS retrofit projects to compete on an equal footing for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Grant in Aid funding.