Environment

Misty mountains, with a forest lying in the valley between them

The focus of the environment theme is to seek methodological innovations that can transform our understanding and management of the natural environment. This is a major cross-disciplinary challenge requiring a close collaboration between environmental scientists, computer sciences, statisticians, social scientists, and many others.

We are particularly interested in new methods that:

  1. recognise the intrinsic features of complexity/ interconnectedness and uncertainty in the natural world
  2. can deal with the often sparse data emanating from extreme events
  3. recognise the higher heterogeneous and fragmented nature of environmental data (sometimes referred to as the long tail of science)
  4. can detect significant phenomena and changepoints associated with the environment at different scales

We are also interested in the transformative potential of underlying digital innovations, in particular, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing: IoT has the potential to provide rich, real-time data about many facets of the natural environment at a scale previously unimaginable; cloud computing offers elastic storage and computational capacity to bring together diverse data-sets from different geographical locations and at different scales and open this up to a range of scientists and stakeholders.

Data science then has the potential to offer a rich mix of analysis techniques to make sense of the data and hence to inform environmental management strategies and policies. This builds on real areas of strength at Lancaster, across the environmental sciences (for example in modelling and in managing uncertainty), an underlying distributed computer systems architectures, in areas of theory including extreme value theory, changepoint analysis, machine learning and decision making. Building on this, our goal is to establish the Data Science Institute as the world leader in data science for the environment.

Members

Kirsti Ashworth

Dr Kirsti Ashworth

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow

Atmosphere, Climate and Pollution, DSI - Environment, Institute for Social Futures - Leadership Team

B511, B - Floor, LEC 1
Peter Atkinson

Professor Peter Atkinson

Executive Dean, Distinguished Professor

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, Geospatial Data Science, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Environmental Modelling, LIRA - Fundamentals, STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training

Johnson Bailey

Dr Johnson Bailey

Senior Research Associate in Iceberg Detection and Commercialisation

Astrophysics

Oliver Bates

Dr Oliver Bates

Research Fellow

DSI - Environment, Energy Lancaster, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Behavioural Science), Security Lancaster (Societal Threats), Security Lancaster (Systems Security)

C20, C - Floor, InfoLab21
Jan Bebbington

Professor Jan Bebbington

The Rubin Chair in Sustainability in Business, Director of the Pentland Centre

Pentland Centre

+44 (0)1524 592201
Andrew Binley

Professor Andrew Binley

Professor

DSI - Environment, Energy Lancaster, Innovation for a better environment, Sustainable Catchments, Understanding a changing planet, Water Science

B539, B - Floor, LEC 1 & 2
Gordon Blair

Professor Gordon Blair

Distinguished Professor

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, FST Sustainability Advisory Committee, HighWire Doctoral Training Centre, SCC (Distributed Systems)

C15, C - Floor, Infolab
Alex Bush

Dr Alex Bush

Lectureship in Environmental Remote Sensing

Geospatial Data Science

+44 (0)1524 594368
Sally Cawood

Dr Sally Cawood

Lecturer in Economic Geography

Political Ecology

Emma Eastoe

Dr Emma Eastoe

Senior Lecturer in Statistics

DSI - Environment, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Extreme Value Theory, STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training

+44 (0)1524 593954 B28a, B - Floor, Fylde College
Yehia Elkhatib

Dr Yehia Elkhatib

Senior Lecturer

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, SCC (Distributed Systems), Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Distributed Systems), Security Lancaster (Systems Security)

C17, C - Floor, InfoLab21
Adrian Friday

Professor Adrian Friday

Professor of Computing and Sustainability

DSI - Environment, Energy Lancaster, MSF Supervisors 2019/20, Pentland Centre, SCC (Pervasive Systems)

C57, C - Floor, InfoLab21
Ryan Hossaini

Dr Ryan Hossaini

Reader in Atmospheric Chemistry

Atmosphere, Climate and Pollution, DSI - Environment

Harry Hoster

Professor Harry Hoster FRSC

 Professor

Electrochemical and Surfaces Research Group, Energy Lancaster, Physical and Analytical Chemistry

+44 (0)7842 831633
Suzana Ilic

Dr Suzana Ilic

Senior Lecturer in Lancaster Environment Centre

Centre for Global Eco-innovation , DSI - Environment, Energy Lancaster, Innovation for a better environment, Sustainable Catchments, Understanding a changing planet, Water Science

+44 (0)1524 510264
Michael James

Professor Michael James

Professor in Volcanology

DSI - Environment, Earth Science, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Environmental Modelling, Understanding a changing planet

B522a, B - Floor, LEC 1 & 2
Andrew Jarvis

Dr Andrew Jarvis

Lecturer

Philip Jonathan

Professor Philip Jonathan

Chair in Environmental Statistics and Data Science

DSI - Environment, Extreme Value Theory, STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training

Sally Keith

Dr Sally Keith

Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, Ecology and Conservation

Rob Lamb

Professor Rob Lamb

Professor in Practice

DSI - Environment, Extreme Value Theory, Sustainable Catchments, Water Science

+44 (0)7866 715761
Amber Leeson

Dr Amber Leeson

Reader in Glaciology

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, Geospatial Data Science

+44 (0)1524 521867
Mal McMillan

Professor Mal McMillan

Professor in Earth Observation

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, Geospatial Data Science

+44 (0)1524 592595
Xiandong Ma

Dr Xiandong Ma

Reader in Power and Energy Systems

DSI - Foundations, Energy, Energy Lancaster

+44 (0)1524 593700 Engineering Building
Luke Parry

Dr Luke Parry

Reader in Environmental Social Science

DSI - Health, Improving global stewardship, Political Ecology , Understanding a changing planet

A528, A - Floor, LEC 1
David Parkes

Dr David Parkes

Senior Research Associate

James Robinson

Dr James Robinson

Leverhulme Research Fellow

+44 (0)1524 593968
Jonathan Tawn

Professor Jonathan Tawn

Distinguished Professor of Statistics

DSI - Environment, Extreme Value Theory, STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training

+44 (0)1524 593965
Wlodek Tych

Dr Wlodek Tych

Senior Lecturer

DSI - Environment, DSI - Health, Energy Lancaster, Improving global stewardship, Sustainable Catchments, Understanding a changing planet, Water Science

A514a, A - Floor, LEC 1 & 2
Gordon Walker

Professor Gordon Walker

Professor (Project - Evaluating community interventions), Professor Emeritus, Professor (Project - Wetland Times)

Critical Geographies, DEMAND - Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand, Improving global stewardship, Innovation for a better environment

Duncan Whyatt

Professor Duncan Whyatt

Professor

Centre for Global Eco-innovation , Geospatial Data Science, Improving global stewardship, Innovation for a better environment, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Environmental Modelling, Understanding a changing planet

Oliver Wild

Professor Oliver Wild FRMetS

 Professor

Atmosphere, Climate and Pollution, DSI - Environment, DSI - Health, Improving global stewardship, Understanding a changing planet

B508, B - Floor, LEC 1 & 2
Peter Young

Professor Peter Young

Emeritus Professor

DSI - Environment

+44 (0)1524 33558