Environmental process and impacts

Climate change, environmental pollution and contamination, and the increasing scarcity of our planet’s natural resources are some of the biggest threats to humanity. 

Our Environmental Processes and Impacts research looks at the monitoring, movement and impacts of contaminants and pollutants in the environment. 

We have strong industry links with water companies, environmental consultants and nuclear regulators. Our work identifies the issues they face and searches for solutions to them. 

To meet the growing demand for food and energy, we’re helping organisations and governments around the world use the planet’s natural resources more sustainably. 

And to mitigate the risks associated with contaminated water, air and land, we’re also working with regulators and industries to develop more efficient monitoring techniques for dangerous environmental pollutants.

Much of our research makes use of the University of Portsmouth Geological and Environmental Laboratories (UPGEL) – our flagship commercial laboratories group, formed in response to a Regional Growth Fund effort to create an easily-accessible Environmental Technologies Hub in the Solent region.

UPGEL boasts exceptional laboratories and facilities – including Chemcatcher®, a cost-effective passive sampling device developed by our researchers and colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, which can replace established water monitoring approaches that rely on infrequent spot or bottle sampling.

We partner and collaborate with many private companies, universities, regulatory bodies and environmental consultancies, including:

• Fukushima University, Japan
• The State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management, Ukraine
• The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
• The International Network for Environmental Forensics (INEF)
• DustScanAQ: Dust Monitoring & Air Quality Consultants

Our work has been featured in many publications, including Environmental Science and Technology, Science of the Total Environment, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, and Climatic Change. We have received significant project funding from major organisations, such as the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Our work has been covered widely by mainstream media – with our recent work on abundant wildlife populations at Chernobyl being covered around the world by the likes of Reuters, BBC, The Guardian, CNN, New Scientist, The Washington Post, El Pais and Le Figaro.

Discover our areas of expertise

Interested in a PhD in Earth & Environmental Sciences?

Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Earth & Environmental Sciences postgraduate research degrees page.