Publications

Green-blue-grey infrastructure (GBGI) offers environmental benefits in urban areas, yet its impact on air pollution is under-researched, and the literature fragmented. This review evaluates quantitative studies on GBGI's capability to mitigate air pollution, compares their specific pollutant removal processes, and identifies areas for further investigation. Of the 51 GBGI types reviewed, only 22 provided quantitative pollution reduction data. Street trees and mixed-GBGI are the most studied GBGIs, with efficacy influenced by wind, GBGI type vegetation characteristics, and urban morphology. Negative percentages denote worsening air quality, while positive reflect improvement. The 22 different GBGI grouped into eight main categories provide an average (± s.d.) reduction in air pollution of 16 ± 21%, with substantial reduction shown by linear features (23 ± 21%), parks (22 ± 34%), constructed GI (14 ± 25%), and other non-sealed urban areas (14 ± 20%). Other individual GBGI reducing air pollutants include woodlands (21 ± 38%), hedges (14 ± 25%), green walls (14 ± 27%), shrubland (12 ± 20%), green roofs (13 ± 23%), parks (9±36%), and mixed-GBGI (7 ± 23 %). On average, GBGI reduced PM1, PM2.5, PM10, UFP and BC by 13 ± 21%, 1 ± 25%, 7 ± 42%, 27 ± 27%, and 16 ± 41%, respectively. GBGI also lowered gaseous pollutants CO, O3 and NOx by 10 ± 21%, 7 ± 21%, and 12 ± 36%, on average, respectively. Linear (e.g., street trees and hedges) and constructed (e.g., green walls) features can impact local air quality, positively or negatively, based on the configuration and density of the built environment. Street trees generally showed adverse effects in street canyons and beneficial outcomes in open-road conditions. Climate change could worsen air pollution problems and impact GBGI effectiveness by shifting climate zones. In Europe and China, climate shifts are anticipated to affect 8 of the 22 GBGIs, with the rest expected to remain resilient. Despite GBGI's potential to enhance air quality, the meta-analysis highlights the need for a standardised reporting structure or to enable meaningful comparisons and effectively integrate findings into urban pollution and climate strategies.

pharmacies. However, people exempt from prescription charges may visit their GP to get a prescription instead. The aim of the Direct Supply of Medicines (DSoM) Scheme was to allow such exempt patients to consult a community pharmacist and receive OTC medicines free of charge under the NHS. An evaluation of this pilot scheme was conducted between April 2001 and March 2002 in two areas of Scotland. The experience from this pilot was intended to inform a wider roll-out of DSoM in Scotland.

Noise pollution from road traffic is ubiquitous in modern cities and is the second greatest environmental risk to health in Western Europe. Urban woodland can provide substantial noise mitigation if located properly, yet such considerations are often absent from the urban planning process. Current approaches for quantifying this important ecosystem service (ES) do not account adequately for important spatial factors and are unable to identify effectively the best locations to place new woodland for noise mitigation. We present new methods, in which we exploit the concept of least-cost-distance, to map and value the mitigating effect of urban woodland, and to identify optimal locations to place new woodland. Applying these methods, we show that urban woodland currently provides Birmingham City (UK) with over GBP 3.8 million in noise mitigation benefits, annually. We also show that our new ‘opportunity’ mapping methods effectively identify the best locations for new woodland, achieving close to a maximum service with less than a quarter of the additional woodland needed to achieve it. This has important implications for the design and implementation of urban tree planting for noise mitigation, and these methods can be adapted for other ES, allowing consideration of multiple service outcomes.

Abstract Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is increasingly used to inform environmental policy decisions by identifying interventions with the highest net societal benefits. Here we focus on CBAs for nitrogen (NCBA), explaining its history, presenting results of a recent first global NCBA and discussing opportunities and limitations. NCBAs have been conducted since the late 1990s for various geographic regions in Europe, the US, and China, primarily to support air quality and eutrophication policies. A first valuation of damages and benefits of the full nitrogen (N) cycle was conducted for the European Nitrogen Assessment in 2011, followed by NCBAs for the USA, the Netherlands and Germany. Here we present a first comprehensive global NCBA. Total global damage cost of N pollution in 2010 was estimated at US$1.1 trillion, primarily from increases in premature mortality by N derived PM 2.5 (35%), terrestrial biodiversity loss by N deposition (33%), and marine eutrophication by N river loads (21%). Global benefits of N in 2010 were estimated at US$ 2.2 trillion with >95% from increased crop yields. By 2050, global N-related costs will rise faster than N benefits because underlying models project that economic growth (GDP) increases willingness-to-pay to prevent N pollution more than crop prices. The geographical distribution of N-related costs will also shift, with China and India surpassing Europe and North America as regions contributing most to global N-related costs. The estimated N cost range for 2010 was US$ 0.6–2.2 trillion with uncertainty largely in dose-impact and damage cost relations. Given the large uncertainties, when using valuation and NCBA to select a N mitigation option, the net benefits should be substantially higher than the costs and markedly better than for a rejected alternative option. Use of NCBA is discouraged to compare international policy options that involve regions with very different levels of GDP, cultures and political systems.

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

Europe and China Refined Land Cover 2030 (ECRLC2030) was derived from historical landcover observations, natural geographical, location, and socio-economic factors and the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small Regional Extent model (CLUE-S). With a spatial resolution of 60m, landcover under three different scenarios were simulated: the business-as-usual scenario (BAU), the market-liberal scenario (MLS), and the ecological protection scenario (EPS).

People from all sections of society should feel welcome and included to enjoy greenspaces. However, people from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience exclusionary practices and discriminatory processes, limiting their access, enjoyment, and benefits from such spaces. This paper aims to address these issues through an in-depth qualitative study exploring how 53 individuals from UK ethnic minority backgrounds residing in Bristol perceive and experience exclusion in UK greenspaces. Going beyond narratives that pathologise the exclusion of ethnic minorities from greenspaces, this research reveals a spectrum of experiences related to perceived exclusion, including both positive and negative, and challenges and expressions of empowerment and agency. Common experiences of exclusion are often intangible, necessitating sensitivity to their elusive and relational nature, with variation between urban and rural contexts. Drawing on Bourdieusian theories of practice, this study illuminates how social and cultural capital, habitus, and symbolic violence shape exclusionary practices and discriminatory processes, contributing to feelings of otherness, discomfort among UK ethnic minority group members in greenspaces. By highlighting the diverse nature of these processes and their variations across social and geographic contexts, this study emphasises the need for tailored, coproduced interventions to enhance greenspace accessibility and engagement. It advocates for recognising diverse experiences, integrating critical thought into environmental planning, and leveraging social and cultural capital to promote inclusivity and address systemic inequalities.

Tourism and outdoor leisure is an important economic sector for many countries, and has a substantial reliance on natural capital. Natural capital may be the primary purpose for tourism, or it may be a secondary factor, where the choice of location for a leisure activity is influenced by natural capital. Typically, when valuing tourism and outdoor leisure, all expenditure associated with the activity is assigned to the ecosystem it occurs in. However, this value illustrates the dependency on natural capital, rather than the contribution of natural capital. In natural capital accounting, a major challenge is to separately identify the contribution of natural capital from that of other forms of capital. In this study we develop a transparent and repeatable method that is able to attribute the contribution of natural capital (here defined as ecosystems) to the output of multiple tourism and outdoor leisure activities. Using national statistics from Great Britain, we calculate the natural capital contribution to tourism spend by activity at a national and regional scale, and for a case study map and value the contributing ecosystems. We estimated that, out of a total £36 billion spent on tourism and leisure activities in 2017, £22.5 billion was attributable to natural capital. This equates to 0.9% of the UK GDP. The Gross Value Added component of this attributable was £10.5 billion, equivalent to 0.4% of the UK GDP. Regions with the highest natural capital contribution in Great Britain were Scotland and Wales, with the lowest being Greater London and the West Midlands in England. For the case study, the ecosystems with the greatest contribution to terrestrial activities were marine and enclosed farmland. These methods can be applied worldwide for anywhere with aggregate economic statistics on expenditure associated with tourism and outdoor leisure, with the aid of open source GIS datasets.