Oxford-Cambridge Arc

Investment: The UK government is investing heavily in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc to benefit jobs, economy and the environment.  The investments include new housing and associated transport infrastructure.  This investment is expected to meet economic goals but also environmental ones including net-zero, no net loss and risk mitigation in particular for flood risks under the UK farm and environment bills.

Scientific/Technical Project Contribution: The project will make three distinct contributions to this investment: 

(1) monitoring stations will be deployed in key farming locations within the Arc to provide an evidence base as to how regenerative agriculture and other on-farm NBS influence ecosystem service provision with a focus on flooding, drought mitigation and carbon dynamics;

(2) flood risk modelling and the impact of green infrastructure scenarios will be explored for the entire region by integrating socio-economic inputs from the Activity Based Metronamica model of RIKS and biophysical inputs from the Eco:Actuary and/or Co$ting Nature models of KCL and AmbioTEK; 

(3) The footprint of existing and new grey infrastructure (especially road, rail and air) will be monitored and modelled to examine net impact of green-grey developments.