FutureThames aims to promote geoenvironmental collaboration by combining diverse threads of geological research and knowledge into 3D models of physical properties and processes.
FutureThames focuses on the Thames catchment area, which contains Europe's largest megacity, the UK's principal aquifer and an extensive zone of coastal interaction, all of which face particular challenges from the threat of climate and environmental change.
The project brings together a unique combination of geological, hydrogeological, environmental and socio-economic challenges that are intrinsically linked by climate change and which require fully attributed 3D models that incorporate all of these factors in order to make accurate predictions and model processes. These models are required to enable informed decision making and sustainable planning.
Understanding these links and encouraging seamless research and knowledge exchange between these areas of science and industry is essential if the impacts of climatic and environmental change in the Thames basin are to be quantified.
FutureThames intends to do this by providing an opportunity for collaboration with the wider environmental community, stakeholders and decision makers.
'Battlegrounds of environmental change' refer to regions where the legacy of past industrial development, future land use and resource pressures combine to create a highly sensitive natural environment with major challenges for sustainable development. These regions include, for example, London and the Thames catchment (FutureThames project), Glasgow and the Clyde Basin (see CUSP), the South Wales coalfield and the major conurbations of the Midlands and the North of England.