Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Around the world the prediction of microbial water pollution is important for informing policy decisions in order to safeguard human health. However, modelling the fate and transfer of microbial pollutants, such as E. coli (& other pathogens) at different spatial scales poses a considerable challenge to the research and policy community. In the UK much research has focused on trying to understand the movement & survival of pathogens in environmental systems with a view that better knowledge and data on the behavioural characteristics of these micro-organisms will improve our ability to model and predict their interactions with, and responses to, the world around us. The NERC-funded project ReMOFIO (NE/J004456/1) provides an example of research undertaken in the UK to improve our understanding of the magnitude and spatial distribution of microbial risks in the landscape. In turn, this new knowledge has enabled the refinement of a simple modelling framework to allow for improved prediction of microbial risk on agricultural land, based on livestock numbers, farming practices and E. coli survival patterns under environmental conditions (e.g. rainfall and temperature fluctuations). While this model is useful, its current form makes it inaccessible to a wider audience and, most importantly, hinders its wider uptake by the regulatory community and those with a responsibility for catchment management and environmental decision-making. Indeed, models developed by the scientific community are rarely, if ever, designed in such a way to maximise their appeal to different end-users from the outset. Often what is required to effectively 'open-up' the access of sometimes rather complex science into a more user-friendly format is the development of an interface, or 'front-end', that promotes end-user interaction but keeps the underpinning science hidden from view. A common approach to enable this is the design of a Graphic User Interface (GUI) that allows end-users without specific modelling skills or knowledge of a modelling system to take advantage of existing science and modelling capability. A GUI essentially provides an effective means of translating scientific research into a practical tool for end-users. In response, this Innovation Project will promote engagement, deliberation and joint decision-making across a range of science providers (researchers) and science users (regulators, catchment managers and farm networks) in an effort to develop a GUI for the ReMOFIO model, and to explore the translation of this GUI into an App-based format too. This represents a critical step for ensuring that this NERC funded model and data delivers real-world impact through innovative conversion of the underpinning evidence-base into a format that is widely accessible by relevant end-users. The aim of the ViPER (Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk) project is to facilitate wider access and uptake of this NERC science, by stakeholders, in order to deliver that impact and to ensure that up-to-date insight and knowledge is transferred to the right people both in the right way and at the right time.

The 2007 floods prompted the UK Government's "Pitt review", which came up with the idea that we need to start to deal with the causes of flooding upstream of the affected communities, rather than rely solely on the downstream engineering solutions. This stimulated a range of organisations to introduce "natural" features into the landscape that may have benefits in terms of reducing flooding (so called "Natural Flood Management, NFM"). Having introduced features these organisations, and local stakeholders working with them, are increasingly asking "Are these features working?" This has highlighted to funders, those implementing the features and scientists alike that there are gaps in the evidence of how individual features (e.g. a single farm pond or a small area of tree planting) work and what are potential downstream benefits for communities at risk of flooding. Stakeholders want both questions answered at the same time, making this one of the most important academic challenges for hydrological scientists in recent years. The only way to quantify the effects of many individual features at larger scales is to use computer models. To be credible, these models also need to produce believable results at individual feature scales. Meeting this challenge is the focus of this research project. Consequently, our primary objective is to quantify the likely effectiveness of these NFM features for mitigating flood risk at large catchment scales in the most credible way. In this context, credibility means being transparent and rigorous in the way that we deal with what we do know and what we don't know when addressing this problem using models. In doing this we need to address particular scientific challenges in the following ways: * We need to show that our models are capable of reproducing downstream floods while at the same time matching observed local hydrological phenomena, such as patterns of soil saturation. Integral to our methodology are observations of these local phenomena to further strengthen the credibility of the modelling. * We use the same models to predict NFM effects by changing key model components. These changes to the components are made in a rigorous way, initially based upon the current evidence. * As evidence of change is so critical, our project necessarily includes targeted experimental work to address some of the serious evidence gaps, to significantly improve the confidence in the model results. * This rigorous strategy provides us with a platform for quantifying the magnitude of benefit that can be offered by different spatial extents of NFM implementation across large areas. By addressing these scientific goals we believe that we can deliver a step change in the confidence of our quantification of the likely effectiveness of NFM measure for mitigating flood risk at large catchment scales.

The corrosion of embedded steel rebar in reinforced concrete (RC) structures, which are the backbone of every nation's infrastructure, is a major issue. Interventions relating to the corrosion of RC structures are estimated to amount to about 35% of the total volume of all work in the global building sector. Reinforcement corrosion is induced via mobile chloride ions or other structurally harmful contaminates within the reinforced concrete, which happens due to a variety of reasons such as marine environment, de-icing salt in winter seasons, chloride content in concrete mixing and the use of sea sand, etc. With reinforcement corrosion, the load-bearing resistances of RC structures are reduced, with severe potential safety issues and also immense economic loss. A new intervention method, ICCP-SS (impressed current cathodic protection and structural strengthening), has recently been proposed. ICCP-SS combines the merits of impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) and structural strengthening (SS) technologies, but uses one dual-functional material - carbon fibre reinforced cementitious matrix (C-FRCM). In this dual functional material, the carbon fibre (CF) mesh serves as the anode for ICCP and also the strengthening material for SS, while the cementitious matrix is the conductor for ICCP and the bonding material for SS. Previous studies have demonstrated effectiveness of the ICCP-SS technology for RC members. However, it has been found that prolonged ICCP would cause calcium leaching in the cementitious matrix at the anode interface, leading to drastic loss of mechanical properties and significant increase of electrical resistance of the bond between the cementitious matrix and CF mesh. Reducing calcium leaching to a level that does not adversely affect structural resistance is possible by increasing the compactness and the electrical conductivity of the cementitious matrix to achieve a more uniform electrical resistive field in the anode interface; introducing a tiny amount of graphene into the cementitious matrix has the potential to do so. The key to solving the problem is to prevent (or significantly slow down) the breakdown of C-S-H gel (i.e. loss of calcium) at anode interface under the same ICCP current density and duration. The remarkable properties of graphene make it a potentially ideal solution to this problem by producing a more uniform electrical field and more compact microstructures of the cementitious matrix. This project aims to solve two issues: to quantify the bond mechanical behaviour (for SS) and the electrical resistance at the CF/cementitious matrix interface (for ICCP) due to leaching, and to investigate means of reducing leaching. In summary, the ICCP-SS intervention method has vast potential in prolonging life of RC structures and introducing a small amount of graphene flakes in the dual-functional cementitious matrix has a number of beneficial synergistic effects to help realise the full potential of ICCP-SS.

National infrastructure (NI) systems (energy, transport, water, waste and ICT) in the UK and in advanced economies globally face serious challenges. The 2009 Council for Science and Technology (CST) report on NI in the UK identified significant vulnerabilities, capacity limitations and a number of NI components nearing the end of their useful life. It also highlighted serious fragmentation in the arrangements for infrastructure provision in the UK. There is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions from infrastructure, to respond to future demographic, social and lifestyle changes and to build resilience to intensifying impacts of climate change. If this process of transforming NI is to take place efficiently, whilst also minimising the associated risks, it will need to be underpinned by a long-term, cross-sectoral approach to understanding NI performance under a range of possible futures. The 'systems of systems' analysis that must form the basis for such a strategic approach does not yet exist - this inter-disciplinary research programme will provide it.The aim of the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium is to develop and demonstrate a new generation of system simulation models and tools to inform analysis, planning and design of NI. The research will deal with energy, transport, water, waste and ICT systems at a national scale, developing new methods for analysing their performance, risks and interdependencies. It will provide a virtual environment in which we will test strategies for long term investment in NI and understand how alternative strategies perform with respect to policy constraints such as reliability and security of supply, cost, carbon emissions, and adaptability to demographic and climate change.The research programme is structured around four major challenges:1. How can infrastructure capacity and demand be balanced in an uncertain future? We will develop methods for modelling capacity, demand and interdependence in NI systems in a compatible way under a wide range of technological, socio-economic and climate futures. We will thereby provide the tools needed to identify robust strategies for sustainably balancing capacity and demand.2. What are the risks of infrastructure failure and how can we adapt NI to make it more resilient?We will analyse the risks of interdependent infrastructure failure by establishing network models of NI and analysing the consequences of failure for people and the economy. Information on key vulnerabilities and risks will be used to identify ways of adapting infrastructure systems to reduce risks in future.3. How do infrastructure systems evolve and interact with society and the economy? Starting with idealised simulations and working up to the national scale, we will develop new models of how infrastructure, society and the economy evolve in the long term. We will use the simulation models to demonstrate alternative long term futures for infrastructure provision and how they might be reached.4. What should the UK's strategy be for integrated provision of NI in the long term? Working with a remarkable group of project partners in government and industry, we will use our new methods to develop and test alternative strategies for Britain's NI, building an evidence-based case for a transition to sustainability. We will analyse the governance arrangements necessary to ensure that this transition is realisable in practice.A Programme Grant provides the opportunity to work flexibly with key partners in government and industry to address research challenges of national importance in a sustained way over five years. Our ambition is that through development of a new generation of tools, in concert with our government and industry partners, we will enable a revolution in the strategic analysis of NI provision in the UK, whilst at the same time becoming an international landmark programme recognised for novelty, research excellence and impact.