Research and expertise
Environmental Intelligence draws upon a wide range of expertise from across the University, from business and social sciences, geography, ecology and engineering to computer science and mathematics.
Our expertise covers four principal ‘EI for…’ research-application area themes, enabled by cross-cutting technical expertise, complemented by expertise relating to the broader social context in which such technologies and approaches are developed and applied.
Research themes
Our expertise and activity aligns with one or more of our Environmental Intelligence research themes and application areas.
EI for carbon, weather and climate
From carbon cycle, weather & climate models and forecasting to social & environmental tipping points, extreme weather-natural events and global systems thinking.
EI for energy, decarbonisation and urban sustainability
From built environment, smart cities, energy systems and renewables to circular economy, clean mobility, sustainable transport systems, and resilient infrastructure
EI for ecosystems, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity
From sustainable food systems, land-water use and conservation to nature-based solutions, biodiversity monitoring, rural policy and marine management.
EI for environmental transformation
From net-zero transition, business ECG commitments, climate / extreme weather mitigation, and food and energy systems, to biodiversity renewal, land use, flood prevention, pollution and supply chain resilience
Research impact
EI research and innovation activity focusses in particular on (is) delivering impact in the following key areas.
Climate and extreme weather risk, impact and resilience
Harnessing complex data sets and Machine Learning methods to better understand, evaluate and prepare for the adverse impacts arising from climate change, extreme weather events and rising temperatures.
From enabling accurate risk assessment, prediction and management to facilitating appropriate adaptations and mitigation approaches EI is helping to enhance the resilience and sustainability of communities, organisations, infrastructure, essential systems and the natural world in the face of change and uncertainty.
Nature recovery
Utilising data science and AI approaches to address the biodiversity emergency and support recovery of the natural world
Integration and assessment of data from satellites, drones and other diverse sources to monitor, model and predict biodiversity levels and the impact of interventions, including nature-based solutions, land-use changes, conservation and financial investments.
Remote sensing and monitoring
Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the acquisition, resolution and precision of remote sensing observations from satellite, aircraft and drone-based sensors, and in-situ devices.
Application of AI / ML offers promising solutions to the challenges of handling and analysing these large datasets, and enable their enormous potential to realised, including automated identification and extraction of key observations, predicting future trends, identifying key environment factors, and dealing with noisy signals under uncertainties.
Sustainable Futures
From clean energy, food systems and land use to finance, insurance and infrastructure, AI is a vital enabling technology for the transformational changes required to create a sustainable future. EI @ Exeter is working with partners across different disciplines and sectors to deliver AI-driven innovation to optimise existing systems, create novel solutions, improve decision making finance and deliver on organisational and national commitments.
Projects
AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) hub
We are part of the £12.8M UKRI AI4CI hub, which utilises smart collectives to improve decision making. The Environmental Intelligence theme is helping develop new technologies, such as chatbots and smart agents, to enable greater access to and utilisation of environmental and climate data by organisations, policy makers and the general public.
Academic Lead: Professor Hywel Williams
Partners: Met Office, Natural Resources Wales, Ordnance Survey
Earth Rover Program
The Earth Rover Program is a non-profit initiative focused on transforming soil assessment by applying seismology—a mature, low-cost technology—for agricultural and scientific benefit. The program uses geophones and seismic wave techniques to “see” into soil structure, moisture, volume, and potentially carbon and nutrient levels—without disturbing the ground.
The program’s goal is to empower farmers—regardless of scale or income—to monitor soil health in real time, boosting crop yields while reducing environmental impact . By generating spatially explicit soil health data and building operational hubs globally, the program aims to support both precision agriculture and soil science, tackling widespread soil degradation and helping secure sustainable food production for a growing global population.
Academic Lead: Professor Tarje Nissen-Meyer
Partner: Bezos Earth Fund
UK Climate Projections Chatbot
We have developed a Chatbot interfacing with the UK Climate Projects (UKCP) data and reports produced by the Met Office, to provide accurate evidence-based answers about climate change to scientists, the general public and journalists. This capability ensures the Met Office can provide 24/7 factual responses drawing on a curated archive of peer reviewed papers. This tool counters misinformation and by drawing on a verified source of information does not struggle with the inaccuracies many untrained chat bots such as Chat GPT are associated with. The Chatbot provides reliable answers in plain English and is easily used by the wider general public including schools.
Academic Lead: Professor Hywel Williams
Partner: Met Office
AI-elevated Decision-support via Digital Twins for Restoring and Enhancing Ecosystem Services (ADD-TREES)
A pioneering AI research project to develop user-bespoke digital twins and co-created AI-enhanced decision support tools to aid crucial decisions about land use changes, focussing on creation of new woodlands and forests.
Academic Lead: Professor Danny Williamson
Partners: Defra, MoD, National Trust, Network Rail, Forestry England, National Forest Company and the Woodland Trust
Renewing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach (RENEW)
Partnership with the National Trust, landowners, businesses, and communities, utilising EI driven decision-support tools, to reshape understanding and action on biodiversity and restore woodlands, wetlands and farmland across the UK.
Environmental Intelligence theme Lead: Professor Peter Challenor
Partner: National Trust
GreenSight
This UKRI funded project uses AI to twin satellite imagery of Green Belt land in the UK with climate models in the Met Office to better predict the instance and spread of wildfires.
Academic Leads: Professor Hywel Williams, Dr Milto Miltiadou, Dr Remy Vandaele
Partner: Met Office
