Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health
The Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health (LCWPH) is the first interdisciplinary research centre of its kind in the UK to focus on solving the most pressing environmental and societal issues emerging from water-related risks on human and ecosystem health in aquatic environments.
To understand these complex socio-environmental interactions and develop effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, the interdisciplinary research within the LCWPH links environmental sciences with humanities and human health.
The LCWPH uses the emerging idea of “Planetary Health” (“the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends”) and integrating it with river, catchment, and coastal science in order to make this important concept operational for delivering evidence-based water and health interventions providing the underpinning science to tackle a series of UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Learn more about the focus of the LCWPH and its dedication to promoting research into the most serious global environmental and social problems related to Earth’s great rivers under the foundational directorship of Professor Mark Macklin and Professor Chris Thomas in an article with Research Outreach, Water and planetary health: Protecting the lifeblood of human civilisation.
Our Research
Waterborne and Vector-borne Disease
Waterborne and vector-borne parasitic and bacterial diseases have emerged or re-emerged in many geographical regions, causing global health and economic problems. Our researchers are interested in the potential impact of these diseases on human health.
Coasts and Catchments
Coastal erosion and coastal flooding range among the most severe concerns of coastal communities. We integrate riverine and coastal research to unravel the interactions and feedback mechanisms between “coasts and catchments” to better understand the resilience of natural and social coastal systems.
River Science
Rivers satisfy multiple social needs in terms of resources and services but are affected by a wide range of human activity, which reduce the environmental and societal services they provide. We tackle these issues in the interdisciplinary framework of “River Science”, which stands at the interface of geomorphology, ecology, engineering, and social sciences.
Environmental Contamination
We research contamination at basin, catchment to global scale, arising from past and present mining, agriculture, urban developments, and industry. The Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health aims to develop new approaches to risk management and sustainable development.
Disentangling Southern Hemisphere climate and environmental interactions of the late Pleistocen
This project explores drivers of terrestrial ecosystem responses to glacial/interglacial transitions through the Late Pleistocene, in Tasmania, Australia. We will perform δ18Odiatom to determine the number glacial/interglacial cycles preserved in the Darwin Crater record, the nature and timing of these transitions, and the complex terrestrial-aquatic ecosystem interactions of the past.
Northwest European Seasonal Weather Prediction from Complex Systems Modelling
The atmospheric circulation and jet stream over the North Atlantic strongly influence seasonal weather conditions over Northwest Europe. This project seeks to improve current seasonal forecasts, develop seasonal forecasts for Northwest Europe, and assess the benefits of skillful probabilistic seasonal forecasts to interested end users such as the agri-food industry.
FLOODMAL: The impacts of flooding and changed river flows on malaria hazard
Malaria is a vector-borne disease which occurs where Anopheles mosquito vectors, Plasmodium parasites, and vulnerable human populations coincide. Whilst the effect of temperature on malaria vectors has been widely studied, this project studies the impacts of changed river flows on malaria hazard, and the intervention efforts required to address them.
Rivers of Gold: The Legacy of Historical Gold Mining for Victoria's Rivers
Rivers are cultural artefacts that have been transformed by significant human intervention. During the nineteenth century the gold-mining industry deposited large quantities of soil in rivers across South Eastern Australia. This project uses industrial archaeology, geomorphology and environmental chemistry to find out what happened to the rivers as a result.
The environmental fate of emerging contaminants and antibiotic-resistant genes in river sediment and floodplains of the Ganga basin
The Ganga basin has become increasingly polluted with a cocktail of persistent organic pollutants, plasticizers, and heavy metals. This project undertakes the first event-based and catchment-scale (mountain-to-ocean) investigations of emerging contaminants (ECs), and microbial population dynamics, in river channel sediments and floodplains of the Ganga basin including its major tributaries.
PhD Studentships
At the University of Lincoln, our PhD students are committed to making research breakthroughs and inspiring those around them, and we are committed to helping them achieve their goals. That’s why the University is making a significant investment to provide research studentship opportunities for exceptional doctoral candidates.
Contact Us
Department of Geography, College of Health and Science
University of Lincoln, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7DW
Tel: +44(0)1522 835820