Air quality, health and sustainable coastal communities

Understanding environmental impacts, supporting coastal communities, and addressing port city health challenges.

Our research brings together expertise in air quality, coastal science, and environmental change to better understand how pollution and climate pressures affect people and places. Working with partners across the Liverpool City Region, the UK and Internationally, we generate evidence to inform policies and solutions that support healthier communities and more resilient coastal environments.

Our expertise

Air quality monitoring and health impacts

The Liverpool Air Quality Research Centre (LARC) is a University of Liverpool hub for research, training and digital tools addressing urban and port-related air pollution across the Liverpool City Region (LCR). Supported by the LCR Freeport Skills Infrastructure Grant Programme, the Centre deploys networks of low-cost sensors to monitor particulate pollution in real time and link environmental data with paediatric asthma emergency visits at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

Led by Dr Jonny Higham from the University’s Department of Geography and Planning, the initiative brings together researchers, clinicians and city partners, through work such as the Air Quality Roundtables, to support evidence-based policies for cleaner air and healthier communities

COAST-R Network Plus (ESRC)

The University of Liverpool is a partner in the COAST-R: Coastal Communities and Seas Together for Resilience Network Plus, a UK-wide initiative building research capacity to support resilient coastal communities and marine environments. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the network brings together universities, policymakers, and community organisations to develop new knowledge and collaborative solutions for coastal challenges.

At Liverpool, Professor Neil Macdonald, Dr Charlotte Lyddon, and Professor Andy Plater contribute expertise in environmental change and coastal resilience, working alongside partners including the Universities of Hull, Glasgow, Aberystwyth, Southampton and Leeds to strengthen evidence and action for sustainable coastal futures.

Gravel beach resilience (#gravelbeach, NERC)

Led by Dr Jenny Brown at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), #gravelbeach is a multi-institutional project exploring how gravel beaches - vital natural defences in Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management - respond to climate change.

University of Liverpool researchers, including Dr Rachel Smedley (Co-Investigator), Dr Charlotte Lyddon, and Professor Andy Plater, contribute expertise in coastal geomorphology, field studies, lab experiments, and numerical modelling. Working alongside teams from NOC, Liverpool, Plymouth, Bangor, Bath, Aberdeen, Southampton, University College London, and partner organisations, including JBA Consulting and HR Wallingford, the project develops new tools to support operational coastal management.