Characterising and exploring landscape resilience through big data and visualisation technologies

Working in partnership with Natural England's Strategy Team, this exciting studentship will investigate the use of big data relating to natural and social sciences, together with, for example Virtual Reality visualisation and big data techniques, to provide an holistic, integrated analysis of ecosystem service provision as experienced through society's perception of the changing landscapes around them and in a way that secures assessment of ecological and cultural aspects of the management of the natural environment equally. This will then enable development of management and intervention aimed at enhancing natural capital, ecosystem goods and services in their cultural context, by testing different scenarios. The studentship will be based in the Cranfield Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Informatics and make extensive use of the NERC-funded 'Ecosystem Services Databank and Visualisation for Terrestrial Informatics' Laboratory, which includes a portable Virtalis stereo VR system and GeoVisionary software, and Occulus Rift setup.