Understanding and Modelling Environmental Processes

About the Cluster

Predicting impacts of environmental change and assessing the viability of possible mitigation or adaptation measures, necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the controlling environmental processes, their interactions, and their response to anthropogenic influences. This cluster’s mission is: i) to enhance the conceptual understanding of environmental processes and their complex interconnections; and ii) to develop new methods and new models (conceptual, experimental, analytical, statistical or numerical) for encapsulating and augmenting that understanding.

Focusing on fundamental environmental issues at the interface between land, water, and air (e.g. atmospheric pollution, erosion and sediment transport, river flooding and hydrological drought, land-use change, and impact from industrial processes), research in this cluster integrates diverse research methods (from fieldwork and laboratory experiments to modelling techniques) to:

advance conceptual understanding of the salient environmental processes and interactions – at local to global scales;
develop and evaluate novel conceptual, experimental and computational models to analyse and simulate these processes;
provide essential information on how these processes and interactions impact ecosystem health, agricultural systems, and human well-being – in both contemporary and future scenarios;
assess viability, efficacy and resilience of mitigation or adaptation measures against these impacts; and
demonstrate excellence in science communication.

Cluster Leads

Dr Ivan Kourtchev

Cluster Lead

Dr. Ivan Kourtchev is an Associate Professor in environmental and analytical chemistry whose research integrates advanced analytical techniques e.g., mass spectrometry (GC-MS, LC-MS, HRMS, pyrolysis) with modeling of industrial and environmental processes. His work focuses on developing highly sensitive analytical methods to detect emerging pollutants, including persistent “forever chemicals” (PFAS), phthalate esters, and other endocrine disruptors, and investigating their sources, environmental fate, and transformation across air, water, and soil systems. His research involves investigating interactions between anthropogenic pollutants and bioaerosols, the complex partitioning and transfer mechanisms (such as aerosolisation, leaching, adsorption, and diffusion) of contaminants originating from industrial emissions, wastewater treatment plants, recycled construction materials, e-waste sites, and both indoor and outdoor environments.

He has been an Editor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Copernicus) since 2020.

Dr Bastien Dieppois

Cluster Co-Lead

Dr. Bastien Dieppois is an Assistant Professor in water and climate change whose research bridges climate, hydrological, and environmental sciences. His research notably focuses on developing novel approaches to model and evaluate the impact of climate and land-use change on surface- and groundwater, notably flood and drought hazards at the global and continental scales. To date, he has published 57 peer-reviewed articles (Google Scholar H-index 24, i10 31; 8 citations in IPCC-AR6), led and co-developed several research grants and PhD projects (totalling over £7M).

He is the European lead coordinator of the UNESCO IHP FRIEND-Water Initiative since 2023, and a member of the UK National Committee for International Hydrology, which coordinates the UK input to the UNESCO IHP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Publications

The members of the cluster regularly publish articles, monographs, book chapters, and other media on this multidisciplinary subject. For the most recent publications, please see outputs on the Coventry University Pure page.

Publications

Projects

The members of the cluster lead and collaborate on a number of research projects and additional projects are available on the Coventry University Research Portal.

Projects

Featured Projects

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UNESCO IHP FRIEND-Water

The FRIEND-Water (Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data) programme is a global flagship initiative launched in 1985 to advance international collaboration in hydrology. It strengthens regional networks across more than 150 countries to improve understanding of global change impacts on river basins and hydrological extremes, while promoting open data sharing and capacity building.

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WATERSENS (Horizon-EU)

The WATERSENS project aims to demonstrate the benefits of six DWM technologies and provide an integrated decision framework to help water authorities and stakeholders select, design, and integrate these systems. The selected technologies cover diverse water resources and uses, addressing various geographic and economic contexts.