In the UK we have research to try and understand how creating energy in our landscape may influence the local environment. The NERC grant 'Microclimates' is an example of such research; here we seek to understand how wind turbine deployment and biofuel crops may create and respond to local microclimates. However, members of the microclimate team propose to extend their research understanding to important biofuel crops overseas, that like wind turbines can also be deployed on peat soils, which are important C stores. However, our focus here is not on the C storage (as our project partners are considering that), but on the land management practise of draining the soils to render them more suitable for oil palm growth. This drainage significantly influences moisture availability in the soil and in turn how much water can be evaporated from the soil surface, and so heat flux. Understanding the impact of these management practises is important as changes in evaporative fluxes influences the development of a phenomena called the boundary layer. This is the zone of atmospheric mixing immediately above the Earth's surface and influences many things including weather and air pollution. Land conversion of tropical peats for agricultural biofuels is proceeding at a significant and uncontrolled rate and the upscaling of individual plantations could change at national scales the responses controlled by boundary layer dynamics, so we need to gather preliminary field data to better understand how significant this is. The pump-priming funding is supported by additional investment from three Malaysian Universities that demonstrates their commitment to formalising a nascent relationship.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Filter membranes play a critical role in providing clean drinking water, access to which is one of the most pivotal human rights. Typically, the operation of the filters has relied on manual, local monitoring of operational markers such as flow rates and contaminants' concentrations. This need for hands on expert maintenance is preventing membrane technology from reaching its full potential. To correct this, the monitoring of water filter needs to be achieved by sensors, transmitting data in real-time for centralised artificial intelligence (AI) based analysis. Such an AI driven water filter system must be scalable to meet with the global demands for clean water. There is therefore a massive global opportunity for membrane systems to benefit from being implemented as cyber-physical systems (CPS). This discipline hopping grant (DHG) will provide the PI and discipline hopper Das with an immersive information and communication technology (ICT) experience. It will enable him to bring the ICT capabilities and use of smart wireless-sensor technologies for autonomous, real-time monitoring, together with AI driven data analytics within the broader area of CPS into his home discipline relating to membrane water treatment. This will be achieved by supporting/mentoring the PI at 50% FTE for 2 years to experience ways for developing a membrane-CPS (m-CPS) based on intelligent CPS architecture, embedded with a smart wireless sensor network (WSN) for continuous real-time monitoring of the performance of a membrane-treatment unit enhanced by cloud-based AI data analytics and decision making.