A large tree with sprawling branches stands near a field, overlooking a patchwork of farmland under a cloudy sky.
Photo by Veronica White on Unsplash

OpenLAND

Dates: October 2024 - September 2027
Project Value: £4 million
Funders: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Scottish Government

OpenLAND will explore how changes in UK land use could create benefits for net zero targets, soil health, biodiversity and agriculture.

Researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA), are leading a major new research project under the Land Use for Net Zero (LUNZ) Hub, identifying spatially explicit land-use scenarios that benefit soil carbon and soil health, biodiversity, and agriculture.

OpenLAND will provide decision makers with the insights urgently needed to put the UK on a path to deliver net zero emissions by 2050, while also delivering climate resilient soil health, food security, and biodiversity net-gain. We will identify spatially explicit intervention scenarios for land uses that exploit synergies between climate mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity. We will create a validated, UK-wide, spatially explicit integrated modelling framework, OpenLAND, to evaluate potential net zero pathways.

OpenLAND will quantify the implications of land interventions on soil carbon and health, biodiversity, agriculture, and flood risk, while exploring the synergies and trade-offs between interventions. Potential land use interventions include ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture.

To extend the capability of the research project OpenCLIM (developed under previous UKRI funding), we will develop and validate a novel framework for the effective land-use interventions upon carbon storage, particularly focusing on soil carbon and soil health evaluation. This will be achieved by ground truthing soil carbon and soil health using empirical data, and by developing and trialling robotic monitoring for measuring and verifying soil carbon and health.

This will allow data relating to soil carbon and long-term carbon storage potential to feed into OpenLAND to give real-world evaluation of below-ground carbon dynamics under land-use intervention scenarios. It will also enable soil microbiome data, as a qualifier of soil health, to be reconciled with OpenCLIM’s projections for the terrestrial biosphere.

The project will culminate in the identification of new, spatially explicit intervention scenarios for land-use interventions to exploit synergies and minimise trade-offs.

OpenLAND has four aims:

AIM 1:  Create a validated, UK-wide, spatially explicit integrated modelling framework, OpenLAND, to evaluate potential net zero pathways

We will co-develop a database of potential land-use interventions with stakeholders, adapt existing model codes to respond to land-use interventions, and make available data and models within our modelling framework.

AIM 2: Upscale soil carbon and soil health empirical data to calibrate the OpenLAND framework at UK level

We will ground truth soil carbon and soil health under a range of land-use change interventions and Greenhouse Gas Removal strategies, develop and validate a novel framework for soil carbon and soil health evaluation, and develop and trial robotic monitoring for measuring and verifying soil carbon and health.

AIM 3:  Explore the synergies and trade-offs associated with alternative land use interventions

 We will quantify the implications of potential land-use interventions on soil carbon and health, biodiversity, agriculture, and flood risk, and use the framework to co-develop with stakeholders, new pathways to net zero on land in the UK that exploit synergies between carbon sequestration, soil health, agricultural productivity, biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.

AIM 4: Engage with farming groups and academics to develop win-win net zero solutions

 We will liaise with stakeholders at workshops, discussion groups and in the field, create project database and user-facing decision support tools, and through close stakeholder engagement will provide the opportunity for governments, agencies, and NGOs to engage with farming groups and academics to develop win-win net zero solutions.

Resources

Articles

Chapman, J. and Reid, B. (2025) Regeneratively farmed is the new buzz label on supermarket shelves – but what does it actually mean? Available at: theconversation.com/regeneratively-farmed-is-the-new-buzz-label-on-supermarket-shelves-but-what-does-it-actually-mean-247437 (Accessed: 22 January 2025)

The OpenLAND Team

The project will be jointly led by Rachel Warren (Professor of Global Change and Environmental Biology, Tyndall Centre) and Brian Reid (Professor of Soil Science, UEA).

OpenLAND will align researchers at:

To deliver the project, we will appoint ten Research Associates and five Technicians. Our project has extensive stakeholder alignment through its partners and project networks with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Climate Change Committee (CCC), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Environment Agency (EA), Nature Scotland, Natural England, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the Wildlife Trusts, land managers, farming groups, the Soil Association Exchange and the ELM Network+.

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