Sustainable Production
PhD cluster

Environmental technologies and their implications (ETFS)

Advancing and examining the development of technologies for sustainable food production

Lewis Holloway

Research specialisms

Human geography, Marine science, history,Maritime history, Fishing industry, Ports, Photonics, Sensors, Robotics, Nanophotonics, Marine conservation, Marine management, Sustainable fisheries, Logistics, Supply chain, Sustainability, Food security, Remote sensing, Decision support.

Group lead

Professor Lewis Holloway

Email: L.Holloway@hull.ac.uk

Phone: 01482 466759

The Challenge

Our food and energy production systems contribute significantly to environmental problems, including climate change, and technological solutions are often proposed as ways of reducing their carbon footprints. Yet these can be challenging to implement and can have unanticipated effects on the practices of those engaged in farming and fishing. 

The Approach

This cluster of projects involves a combination of scientific projects aiming to develop and test different environmental technologies, and social science projects aiming to look at the effects on the practices of primary food producers as society aims for a low carbon world. Specifically, the cluster will: 1. advance the development of two technologies for use in terrestrial food production and examine the implications of these for farmers, and 2. examine the effects on the small-scale fishing industry of high energy prices and large scale offshore wind deployment. 

Rice fields

Aims

  • To examine the implications of environmental technologies for the practices of people involved in primary food production on both land and sea.
  • To examine the challenges posed by implementing environmental technologies.
  • To explore the expected and unanticipated effects of implementing environmental technologies on food production on sea and land. 

Projects

Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies

Smart roofs: nanophotonics for optimised food growth and lower energy consumption in greenhouses

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Smart sensors for agricultural sustainability: 'federated learning' for improving farming efficiencies

Boat

Decarbonising the fleet: social, cultural and behavioural responses

  • Additional projects

    Using on-farm technologies to manage soil carbon and crops: understanding farming knowledges and practices in the deployment of sustainability technologies

    This project is a social scientific investigation of how farmers use decision support tools to manage crops and soil carbon, and of the potential environmental benefits of such tools.

     

    Fishing for Net Zero solutions: using lessons from historical interactions of fisheries, technology and society to identify possible sustainable futures

    This project will focus on examining how, over time, innovations have impacted on fisheries and their communities, to help understand how decarbonisation might impact today's fleets. 

The Impact

The cluster aims to make a difference to how food is produced on the land and from the sea. It will work with partners to develop and test technologies aiming to make food production more efficient and with a lower environmental impact. At the same time it will work with food producers and other stakeholders to examine how technologies are used in practice, having an impact on the process of technological development and changing food production practices. 

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Accelerating a net zero future. Improving health outcomes. Promoting justice and fairness for all. Living with water. Enhancing heritage and creative industries.

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