Subject Guides: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES: Key Web Resources

Key Websites

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Government department responsible for improving and protecting the environment.
ECOLEX
An information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO(Food and Agriculture Organization), IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).
ELDIS [Electronic Development and Environment Information System]
Hosted by IDS, with content from a network of national organisations, ELDIS is an online information service providing free access to relevant, up-to-date and diverse research on international development issues. Includes links to summaries and full-text research and policy documents.
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency's principal aims are to protect and improve the environment, and to promote sustainable development. It plays a central role in delivering the environmental priorities of central government and the Welsh Government through our functions and roles.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The IPCC was set up to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, it's potential impact and options for adaptation and mitigation. Access to the IPCC Assessment Report.
UK-AIR : Air Quality Information Resource
Provides in-depth information on air quality and air pollution in the UK including latest pollution levels, pollution forecast information, a database of statistics from 1960 to the present day and details of the various monitoring networks.
UN World Water Development Report
Access to the full text of reports and guidelines published by the UN (United Nations) and associated bodies eg. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), WHO (World Health Organisation). Topics include: gender and water, water and development, climate change, water and food security, sanitation, water and health.

Data Sources

Data repositories allow researchers to deposit research outputs in a way that makes them available for other researchers to use. You can use Re3 to search for repositories in a subject area, while Google dataset search lets you search across repositories and the web for datasets.

Re3data - Registry of Resarch Data Repositories
Re3data indexes and provides extensive information about more than 2450 research data repositories. Universities and research centres register their institutional, disciplinary and interdisciplinary research data repositories in re3data to enable researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions to select appropriate repositories for storage and search of research data.
Google Dataset Search
Dataset Search lets you find datasets wherever they’re hosted, whether it’s a publisher's site, a digital library, or an author's personal web page. Note - some data may require payment to download.

There are a large number of repositories - ranging from multi-disciplinary ones (like those linked to below) to more targeted subject specific repositories. In addition there are governmental and organisational repositories that collect data produced by those bodies.

figshare
figshare is a research outputs repository. Users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner. It covers all subject areas and resarch can be upload in a wide range of formats.
Mendeley Data
Mendeley Data is an open research data repository, where researchers can upload and share their research data.
Dryad
The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes research data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a general-purpose home for a wide diversity of data types. Dryad originated from an initiative among a group of leading journals and scientific societies.

MAGIC
The MAGIC website provides authoritative geographic information about the natural environment from across government. The information covers rural, urban, coastal and marine environments across Great Britain. Datasets can be downloaded - or used as overlays for MAGIC's mapping app.
Old Maps Online
Access to historic maps from a wide range of sources. Allows users to search collections by location and then use a timeline function to narrow by date.
Historic England
Access to information about listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens and protected wrecks. Also access to Historic England research outputs, including Heritage Counts.
Uk Climate Risk
Data and reports from the Committee on climate Change. Covers a wide range of climate change impacts on the UK including water scarcity, flood risk and the natural environment.

UK Data Service
The UK Data Service collection includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data.
World bank data
At the World Bank, the Development Data Group coordinates statistical and data work and maintains a number of macro, financial and sector databases. Working closely with the Bank’s regions and Global Practices, the group is guided by professional standards in the collection, compilation and dissemination of data to ensure that all data users can have confidence in the quality and integrity of the data produced.
EU Open Data Portal
The European Union Open Data Portal (EU ODP) provides access to an expanding range of data from the European Union (EU) institutions and other EU bodies. You can use and reuse these data for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
By providing easy access to data — free of charge — we aim to help you put them to innovative use and unlock their economic potential. The portal is also designed to make the EU institutions and other bodies more open and accountable.
UN Data
You can find official statistics produced by countries and compiled by United Nations data system, as well as estimates and projections. The domains covered are agriculture, crime, education, energy, industry, labour, national accounts, population and tourism. You can also find indicators such as Millennium Development Goals.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Information, reports and research relating to the UN sustainable development goals.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES: Key Web Resources

Key Web Resources

These links are to websites which are freely available and maybe of use when searching for information.

If you can't find what you are looking for or are unsure where best to start please contact your subject team

Key Websites

Data Sources