Trees form a critical component of green infrastructure (GI) and provide a wide range of ecosystem services to urban dwellers. However, these valuable services are at risk of being compromised through limited species diversity, inappropriate species selection, impoverished growth environments, and high tree mortality rates in urban areas. Provision of many of these ecosystem services relies on healthy trees and their value often scales with tree size, necessitating tree development to maturity and continued health: trees must thrive, not simply survive. Despite the centrality of appropriate species selection to the successful delivery of GI schemes, there remains scant guidance for the many actors involved in their establishment. The outcome of this guidance deficit is that urban planners, landscape architects and local authority officers rely heavily on a narrow range of 'traditional' species. This constrains urban forest biodiversity, encourages a plant nursery sector that is only incentivised to supply a narrow range of species and diminishes the resilience of our urban forests to future threats. Providing tree species selection guidance, underpinned by science and available to all communities tasked with delivering GI projects, has the capacity to transform the long term security of associated ecosystem services. Identifying a range of species that are suitable for different GI scenarios will give those specifying plantings the confidence to try new species, broaden the expectation of diverse plant material from nurseries and act to increase the resilience of vital green infrastructure schemes. Therefore the primary objective of this project is to develop a decision support tool and guidance for built environment professionals to aid species selection of trees used in urban environments. To ensure that the final outcomes of the project meet the stakeholder requirements, an initial focus group will invite Trees in Design Action Group (TDAG) members to establish the needs of the sector and identify current practice. This will include current species recommendations for contrasting urban planting scenarios (e.g. paved sites, parks, green bridges, rain gardens and streets). TDAG members represent the widest possible range of stakeholders in this sector, including but not limited to urban planners, landscape architects, local authorities, educators and private companies. Further, as TDAG membership is free, there are no boundaries to engagement with this process. Once stakeholder needs have been confirmed (by April 2016), the academic project partners will strategically evaluate nominated plant material. This will be made available by two of the largest nurseries supplying material to the UK's urban forest (eg. Barcham Trees) as well as several botanical gardens (eg. Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew). Since physiological drought tolerance is a requirement of many urban sites, the leaf turgor loss point will be quantified in approximately 100 species, to supplement existing published ecological data such as shade and flood tolerance. Synthesis of the data collected and developing a draft tree selection guidance will be the task of a KE Fellow who will be seconded to TDAG (October 2016 to June 2017). Knowledge exchange will be further supported by a series of seminars across the UK to seek feedback on the findings (August to November 2017) and assess likely project recommendations. The final project outcome will be a written guidance document (and online audio-visual lectures) that will be freely available via the TDAG website to all TDAG members and any other interested parties. This document / website will be updated yearly to reflect the availability of new information, as part of the core aims of TDAG.

The physiological and cognitive impacts of extreme temperatures are known in general and mostly for healthy populations, but little is known about how impacts differ across the diversity of the UK population; in particular, those with multiple health conditions, including neurological, who are likely to be the most impacted, and for which interventions (e.g. green spaces) are poorly targeted or non-existent. Furthermore, we do not have tools to integrate available data to understand temperature-health risks nationally and at the necessary individual and household level, and therefore how to target interventions. More broadly, the evidence is lacking to guide policy on the coupled challenges of health inequalities, urban planning and climate change mitigation/adaptation, under uncertain futures of climate and demographic change. Increases in heatwaves are a robust aspect of climate change, with associated increases in health-related deaths. Cold-related mortality has declined with overall warming, yet still far outweighs the increase in heat-related deaths, and the overall burden of cold-related illness and mortality will remain high with an ageing population. Most research on health outcomes has focused on excess mortality rates and limited to broad vulnerability groupings. Health outcomes are, however, much more nuanced, being related to both physical and mental health and exacerbated by underlying conditions including neurological and mental ill health, with exposure related to context specific temperature-humidity thresholds. Therefore, there are significant gaps in our understanding of health risks (including long-term outcomes) for the most vulnerable, and how this relates to the interplay between variability of temperature hazards and outdoor/indoor exposure as driven by socio-economic gradients and mobility. We therefore envisage developing new knowledge and tools for precise risk assessment and targeted interventions, focused on disproportionately impacted groups. By doing so, we will transform our understanding of the drivers of inequalities in temperature related health outcomes and propose using this to inform policy on levelling up and pathways to climate targets. We will realise our vision through an ambitious but feasible, highly multidisciplinary project that is necessary to address this complex problem. Our aim is to transform our understanding of the risk of temperature impacts on health outcomes for vulnerable populations of England and Wales with particular focus on health inequalities, currently and for future scenarios, and identify environmental solutions, directly addressing the overarching funding call objective. Our approach is multi-scale, with high granularity in both space and time: a) linking national scale risk assessment with detailed urban case studies to understand risks at the level of streets/buildings and vulnerable groups; and b) identifying how risks change with future changes in climate, demographics, mobility and health status. National scale assessment will reveal how extremes evolve across climatic gradients and land types, and we will explore the diversity of health outcomes and identify landscape configurations and socio-economic factors that are likely to lead to higher risks, and therefore potential mitigations that are resilient to future change. Community engagement will tease out the nuances of impacts and acceptability of environmental and community-based interventions. This will feed back to the national scale to inform on mitigation, via risk reduction tools for early warning, planning and policy. Our approach will provide a far more nuanced, informed and precise risk assessment than currently exists that will allow targeted interventions to be identified, providing risk reduction where most needed.

"Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to Public Health in the UK" [DEFRA, 2017]. Air pollution in the West Midlands affects some 2.8 million people, reducing average life expectancy by up to 6 months, and is responsible for economic costs estimated at £860m per year. Air quality is therefore a key priority for local and regional government, and increasingly the general public, with further emphasis arising from the "Diesel-gate" emissions scandal, and ongoing High Court challenges to the Government's Air Quality strategy. Historically, local air quality policy has been the responsibility of the individual Local Authorities. However, air pollution does not respect political boundaries, and the 2016 formation of the West Midlands Combined Authority will lead to an integrated approach to air pollution, under the Second Devolution Deal for the West Midlands (2017). In parallel, the NHS Sustainability Transformation Trust is bringing an integrated approach to health and social care provision - with air quality a core priority. This gives rise to a unique and timely opportunity to translate environmental science research expertise into regional policy and interventions to reduce air pollution. The University of Birmingham group has critical mass, international research expertise and NERC track record in air pollution, and its health and economic impacts. We have a history of links with regional partners, ranging from commissioned work and joint research projects to informal collaborations. Accordingly, we have developed the West Midlands Air Quality Improvement Programme (WMAQIP), through a co-design process alongside regional stakeholders including the WMCA / Mayor of the West Midlands, Local Authorities, private companies, industry sector bodies and third sector organisations, to deliver: -Situational awareness (understanding of air pollution levels and sources), e.g. applied to refinement of the Birmingham Clean Air Zone and design of future interventions in Coventry, avoiding over £5m annual costs plus benefits to visitors / commuters working in the cities. -Predictive Capability to evaluate AQ policy options, in comparison with business as usual predictions, for pollution levels, health and economic impacts - identifying interventions to achieve Birmingham City Council's goal of halving AQ-related mortality by 2030 (750 deaths/yr and £170m annual costs avoided); avoiding additional healthcare costs of £600m required under business-as-usual scenarios, and informing allocation of recurrent and one-off intra-city transport investment of £250m. -Application of the resulting capability to specific policy scenarios - including infrastructure design around the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to deliver improved air quality, understanding the air quality consequences of future vehicle fleet evolution to electric vehicles, and optimising air quality co-benefits from green infrastructure for HS2 development. WMAQIP directly addresses the UK Industrial Strategy grand challenge of Clean Growth, which commits the Government to "create a future where our cities benefit from cleaner air", and the Infrastructure foundation of productivity, which identifies a determination to "tackle air pollution and support affected areas, given the significant negative impact it has on public health, the economy and the environment." WMAQIP combines NERC research expertise with direct inputs from a range of partner organisations. The programme will deliver policy impact from application of environmental science applied to specific policy priorities through a cohort of Impact Fellows, physically embedded within stakeholder organisations to provide knowledge transfer and training, and hence lasting impact. Programme legacy will be maximised by formalising capabilities as tools which may be applied elsewhere, and actions to promote their dissemination.