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  1. Queen Mary University of London
  2. About us
  3. Sustainability
  4. Sustainable development goals
  5. Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
  6. Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Nature-based solutions for floods and droughts 

Queen Mary researchers investigated how rewilding and landscape restoration can improve resilience to floods and droughts. Published in February 2024, the study was undertaken with the University of Sussex, Environment Agency, National Trust, Rewilding Britain and Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, and brought together findings from more than 100 published studies. 

The work helps strengthen the evidence base for using nature-based approaches to manage hydrological extremes and improve the resilience of river catchments. 

Developing safer drinking-water technologies 

Queen Mary’s Centre for Sustainable Engineering is developing technologies to improve drinking-water purification and remove emerging contaminants. 

In December 2024, Waternet, Amsterdam’s water service provider, installed advanced purification equipment at Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science. The facilities support research into contaminants including PFAS, using technologies such as foam fractionation, filtration and fluidised-bed reactors. 

This partnership also contributed to the AquaLunar Challenge, where a Queen Mary-led team was named second runner-up in March 2025. Working with Waternet and the University of Washington, the team developed a supercritical water oxidation system capable of achieving 99.9998% purity and more than 99% water recovery. 

Although designed for lunar exploration, the technology is also being explored for applications on Earth, including the destruction of emerging drinking-water contaminants such as PFAS. 

Tackling plastic pollution from source to sea 

Queen Mary researchers led the international Preventing Plastic Pollution project with 18 partner organisations across England and France. 

The programme developed a catchment-based approach to tackling plastic pollution and a citizen-science methodology for recording plastic in and around rivers. The resulting open-access resource became the UK’s largest dataset on river plastic pollution. 

Across the project, 107 tonnes of plastic were removed, 1,469 km of rivers and coastlines were cleaned, and river health improved by 6.1% in participating areas. 

Protecting communities from historic coastal landfill pollution 

Research led by Professor Kate Spencer is examining the risks posed by historic coastal landfill sites as flooding and coastal erosion increase. 

More than 1,200 historic coastal landfill sites in the UK are at risk from flooding and erosion, potentially releasing contaminants including heavy metals, asbestos, plastics and PFAS into coastal and marine environments. 

In June 2024, a Queen Mary-led team secured £2.9 million in UKRI and Defra funding to investigate these risks and develop more resilient management approaches with the Environment Agency, university partners, stakeholders and affected communities. 

The research is helping build the evidence needed to protect water quality, coastal ecosystems and communities as climate pressures increase. 

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