Research News

January 2010: CEESR Annual Report
a name="2009report" The a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/docs/CEESR_Report_2009.pdf"2009 report of CEESR research activities/a has now been published.

November 2009: El Nino and its world weather
a name="elnino" El Nino has been strengthening recently and is predicted to continue at least through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2009-2010. What are the relationships between an El Nino event and its impact on world severe weather? Can the strengthening El Nino reduce the threat of hurricane hazards? Dr. Norman Cheung, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Hazards and Disaster Management, gave his academic viewpoint for a news feature on Al Jazeera. brbr a href="http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/multimedia/elnino/index.html"http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/multimedia/elnino/index.html/a

November 2009: CEESR Annual Lecture
a name="ceesr09" CEESR Annual Lecture in association with the Sustainability Hub:brbr Speaker: Dr Nick Riley, Head of Science Policy (Europe) British Geological Survey President of CO2 GeoNet brbr Title: From one Industrial Revolution to the next: Is it possible to limit average global temperature rise to within 2°C of mid 18th Century levels? brbr Wednesday, 2nd December, 17.00 Roberts Lecture Theatre, Penrhyn Road

September 2009: New study calls for more farm visits for children
a name="farmvisits"Farm visits are dispelling children?s deep ignorance about where the food they eat comes from and helping teachers teach a wide spectrum of the national curriculum, a new study has shown. But despite campaigns to encourage primary school visits to farms, trips are often dependent on individual teacher?s enthusiasm and funding is limited. Research by Kingston University shows farm visits are important to challenge ignorance and misconceptions about farming. Interviews with farmers, teachers and parents found farm visits helped address basic gaps in knowledge. "Some haven?t a clue about agriculture and the countryside," one farmer said of children visiting his farm. "They still think milk comes from bottles, even in rural areas. There are still real basic problems to overcome like children thinking there is only one type of cow, not varieties." Another was astounded by some of the questions such as children muddling sheep and goats. "Children don't read books like we do, with cows and sheep - instead they have play stations." brbr The visits challenged traditional stereotypes of farming and according to one farmer overcame the "get off my land" perception. Another said a child visiting her farm had not expected a woman to be a farmer "especially one who is blonde, bubbly and young". brbr Hands-on visits seemed more effective than textbooks. Teachers found children learnt from handling small animals, one reported "life-moving" experiences for her class. The visits also fitted in with many areas of the national curriculum including literacy, numeracy, science, art, design and technology, ICT, history, geography, PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), citizenship and RE (Religious Education). "They soak it up at that age," one farmer said. And the learning was passed on to parents. "By talking to them, they then start asking adults, so we are inadvertently educating adults too." A parent said her son "wouldn?t stop talking about it" and 54 per cent of parents said they had learned something from their child?s farm visit. Dr Harris said there was evidence their children?s trips influenced some parents? consumer behaviour with 16 per cent of parents saying that they would now be more prepared to change how they chose their food, to buy more local, seasonal or organic products. brbr "It is clear that farmers have made a huge commitment to open their farms to visitors, especially school children," she said. "Despite the range of supporting programmes, such as through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and the Higher Level Stewardship, this is often done at a personal cost. Farmers struggled to make contact with teachers to initiate new visits and without a keen champion within a school it is difficult to set up school visits. If that teacher moves on, the link with the school often collapsed." brbr Further details are available on the a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/TheresponseoffarmersandschoolstofarmvisitsintheYearofFoodandFarming.htm"project page/a. An interview with Dr Harris on Farming Today is a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mvcl0#synopsis"available from the BBC/a.

September 2009: L/SL Position in Environmental Science and Management
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June 2009: PhD and MSc by Research Studentships
a name="studentships09"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/studentships"Applications are invited for CEESR studentships/a accompanying the following PhD and MSc by Research projects:brbr Terrain reconstruction, visualisation and analysis of the British landings at World War I Gallipoli campaignbrbr 3D Technology and museumsbrbr Ethnic networks and the promise of transnationalism: foreign-born labour and human capital developmentbrbr Developing monitoring and assessment tools to support post-project appraisal (PPA) of river restoration worksbrbr Climate change influences on landsliding in the British Islesbrbr Botanical and geotechnical influences on peat instabilitybrbr Radon and earthquakesbrbr Phytoplankton response to climate and sea-level change in a greenhouse ocean: Cretaceous dinoflagellate cysts as proxies of palaeoenvironmental change, from subtropics to subarcticbrbr Locating gold in the Senegal-Mali shear zone: an integration of regional structural, geochemical and geophysical data setsbrbr Assessment of the accuracy of onshore and offshore digital elevation models using RTK ? GPSbrbr Hazard risk assessment for catastrophic dam failure in Cairns, Northern Queensland, Australia: A GIS-based approachbrbr Studentships are full time (3 years for PhD subject to satisfactory progress and 1 year for MSc by Research) and include a stipend of £14,000 per annum and tuition fees for a Home/EU student (£3,500 per annum). Applicants eligible for overseas fees would have to cover the difference between the Home/EU tuition fee and the tuition fee for an overseas student (£10,350 per annum). The appointee will be expected to support teaching (maximum of 6 hours per week), which will be additionally funded. brbr Prospective candidates should have a first class or good upper second class degree in an appropriate discipline. For the PhD studentships, candidates with a relevant MSc/MA would be particularly welcome. Applicants should send a CV and provide a covering letter detailing their suitability for the particular project they wish to apply for. Please ensure that the details of two academic referees, who can provide references prior to interview, are included. brbr Closing date : 20th July 2009

April 2009: Research Excellence Boosts Funding
a name="rae08"Research within CEESR has received increased funding as a result of Kingston University's high performance in the Higher Education Funcing Council for England's (HEFCE) Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Research income tripled to £3.85 million, one of the biggest increases for a new university. CEESR itself performed highly with ~1/3 of research outputs noted as "internationally excellent" or "world leading". The increased funds will be used to further develop research, continuing the tradition of excellence at Kingston

January 2009: CEESR Annual Report
a name="2008report" The a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/docs/CEESR_Report_2008.pdf"2008 report of CEESR research activities/a has now been published.

October 2008: Guy Robinson appointed Director
a name="prof08"Professor Guy Robinson has recently taken up a position as Director of the a href="http://www.unisa.edu.au/cre/CRHCD/default.asp"Centre for Rural Health and Community Development/a at the a href="http://www.unisa.edu.au/"University of South Australia/a. "CRHaCD conducts research and consultancies on the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities, especially those in rural, remote, and regional areas and has a special focus on developing and using Indigenous research methodologies in partnership with Indigenous communities and organisations." brbr This is a significant research management position and highlights the strength and quality of research in to rural communities that Profesor Robinson has has developed at Kingston. CEESR/The School of Geography, Geology and the Environment is currently looking to a href="(http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/QR331/Professor_in_Human_Geography"appoint a Professor/a in order to strengthen and further develop research within both CEESR and the Agriculture, Environment and People Research Group.

October 2008: Kingston researchers publish DCLG report
a name="dclg08"The Final Report and Executive Summary, produced by a team of Kingston University researchers spanning three faculties in conjunction with The GeoInformation Group, has now been published by the Department of Communities and Local Government and a href="www.englishpartnerships.co.uk"English Partnerships/a. brbr 2008 Sayce, S., Walford, N. S., Garside, P., Vickers, T. National Land Use Database (NLUD) Scoping Study Final Report, for Communities and Local Government and English Partnerships.

October 2008: Study on English, Welsh and Polish census intervals
a name="polishcensus"Collaborative research between Professor Nigel Walford and Dr Slawomir Kurek of the Pedagogical University of Krakow over the last two years has now resulted in a joint paper being published in the journal Population, Place and Space. The paper provides a comparative analysis of population ageing in Eastern and Western Europe and links to Nigel's ESRC funded work a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/Walford_Census2.htm"estimating comparable census counts for consistent geographical units over recent British censuses/a completed in 2006. Dr Kurek will be visiting Kingston University during the next year with a view to extending the collaboration. brbr 2008 Walford, N. S., Kurek, S. A comparative analysis of population ageing in urban and rural areas of England and Wales, and Poland over the last three census intervals, Population, Space and Place, 14: 365-386.

September 2008: British Association Festival of Science
a name="ba08"Nigel Walford, in his role as Record of the British Association?s Geography Section, has recently spent several days in Liverpool at the annual Festival of Science. He was joined for a time by Dr Ros Taylor to run their now annual Sustainable Living quiz for 14-16 year olds. The Presidential session of the Section, convened by Professor Ed Maltby, addressed Sustainable Water Futures and included four papers and a lively debate with speakers and panellists from the Meteorological Office, United Utilities, London Rivers Trust, the a href="http://www.liv.ac.uk/swimmer/"SWIMMER Institute/a and Department of Engineering (Liverpool).

September 2008: Counterurban populations and processes
a name="counterurban"Professor Nigel Walford was an invited contributor at a recent international conference on Understanding counterurban populations and processes: different perspectives held at University College Dublin (8/9 September). His paper, entitled Connecting urban and rural places: assessing the impact of in-migrants in England and Wales, focused on quantifying connectivity between rural and non-rural small areas in England and Wales using the interaction flow matrices of migrants available from the CIDER unit operated by (Universities of Leeds and St Andrews) in conjunction with datasets generated from an a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/Walford_Census2.htm"ESRC project/a completed in 2006.

August 2008: Historical GIS Presentation
a name="walford_hgis"Professor Nigel Walford gave a paper at the Historical GIS conference held at the University of Essex towards the end of August entitled The unfolding legacy of wartime agriculture on the South Downs, England: following the occupiers of National Farm Survey holdings in the post-war decades. This extends earlier research funded by the British Academy working with data from the 1941-3 National Farm Survey (NFS) and using this information as a starting point for exploring changes in the occupation of farms across the South Downs in East and West Sussex. One of his PhD students, Kate Taylor, who is working on reconstructing the agricultural environment of part of this area using areal imagery, the NFS and other data, also had a paper in conference.

July 2008: NERC FSF supported project completes work on the Chinese Loess Plateau
img src="images/news/loess_08.jpg" align=right width=250a name="loess_fsf"A team, led by Tom Stevens and Mike Smith (supported by a href="http://fsf.nerc.ac.uk/"NERC FSF/a) has just returned from the Chinese Loess Plateau. The aim of this pilot project was to determine whether the spectral reflectance of loess sediments are correlated to their magnetic susceptibility. Loess are silt size (3.9 to 62.5 microns) windblown sediment, with grains larger than clay but smaller than sand. As a result they manage to inveigle there way into every item of clothing, case or bag! brbrr In 30-40 degree C heat, a GER1500 was deployed at two sites on the loess plateau in China, over a number of days. Repeat reflectance measurements were taken on profiles and differences between cleaned and uncleaned surfaces were tested. Dust was a particular hazard in this area where deposits of the substance attain 400 metre thicknesses. The process required four people and perseverance as the monsoon season is not favourable for clear skies, while cleaning of the exposures was problematic due to cracking of the surface. Nonetheless, more than 500 spectra were obtained, along with high resolution visible and IR photographs of profiles, over 30 lab samples and detailed magnetic susceptibility analyses of the profiles.

July 2008: Nature Geoscience: A jolt to plume models?
a name="plume"Scott Bryan has recently had a paper published in a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo281.html"Nature Geoscience/a with the press release shown below: brbr "Extensive rock deposits at the base of the Emeishan large igneous province in China ? previously interpreted as sediments shed from a rapidly uplifting dome ? formed as a result of interaction between lava and sea water, suggests a paper online this week in Nature Geoscience. These findings challenge a major assumption of models that implicate a mantle plume in triggering the Emeishan flood basalt eruptions ~260 million years ago. brbr Ingrid Ukstins Peate and Scott Bryan conducted detailed geological fieldwork and documented the physical characteristics of rocks at the base of the Emeishan province. They found that the earliest eruptions occurred at or near sea level. They found no evidence of extensive doming and uplift of the land surface prior to the eruptions ? a hallmark of plume models. brbr The team concludes that the Emeishan province did not undergo plume-induced uplift before the onset of volcanism. brbr Authors: Ingrid Ukstins Peate (University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA)br Scott Bryan (Kingston University, Kingston Upon Thames, UK)br DOI: 10.1038/ngeo281"

June 2008: Part funded Masters by Research in urban remote sensing
a name="os_mres" Part funded Masters by Research in urban remote sensing brbr Kingston University seeks to appoint a Masters by Research student to work on an Ordnance Survey funded project entitled ?A multi-technique based approach to change detection using classification and terrain modelling.? The project aims to refine techniques for the identification of changes in the landscape through anthropogenic modifications. There will be a particular focus upon the use of digital elevation models and integration of radar data through differential InSAR. The studentship will be based at Kingston University's Penrhyn Road campus with Dr Mike Smith in the Centre for Earth and Environmental Sciences Research. brbr We seek to attract a graduate (or someone who is expecting to graduate in 2008) with an excellent undergraduate degree and experience in remote sensing. Exposure to radar remote sensing, digital elevation models and GIS would be beneficial. brbr The studentship covers full student fees (£3,700 for 2008/9) and project expenses, but does currently bnot/b cover living expenses. There bmay/b be the opportunity for further funding. brbr How to Apply: br Informal enquiries and requests for further information should be made to Dr Mike Smith, michael.smith@kingston.ac.uk Tel: 020 7099 2817 brbr Formal applications, which should include CV and contact details of three referees should also be sent to Dr Mike Smith at the Centre for Earth and Environmental Science Research , Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE (020 7099 2817). brbr Closing date: Friday 04 July2008. brbr It is anticipated interviews will take place during the week commencing 23 July 2008.

June 2008: Two new fully funded PhD studentships in mineral deposit geology
a name="gcp08"Two new fully funded PhD studentships in mineral deposit geology. brbr 1. Structural, fluid and geochemical controls and exploration models for shear hosted orogenic gold deposits in the Nielle mining district, Cote d'Ivoire. Fees, travel and bursary fully funded by RandGold brbr 2. Characterisation and evolution of ore fluids related to diverse styles of Au-Ag, Cu and Pb-Zn mineralisation in the Tertiary metallogenetic province, southern Balkans and northern Greece; metallogenetic and economic implications. Fees, travel and bursary fully funded by BGS and industrial sources. brbr For further details of both of these projects and how to apply please contact Peter Treloar (p.treloar@kingston.ac.uk) or Andy Rankin (a.rankin@kingston.ac.uk).

May 2008: Invited talk at the Institute for Nature Conservation, Serbia
a name="novisad"img src="images/news/titel_plateau.jpg" align=right width=250a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/stevens.htm"Dr Thomas Stevens/a presented an invited talk at the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia in Novi Sad on Thursday 15th of May 2008. The talk was part of a meeting between multi-disciplinary scientists and politicians with a view to petitioning the Serbian government to declare the Titel Plateau a site of special scientific interest and the location of a possible future geopark. The Titel Plateau is an isolated island of loess deposits surrounded by scarp faces and hold a rare combination of geologic interest, diverse and unique flora and fauna, important archaeological remains and scenic beauty.

May 2008: ESRC Post doctoral research position
a name="esrc_ad"Kingston University seeks to appoint a postdoctoral researcher to work on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project that will deliver a ?Web-based Spatio-temporal Interpolator for Census Area Statistics? as a demonstrator system. The GIS-based system will enable registered users of existing and future census related data resources to perform an integrated set of spatial analytic procedures in order to generate consistent spatial units spanning recent British censuses based on Census Output Area geography and associated estimates of census counts. The project has been funded under the ESRC/JISC Census Development Programme. The researcher will be based in the Centre for Earth and Environmental Sciences Research, School of Earth Sciences and Geography and work with Nigel Walford, Professor of Applied GIS. brbr bClosing Date: 6th June 2008/b brbr Further particulars are available a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/walford_esrc08.pdf"here/a

May 2008: Nigel Walford invited to contribute to the international workshop "Space to Place: The Next Rural Economies"
a name="space2place"Professor Nigel Walford has been invited to contribute to an international workshop entitled Space to Place: The Next Rural Economies in Prince George, Canada at the University of Northern British Columbia, 13-17 May. His contribution develops on research funded by the ESRC (Ref. RES-000-22-0668) that was concerned with developing consistent spatial units spanning recent British Population Censuses and focuses on an analysis of ?counterurbanising? migrants to Mid-Wales. His paper identifies a core group of wards, some 5 per cent of the total in England and the rest of Wales, that have been responsible for 35 per cent of the in-migration flow at each of the last three censuses; and that in geodemographic area classification terms ?Coastal and Countryside? and ?Student Communities? are over-represented in the supply of migrants, whereas ?Prospering Metropolitan? and ?Multicultural Metropolitan? wards were least likely to be source areas for migrants to the Mid-Wales region. The papers presented at the workshop will be published later this year.

May 2008: Nuffield Science Bursary to identify urban change from radar imagery
a name="nuffield08"Dr Mike Smith and 2nd Year GIS undergraduate Peter Buchanan have been awarded a a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/nsbur/page_412.html"Nuffield Science Bursary/a to detect changes in surface features using radar satellite imagery. Two images acquired on different dates will be compared to accurately detect any changes in the height of surface features. Radar is particularly good for this task as it is very accurate, sensitive to surface features and can acquire imagery at night or on cloudy days. brbr These prestigious awards "are for those considering scientific research as a career. They enable students in the middle years of their degree to take part in a defined research project in the summer vacation."

April 2008: New book titled "Sustainable Rural Systems"
a name="Robinson_book"img src="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/images/news/robinson_rural.gif" width=150 align=righta href="http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637calcTitle=1title_id=8810edition_id=9364"Sustainable Rural Systems/a, published by Ashgate Ltd, is a collection of papers presented at one of the sessions organised by Guy Robinson on behalf of the Commission on Sustainable Rural Systems at the International Geographical Union's four-yearly conference in Glasgow in 2004. Focusing primarily on the United Kingdom, the book addresses a series of contemporary issues on rural sustainability. It features research undertaken at Kingston University by Frances Harris, Guy Robinson and Isabel Griffith (now at the Soil Association) on organic farming in southern England, and by Guy Robinson on Ontario's Environmental Farm Plan, based on research carried out during his sabbatical at the University of Guelph.

April 2008: CEESR Post-graduate student receives MINSOC grant
a name="ramos"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/students/ramos.htm"Aldo Ramos/a has received a grant from the a href="http://www.minersoc.org/pages/awards/pg"Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland/a supporting a trip to the Australian National University (ANU). There he will be using the Laser-Ablation-Inductively-Coupled-Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) laboratory to date and analize zircon crystals from volcanic rocks of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) in Mexico. This lab has been pioneer in the technique development of LA-ICPMS zircon thermogeochronology and has particular experience in dating volcanic rocks from the SMO. The ANU Facility is the only lab in the world that can concurrently and routinely analyse zircon for U-Pb geochronologic information, rare earth element abundances and Ti concentrations for geothermometric constraints. Dating zircons by rim-piercing methods and depth profiling, as well as obtaining both U-Pb and U-Th/He age data from the same grain are also possible at the ANU facility, thereby maximising the chemical and age information obtainable from a single grain analysis.

April 2008: Study of Chinese loess supported by NERC field spectroscopy facility
a name="loessFSF"The NERC Field Sprectroscopy Facility (FSF) are supporting a CEESR project in China during July 2008 to investigate the use of prosumer digital cameras for measuring the properties of Quaternary/Neogene age Chinese loess. Chinese loess contains one of the most detailed sedimentary records of the past monsoon system and a detailed understanding of their prior operation is crucial to the prediction of future global changes. brbr Imaging equipment on loan from NERC will be used by Dr Mike Smith and Dr Tom Stevens to investigate various loess profiles alongside traditional climate proxy analyses. These profiles will be used to a) analyse the relationship of reflectance spectra to traditionally used proxies and b) calibrate camera equipment that could be readily and rapidly deployed in the field to image loess profiles.

March 2008: Cold Science (and a bit of technology)
a name="harthope"img src="images/news/harthope.jpg" align=rightNew collaborative research recently got underway that combined the GIS expertise of a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/smith.htm"Mike Smith/a and the surveying experience of a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/bromhead.htm"Eddie Bromhead/a with the extensive programme of research into peat landslides being undertaken by a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/dykes.htm"Alan Dykes/a. Funded by the British Society for Geomorphology, this initial stage was to use differential GPS to survey ground-control points on remote moorland in upper Teesdale, surrounding the 500 m long a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/Dykes_peatRS.htm"Hart Hope peat slide/a that occurred in 1995. These survey points are needed to enable a high-resolution digital terrain model of the landslide to be produced from stereo air photographs. brbr In the true spirit of field research, the weather forecast changed shortly after dates had been fixed and non-refundable bookings made. On 31 January, the Pennine moors looked fabulous in the morning sunshine, but the very cold front arrived a couple of hours early. However, geography fieldworkers are hardy souls and the survey work was duly completed without incident in conditions that were rapidly becoming ?difficult? (Mike is pictured surveying a ground control point). We must acknowledge the landowner who not only allowed us unrestricted access to the site but also looked out for us given the weather and the remoteness of the area.

March 2008: Dr Gianluca Bianchini joins CEESR
a name="bianchini"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/bianchini.htm"Dr Gianluca Bianchini/a is warmly welcomed as a CEESR member replacing Professor John Clemens (now Executive Head of the Department of Geology, Geography Environmental Studies Stellenbosch University) who retains a visiting position with us. Gianluca, who is joining us from the University of Ferrara in Italy, will be part of the GCP research group, where his work on basic magmas and associated mantle xenoliths, aimed at understanding evolution of the mantle lithosphere, will complement research on crust-mantle connections already in progress.

March 2008: ESRC grant to develop Web-based Spatio-temporal Interpolator for Census Area Statistics
a name="Walford_CDP"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/walford.htm"Professor Nigel Walford/a has been awarded a research grant under the a href="http://census.ac.uk/censusprogramme/default.aspx"ESRC/JISC Census Development Programme/a. The project will develop a demonstrator system enabling registered users of existing and future census related data resources to perform an integrated set of spatial analytic procedures in order to generate consistent spatial units spanning recent British censuses based on Census Output Area geography and associated estimates of census counts. The demonstrator will be designed and piloted with input from a group of currently registered users of the data sources and in collaboration with the Census Data Units supported under the ESR/JISC Census Programme.brbr The project develops from work carried out under a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/Walford_Census_ProjPages.htm"a previous ESRC award/a that created sets of digital boundary data and estimates of census counts for consistent geographies according to researcher-determined criteria. The availability of digital boundary data and small area population statistics for the last four censuses does not automatically result in their usability for summarizing and comparing three decades of geographical and demographic change. It is intended that once the demonstrator system has been developed and tested in collaboration with the Census Data Units, it would be integrated into the range of facilities available through the Census Portal. However, such release is not part of the present project.

February 2008: Mike Smith awarded Royal Society-China Scholarship Council grant
a name="RS_smith"img src="images/news/tharsis.gif" align=right width=200a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/smith.htm"Dr Mike Smith/a, Dr Long Xiao (Wuhan University of Geosciences) and Professor Nick Petford (Bournemouth University) have been awarded a collaborative grant from the Royal Society and China Scholarship Council to develop links between the three universities. Dr Xiao will visit Kingston for a 3 month period during 2008 with principle activity focused upon geomorphological and geological mapping of the Tharsis Rise on Mars using NASA MOLA data.

February 2008: Tom Stevens to give IAS Keynote
a name="ias_stevens"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/staff/stevens.htm"Dr Thomas Stevens/a has been invited to give a keynote presentation at the annual a href="http://www.iasnet.org/"International Association of Sedimentologists/a meeting in 2008 at a href="http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ias2008/"Bochum, Germany/a. The presentation on the sedimentary record of climatic change will take place on 2nd September in the special plenary session dedicated to celebrating the return of the IAS meeting to Bochum, 28 years after its initiation in 1980. The keynote speakers will provide an overview of where sedimentology is coming from and where the field is going at present.

February 2008: Edgar Samarasundera joins OPUS project
a name="opus2"Edgar Samarasundera has joined Kingston University as a Research Associate on an ESRC-funded project, Older People?s Use of Unfamiliar Space (OPUS), first described in November 2007?s news update. His remit will be to develop a prototype mobile GIS toolkit and an associated suite of analytical methods to better incorporate the needs of the elderly in spatial planning. He envisages the research outputs contributing to not only the scientific literature base but also providing scope for subsequent collaboration with both industry and local government. Edgar is a geographer by background with research activity spanning both human and physical geography, with a particular focus on the use of quantitative methods and spatial technologies. He is currently completing a PhD at University College London in GIS-based environmental modelling and is also an honorary staff member at Imperial College London where he conducts research in health geography.

January 2008: Professor Guy Robinson appointed UK's Area Studies Committee
a name="REF"Professor Guy Robinson has been appointed to the a href="http://www.ukcasa.ac.uk"UK's Area Studies Committee/a on the Research Excellence Framework Consultation. In March 2006 the Government announced its intention to replace the current Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) after 2008 with an assessment system based upon numerical indicators, known as metrics. A working group, whose members included representatives of the four UK higher education funding bodies and a number of government departments, then developed a consultation 'Reform of Higher Education Research Assessment and Funding'. Following the consultation, the Government announced the development of a revised scheme for assessment of quality and allocation of funding. The government's initial plans for the development of the new system were published as 'Future framework for research assessment and funding (REF)'. brbr The REF will consist of an overarching framework for the funding and assessment of research that takes account of key differences between the different disciplines. Research income, research student data and a new bibliometric indicator of research quality will drive assessment and funding for the science-based disciplines. For the arts, humanities and social sciences (where quantitative approaches are less developed) the REF will use a light-touch form of peer review. The new framework will be phased in and will inform funding gradually for the science-based disciplines from 2010. The light-touch peer review exercise for the other disciplines will take place in 2013. The new framework will drive funding for all disciplines fully from 2014. brbr All academic disciplines have been asked to provide input to the new REF. One of the disciplines is Area Studies, which includes work by geographers researching in various parts of the world. In response to this consultation the United Kingdom Committee of Area Studies Associations (UKCASA) has established a sub-committee, which will make recommendations during the first half of 2008. Guy Robinson is a member of both UKCASA and the sub-committee, representing Australian and New Zealand Studies.

January 2008: CEESR Postgraduate wins Mineral Industry "Best Poster"
a name="small"a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/students/small.htm"Penelope Small/a won the Mineral Industry "Best Poster" prize at the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (Geological Society of London) hosted at the British Geological Survey. Her poster, with co-authors S. Bryan, A. Rankin, J. Wilkinson, L. Torckler and J. Hobbins, was entitled: brbr "Genetic relationships between Au-Ag epithermal mineralisation and extension-related magmatism in Waihi, North Island, New Zealand."

December 2007: Professor Guy Robinson appointed as Chair of the Rural Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG.
a name="rgrg"At the Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG in August 2007, a href="staff/Robinson.htm"Professor Guy Robinson/a was appointed as Chair of the Rural Geography Research Group (RGRG) of the RGS-IBG. He will hold this office for three years and will lead a committee planning various conferences and training programmes for rural geographers. This will include meetings with German, Spanish, Irish and French rural geographers and postgraduate training sessions in Italy. At the Annual Conference a href="staff/walford.htm"Professor Nigel Walford/a was reappointed to the RGRG committee for another three-year term.brbr Professor Robinson has also joined a national Working Party preparing the Area Studies response to HEFCE's proposals for the future of the Research Assessment Exercise.

December 2007: Presenter of BBC "Earth: The Power of The Planet" to give the Annual CEESR Lecture
a name="ceesr08"Dr. Iain Stewart, Lecturer in Geodynamics in the School of Earth, Ocean Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, will be presenting the Annual CEESR Lecture in 2008. Iain has featured in a number of TV series on how geology has shaped the world around us - including the recent BBC series "Earth: The Power of The Planet" and an earlier BBC series "Journeys From The Centre Of The Earth". In "Rough Science", the popular BBC2 series, he was the geologist in a the team of five scientists working against to clock to complete various challenges.brbr Iain's research interests are in Active Tectonics, Earthquake Geology and Seismic Hazards, Coastal Geodynamics and Sea-Level Change, and Geological Catastrophes and Human Responses. Further details of the Lecture will be announced in due course.

November 2007: Post doctoral research positions
a name="opus"Swansea and Kingston Universities seek to appoint two postdoctoral researchers to work on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project on ?Older People?s Use of Unfamiliar Space?. The project explores older people?s use and navigation of unfamiliar environments as drivers, pedestrians and public transport users. The project has been funded under the UK Cross Council New Dynamics of Ageing Programme. One researcher will be based at Swansea University in the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing with Judith Phillips, Professor of Gerontology and the other at Kingston University with Nigel Walford, Professor of Applied GIS in the Centre for Earth and Environmental Sciences Research, School of Earth Sciences and Geography.brbr Further particulars are available a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/docs/OPUS_RA_2.pdf"here/a

November 2007: Major research grant to investigate older people's experience of navigating in unfamiliar spaces
a name="nav"Prof. Nigel Walford in collaboration with Prof. Judith Phillips and Dr Mark Lewis (Swansea), Ann Hockey (Anglia Ruskin) and Prof. Nigel Foreman (Middlesex) has been awarded a research grant under UK Research Council?s a href="http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk"New Dynamics of Ageing Programme/a. The project will determine the mechanisms and strategies used by older people to navigate unfamiliar spaces as drivers, pedestrians and users of public transport; and will investigate the influences on someone?s ability to cope with unfamiliar environments and examine the extent to which they curtail autonomy and independence, and lead to social (and environmental) exclusion. The project will also explore how technologies can assist in enabling older people to adapt to or ameliorate change in their environment.brbr Filming of unfamiliar spaces and routes in city centres and villages as a bus passenger, as a car driver and as a pedestrian will be displayed in a virtual reality cave. Older people will be asked to give a detailed narrative as they navigate a route. A group of these older people will travel with members of the research team to the area where the filing took place to meet spatial planners in the area and to navigate along the filmed routes previously viewed in the reality cave. By this stage the research team will have developed a demonstrator for GIS/GPS-based system which the older people will be able to try out on the routes to assess its potential for helping older people to adjust to the challenges of unfamiliar spaces.brbr The practical outcomes will include a standard for clear signage for older people, either through fixed signposting or mobile technologies; learning points on how to ameliorate such changes and improve the ambience of public spaces; and a toolbox of methods for local authorities to involve older people in meaningful discourse on the environment. From the information a demonstrator GIS/GPS based spatial information tool will be developed, which older people will test.

October 2007: New book by CEESR Researcher
a name="wallerbook"a href="http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/80713/OnlyResult/Yes"Dungeness and Romney Marsh: Barrier Dynamics and Marshland Evolution edited by Anthony J Long, Martyn P Waller and Andrew J Plater/abrbr Published by Oxbow books this monograph presents the results of two programmes of palaeoenvironmental research in the Romney Marsh area funded as part of English Heritage's Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund scheme. The focus is on the evidence for landscape change during the late Holocene and on identifying the local, regional and global driving mechanisms responsible for the changes observed. Topics explored include the vegetation and land-use history of the study area, methodological issues relating to the collection and interpretation of radiocarbon dates from coastal lowlands, the role of compaction in influencing landscape and sea-level change, and the effects of medieval storms on coastal flooding and landscape change.

August 2007: Major research grant to investigate data for National Brownfield Strategy
a name="icc2007"A team from Kingston University has won a sought-after contract to review the process by which the Government collects, stores and provides access to information about brownfield sites across England. The National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land and Buildings (NLUD-PDL) provides an inventory of the national stock of vacant and/or derelict land and buildings in England. It also provides an inventory of occupied land and buildings with redevelopment potential. NLUD-PDL is essential to National Brownfield Strategy for England as it provides important information about previously developed land. brbr The project will review the way data are collected in order to make information on the extent and location of brownfield land as reliable, accessible and comprehensive as possible to help Government meet its targets for bringing brownfield land back into productive use. English Partnerships and the Department of Communities and Local Government are funding the work and the multi-disciplinary project team includes Professor Nigel Walford, Professor Sarah Sayce, Dr Peter Garside, David Livingstone and Tony Vickers, together with colleagues from the GeoInformation Group. A comprehensive questionnaire survey of local authorities and interviews with representatives from these and other stakeholders will be carried out to assess current procedures and practice. In addition expert workshops will be held and wider discussion will be promoted via an interactive website. A comparative analysis of approaches to collecting, storing and providing access to brownfield and land use data in other European countries gives the work an international dimension.

August 2007: CEESR Researcher Features in Discover science Magazine
img src="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/images/discover.gif" align=right width=200a name="discover"Dr Scott Bryan has featured in an article in the August 2007 issue of Discover Magazine on observing the birth and death of the new Home Reef volcanic island in the SW Pacific. The on-line version of the article, written by Jen Barone, can be viewed a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2007/aug/watching-birth-and-death-of-an-island"here/a. Scott's research on the 2006 Home Reef a href="http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0403-08="eruption/a is currently being funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and is focused on pumice rafts generated by the August 8-11 explosive eruption, and which reached the eastern Australian coastline in March and April this year. The NERC funding is also supporting Kingston undergraduate student Kerry Hebden in her final year dissertation project on the petrology and origin of the dacitic magma that produced the explosive eruption at Home Reef, 22 years since the volcano's last eruption.

Feb 2007: Dr Scott Bryan investigates the Birth and Death of the Home Reef volcanic island
a name="tonga"pa href="staff/bryan.htm"Dr Scott Bryan/a has been awarded a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency Grant with co-investigators Dr Jason Evans (Yale University), Associate Professor John Jell (University of Queensland) and Dr Alex Cook (Queensland Museum) to a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/ceesr/projects/bryan_tonga.htm"track and study pumice rafts/a originating from the August 8-11 explosive eruption of the Home Reef volcano in Tonga, as they travel across the Southwest Pacific to eastern Australia over the next year. The project was awarded in January 2007, and funding is for one year./p

May 2006: CEESR Professor presents to BBC natural history programme
a name="krakatoa"pProfessor Nick Petford presented details of research within the School of Earth Sciences and Geography using cutting-edge technology to model the a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4972522.stm"Krakatoa eruption of 1883/a. Read more at the BBC article above or watch bKrakatoa Revealed/b, 2230BST BBC Two, Sunday 7 May/b./p piOn the morning of 27 August 1883, after four months of intermittent volcanic activity, Krakatoa, or more correctly Krakatau, went into terminal meltdown.brbr In a sequence of rapidly unfolding events, the island - actually an amalgamation of three separate volcanoes - was ripped apart by huge explosions....../i/p

December 2005: CEESR researcher awarded major Leverhulme Trust research grant
a name="coppice"pa href="staff/waller.htm"Dr Martyn Waller/a has been awarded a major a href="http://www.leverhulme.org.uk"Leverhulme Trust/a research grant with his co-investigator Dr Jane Bunting (Department of Geography, University of Hull), identifying the use of woodland coppice management through pollen analysis. Awarded over a 2-year period, work is due to start in Spring 2006./p

November 2005: CEESR Professor presents disaster issues to Parliament
a name="disaster"pa href="../staff/Rankin.htm"Professor Andy Rankin/a highlighted the a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/esg/courses/behdm.htm"BSc in Environmental Hazards and Disaster Management/a in a major Parliamentary meeting on natural disasters. The meeting on Tuesday 8th November was organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Earth Sciences, in conjunction with the a href="http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_offices/post.cfm"Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology/a, and was billed as ?Natural Disasters Day?. The event featured talks on tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, public health implications and post-disaster reconstruction. The role of education was emphasised, and our course was cited as a positive development. /p

April 2004: CEESR Researchers Win Best Scientific Paper Award for 2003
a name="pearce"p Martin Pearce and his coauthors have been awarded The Charles Downie Award of The Micropalaeontological Society for the best paper published by a Society member in an international scientific journal during 2003./p pThe paper: "Integrating palynological and geochemical data in a new approach to paleoecological studies: Upper Cretaceous of the Banterwick Barn Chalk borehole, Berkshire, UK", published in the journal Marine Micropaleontology, was based on Martin's PhD research at Kingston./p pThe paper reports the results of an interdisciplinary study combining information on the elemental and isotopic chemical composition of sediments, together with their microfossil (small fossils that are studied under a microscope) contents. It shows how an interdisciplinary approach can provide exciting new insights into the ecological controls on the distributions of extinct organisms, and of environmental conditions on the Greenhouse Earth of southern England 90 million years ago./p pThe paper was co-authored by Dr Ian Jarvis (Reader in Geochemistry), Dr Andy Swan (Senior Lecturer in Geology), Dr Amanda Murphy (PhD student 1993-8), Dr Bruce Tocher (Statoil), and Prof Mike Edmunds (Visiting Professor 1992-2002)./p pMartin, a PhD student at KU between 1997-2000, now works for Statoil in Stavanger, Norway./p