The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) Task Force, led by Dr Costas Velis from the University of Leeds, has published a report highlighting the seriousness of marine litter and identifying potential areas of intervention. The President of ISWA, Antonis Mavropoulos, said: “Marine litter is becoming a global challenge, similar to climate change.” “Our oceans are...
From 05 to 07 September, water@leeds hosted the International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM7)at the University of Leeds. The conference, on the theme of ‘Resilience to Global Changes – Anticipating the Unexpected,’ boasted 172 presentations from researchers and industry alongside keynote speeches from Prof. Chris Zevenbergen, Prof. Koji Ikeuchi, Dr Gero Michel, Dr Paul Whitfield, Mr...
A team of researchers from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), the James Hutton Institute, and the University of Leeds have conducted a large scale national survey which has found that the general public is supportive of the Scottish Government's plans to restore peatlands. University of Leeds researcher and water@leeds member, Dr Julia Martin-Ortega, is a...
Megan Klaar and Lee Brown visited Fountains Abbey last week to discuss the implementation of natural flood management (NFM) measures in the River Skell catchment by the National Trust. They were also given a guided tour of the grounds and started to consider ways in which our group's expertise could help the NT to reduce fine...
Dr Rosalind Bark and Dr Julia Martin-Ortega have just launched a survey to explore the views and opinions of environmental professionals regarding Natural Flood Management (NFM). The responses collected are expected to improve our understanding of how NFM is perceived and is being implemented in the UK and will contribute to the debate around improving environmental and flood...
Calder is a short film by Geoff Brokate and Paula Sutherland featuring the community of Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire. The narrative documents personal challenges of residents responding to the transformative impact of the Boxing Day 2015 floods. Rosalind Bark (SEE) and Julia Martin-Ortega arranged for the first Leeds screening of Calder, and they joined the filmmakers...
Professor Joseph Holden (Geography) and Dr Paola Sakai (SEE) discussed flood prevention methods and the effects on small businesses. The interview is available to watch here, watch Joseph and Paola from 0:54 to 4.55 seconds. Paola Sakai discussed the problems that small and medium businesses have faced to overcome the 2015 winter floods. She mentioned that to...
Julia Martin- Ortega led the development of two peatland condition assessment tools. The tools, one for the general public (learning module) and one for land managers (condition assessment) are available online. o Cond. Assess tool: http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/peatland-modules/?type=assess o Learning mod.: http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/peatland-modules/?type=learning Both of them include a mechanism by which the peatland condition drawings and...
Chartered Engineer Dr Mark Trigg has analysed the leading global flood risk prediction models and has found significant differences between the predictions they make. Software like this is used to plan major developments and, based on research using Africa as an example, Dr Trigg, from the University’s Faculty of Engineering, now says further work needs...
During the first week in December 2016 Dr Christian Berretta (UoL – Civil Engineering), Andrea Aiello (UoL – Civil Engineering), Kara Hazelgrave (UoL – water@leeds) arranged to join visiting researcher Dr Ankit Garg (IIT – Civil Engineering) on a tour of the UoL Plant Growth Suite (PGS) facilities, thanks to Suite Managers Lance Penketh (UoL...