September 12, 2019, by lzzeb
Environmental Risk Research Hub Funding
A blog by Ginnie Panizzo
On the 25th and 26th June 2019, the School of Geography hosted Dr. Rajiv Kangabam (Assam Agricultural University) and Prof. Gary Fones (Portsmouth University) to discuss future collaborations between the institutions. These meetings were possible thanks to funding awarded to Dr. Ginnie Panizzo from the School of Geography’s Environmental Risk Research Hub.
This meeting at the University of Nottingham was prompted by Ginnie’s invitation to attend a UKRI Indo-UK workshop on “Monitoring and analysis strategies for anthropogenic pollutants in the environmental and waste waters” in November 2018. This meeting was targeted at Early Career Researchers, where she met Rajiv and was coordinated (in part) by Prof. Gary Fones of the University of Portsmouth. Rajiv’s research group have been conducting extensive work on Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in NE India (Manipur). The lake itself is an ecological hotspot, and serves as a source of water for hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply. It therefore acts as a vital resource for rural communities who live around the lake and on the floating phumdis (large floating mats of vegetation). However, human activity has led to severe pressure on the lake ecosystem in recent decades. However, no research has been conducted on examining the possible levels of persistent pollutants in the lake (Prof. Fones expertise). Furthermore, due to the absence of long-term monitoring at the lake, we have no knowledge of how and when such impacts have occurred.
Joined by Prof. Suzanne McGowan and Dr. Alexandra Zieritz (of the School of Geography) our meetings focused on future funding calls. Stemming directly from this, Ginnie and Rajiv have put in for a UKIERI-DST Partnership Development Workshop application. The two leads also hope that this pump priming funding may lead to a NERC Envisoion DTP application and research grant proposal in the spring of 2020.
No comments yet, fill out a comment to be the first
Leave a Reply