Blog of blogs 2018

December 18, 2018

2018 has been another busy year in the School of Geography, and to round up the year and give you an idea of what we do, we have put together a collection of blogs relating to research from the School, which we hope you will enjoy. We would also like to wish you a wonderful …

Looking at the Lake of Patzcuaro in Mexico. The Point of View of a Cultural Geographer

December 5, 2018

A blog by PhD student Jahzeel Aguilera Lara In July 2018, I travelled to México City to start with the archival work of my doctoral project. My research aims to understand the changes in the Lake Pátzcuaro landscape during the mid-twentieth century (1920-1950) from a historical and cultural geography perspective. To do so I study …

Map of the month. Mapping the Mississippi

December 4, 2018

A blog by Dr David Beckingham  This map consists of six original individual survey sheets of Louisiana, each measuring 16½ by 20 inches.  They are a product of the United States Geographical Survey’s desire to produce a topographical atlas of the country, which it began in 1882. Described as being of ‘average public importance’, the …

Repton Revealed

A blog by Professor Emeritus of Cultural Geography, Stephen Daniels The exhibition Repton Revealed, which I have curated at the Garden Museum, Lambeth, celebrates the bicentenary of the landscape gardener Humphry Repton, and runs till February 2019. https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/repton-revealed/ It brings together many key works on paper of his career, including 24 of his hallmark Red …

Researching the history of greenspace in Croatia to inform the planning for sustainability

November 21, 2018

A blog by PhD student Neven Tandarić on his research The interface between the environment and society is essential to geographical research. It links the two large domains through the space-time continuum. Reflections of the interaction between the two domains are materialised in space providing us with the subject of study. The dynamic of scientific progress …

The macro problem of a ‘micro’ pollutant

Tom Stanton, PhD researcher in the School of Geography and Faculty of Engineering, outlines his research on microplastics. From the upstream reaches of rivers to the remote Arctic, microplastic pollution persists throughout aquatic environments. All smaller than 5 mm – that’s about the size of the stud on top of a Lego brick – microplastic …

Science by the sea

November 20, 2018

A blog by Professor Sarah Metcalfe Sarah Metcalfe attended the 2018 meeting of the Mexican Geophysical Union in Puerto Vallarta (Picture 1, main image) on Mexico’s Pacific coast.  Luckily, hurricane Willa, which had made landfall the previous week, missed Puerto Vallarta, and had caused little damage when it reached the coast of Sinaloa, further to …

A day in the life of an Economic Geographer…..Joe Hewitt

November 7, 2018

A blog by Dr Joe Hewitt I am a Teaching Associate in Economic Geography here at the School of Geography and am fairly new to this role having joined as a staff member in September 2018 after obtaining my PhD in Human Geography from the University of Nottingham earlier this year. My most recent research …

Why remote sensing is important in the fight against modern slavery and environmental destruction

November 6, 2018

A blog by PhD student Bethany Jackson According to recent estimates by the International Labour Organisation and Walk Free Foundation (2017) there are currently 40.3 million people enslaved globally. Many of these people are found within South Asia. My research in particular is looking at two industries within this region in which modern slavery is …

Tales from the Yangtze Riverbank

September 20, 2018

Professor Suzanne McGowan and Linghan Zeng write about their recent trip to China. The SIL Congress 2018 is an international meeting for limnologists (people who study inland waters including lakes and rivers). Held every three years, this meeting was in Nanjing, within the lower Yangtze floodplain of eastern China. A perfect setting for Linghan Zeng, …