INQUA 2019 conference in Dublin

August 28, 2019

A blog by Professor Sarah Metcalfe At the end of July, the School was well represented at the INQUA (International Quaternary Association) conference in Dublin.  Held once every four years, INQUA is the largest, global gathering of researchers working on all aspects of the Quaternary period – the last 2.8 million years.  This year’s meeting …

IGARSS 2019

August 21, 2019

A blog by Professor Giles Foody The International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) is one of the largest and most prestigious meetings in remote sensing. It is organised annually by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (IEEE GRSS). I have been unable to attend recent meetings due to …

Map of the month. Imagining Invasion: Stadtdurchfahrtpläne England (ohne London) 2. Verbesserte Auflage, 1941

August 6, 2019

A blog by Dr Isla Forsyth The above map is the frontispiece to a booklet produced by the German military in the Second World War, which details the local geography of British city road maps, as well as the distances and directions for and between different cities and nearby towns.  These military maps were produced …

Medical Geography in a Magical Place

July 25, 2019

A blog by Dr Stephanie Coen Queenstown, Aotearoa New Zealand is hands-down the most magical place in which I have ever attended an academic conference. The scenery is otherworldly, with ruggedly steep snow-capped mountains dropping straight into the brilliant blue Lake Wakatipu. The photo below of my daily walk from my accommodation to the conference …

Lung health and cookstoves in Nepal

July 3, 2019

A blog by Sarah Jewitt During the past semester, I spent time investigating connections between the use of cookstoves fuelled with biomass (wood, charcoal, agricultural residue, dung etc.) and lung health in Nepal. This work was funded by an Institutional GCRF grant entitled Improving Respiratory Health in Nepal led by Ian Hall and Charlotte Bolton …

Map of the Month. Jeux avec frontières: a map of the historic borders of France prepared for the Paris Peace Conference in 1919

July 2, 2019

A blog by Professor Mike Heffernan While preparing for a recent visit to the School’s map collection by members of the Charles Close Society, an unusual map of north-eastern France was uncovered in drawer B109 in a miscellany of war-related material that includes a Napoleonic map of central Europe, several World War One trench maps, …

Spatial patterns of lianas in Malaysia

June 26, 2019

A blog by Chris Chandler Now in the third year of my PhD, a lot of my time has been spent in Malaysia (a total of 9 months) collecting data to understand the spatial patterns of lianas (climbing woody vines). Previous research has shown that lianas compete heavily with trees and can limit tree growth. …

European Geosciences Union (EGU) 2019

A blog by Marzhan Baigaliyeva In early April 2019, I was very lucky to attend the general assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) which was held in Vienna, Austria. The EGU is the biggest European geoscience union, dedicated to explore Earth, planetary and space sciences for the advantage of humanity worldwide. This year, the …

Reflecting on economic geography in Washington DC

June 13, 2019

A blog by Professor Sarah Hall In early April, I was lucky enough to attend the American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting which was held in Washington DC with support from the School of Geography. The AAG conference is the largest gathering of geographers internationally across the breadth of human geography and I always …

Map of the month. The Saint John River valley: memories of a submerged riverscape

June 5, 2019

A blog by Dr Stephen Dugdale The School of Geography’s map collection contains a large number of historical maps of Canada. Two of these, sheets 21G and 21J of the National Topographic Series 1:250,000 collection (published between 1955 and 1959), are of particular interest. These maps, centred on Fredericton and Woodstock in the maritime province …