Digital Commons Network^™

Demand-Side Measures Improve Long-Term Resilience To Supply Shocks Beyond Emergencies, Caroline Zimm, Benigna Boza-Kiss, Shonali Pachauri, Diana Uerge-Vorsatz, Souran Chatterjee, Alessio Mastrucci, Jihoon Min, Sascha Nick, Johannes Thema, Frauke Wiese, Bas Van Ruijven, Elena Verdolini, Carina Zell-Ziegler

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent energy supply disruptions have prompted some governments to deploy demand-side measures as emergency responses. These crises reveal that systems built on high and inflexible energy and material demand are structurally exposed to shocks. This vulnerability is rooted in earlier political, infrastructural, and economic choices that locked societies into resource-intensive mobility, housing, and production. Crises are not only moments requiring rapid response; they are junctures where structural weaknesses become available for reform. We argue that demand-side measures are essential for reducing the immediate pain of crises and for reconfiguring provisioning systems toward lasting resilience. Drawing on examples spanning oil, electricity, …

Multilayered Childhood Adversity And Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study Of 1.2 Million Individuals, Naja Hulvej Rod, Signe Kær Bennetsen, Leonie K. Elsenburg, Clive E. Sabel, David Taylor–Robinson, Dora Kovacs, Adrian G. Zucco, Tjeerd Rudmer De Vries

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Background: Childhood adversity is multi-layered, extending beyond the family to include broader neighbourhood and health contexts. We aimed to investigate how these multiple layers of childhood adversity relate to the risk of death in young adulthood. Methods: Children were followed from birth into young adulthood (16–42 years) using nationwide register data on multi-layered childhood adversity and mortality. Individual adversity included perinatal adversity (preterm or small-for-gestational-age) and mental and physical health-service use. Family adversity included five distinct groups using group-based multi-trajectory modelling based on 12 adversities. Neighbourhood adversity included material deprivation in small-area geographical zones. We evaluated associations of these layers …

Quality Reveals What Quantity Conceals: Deceptive Equity Patterns In Urban Green Space Distribution, Zheng Xian, Yoshiharu Suzuki, Kun Liu, Clive E. Sabel, Naoki Nakaya, Atsushi Hozawa, Tomoki Nakaya

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Equitable provision of urban green space depends on how green space exposure is measured, yet aggregate, quantity-focused metrics can mask disparities in quality. We introduce the concept of deceptive equity, in which apparent distributional fairness conceals substantive inequality, and test it across 344 postcode areas in Sendai, Japan. Across three dimensions — ecological (NDVI), perceptual (Green View Index) and service provision (accessible park count) — we paired a quantity indicator with a quality indicator. A quantity–quality divergence emerged in every dimension: wherever a quality indicator showed a significant socioeconomic gradient it favoured affluent areas, whereas the corresponding quantity indicators were …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Sampling Hard Rock Cores Of The Oceanic Crust For Microbiological And Biogeochemical Research, William J. Brazelton, Oscar Cavazos, Jordyn A. Robare, Gordon Southam, Johanna Suhonen, Fengping Wang, Susan Q. Lang, Andrew Mccaig, Peter Blum, Natsue Abe, Remi Coltat, Jeremy R. Deans, Kristin L. Dickerson, Marguerite Godard, Barbara E. John, Frieder Klein, Rebecca Kuehn, Kuan-Yu Lin, C. Johan Lissenberg, Haiyang Liu, Ethan L. Lopes, Toshio Nozaka, Andrew J. Parsons, Vamdev Pathak, Mark K. Reagan, C. Geoffrey Wheat

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Studying life in the deep, rocky subseafloor involves many layers of technological and methodological challenges, and each drilling project or expedition must make a series of choices to address these challenges. We report on the workflow for sampling hard rock cores for microbiological and biogeochemical research that was developed and optimized during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 399. All steps of the workflow, including selection of the sample and its shipboard homogenization and subsampling for specific analyses, were designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary collaborations and syntheses of results. Furthermore, multiple strategies to minimize and detect potential microbial …

A Tropically Hot Late Jurassic North American Sundance Sea: Evidence For The Oxfordian Warm Interval, R. W. Reynolds, R. Jerrett, A. Marca, M. Davies, S. M. Bernasconi, R. B. Paxton, G. Nowell, P. Dennis, U. Balthasar, G. D. Price

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Late Jurassic greenhouse climate was characterized by elevated atmospheric CO₂ (pCO₂) at 600–1,000 ppm and sea-surface temperatures substantially warmer than today. These conditions peaked during the Oxfordian, when extensive epicontinental seaways, including the North American Sundance Sea, dominated mid-latitude paleoceanography. We present clumped isotope (Δ₄₇) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analyses of Oxfordian belemnite and Gryphaea fossils from the Sundance Sea to reconstruct paleotemperatures (tΔ₄₇) and assess the balance between open ocean and terrestrial inputs. The data reveal (a) a mean tΔ₄₇ of 30.6°C (±1.6 1SE), or 27.6°C (±1.6 1SE) if …

Correlating High-Resolution Terrestrial Organic Carbon Isotope Records Across The Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary, Gregory D. Price, Rhodri M. Jerrett, Lauren K. O'Connor, Emily Dearing Crampton-Flood, Bart E. Van Dongen, Sabine K. Lengger, Marc Davies

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (∼66 million years ago) represents the most recent mass extinction event when an estimated 75% of all species became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Here we focus on the stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) analysis of coal and coaly sediments across the terrestrial K/Pg boundary from 10 sites, between 42 and 64°N, USA and Canada. Our δ¹³C data set shows a statistically significant positive correlation with paleolatitude that we interpret as a consequence of our lower latitude sites being relatively warmer and more humid than our higher latitude sites. Temporally, our data indicates that …

Crowd-Sourced Glacier Mapping As A Tool For Enhancing Climate Literacy And Data Generation, Caroline Clason, Sally Rangecroft, Shaun Lewin, Gina Kallis, Tom Mullier, Will Blake, Iain Stewart

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Citizen science approaches are increasingly used to support data generation and public engagement across the environmental sciences, yet their wider pedagogical value within physical geography remains underexamined. To explore the value of mapping-based citizen science for both glaciological investigation and geographical learning, we developed GlacierMap, an interactive online tool enabling participants to map glacier change in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca over a 34-year period. GlacierMap was designed not only to assess the feasibility and value of crowd-sourced glacier mapping, but also as a vehicle to support experiential learning of the trends in, and impacts of, tropical mountain glacier retreat. Participants mapped …

Monospecific Mass Occurrence Of The Dimerelloid Brachiopod Halorella Amphitoma In A Shallow Marine Environment Of The Late Triassic Dachstein Platform (Bakony Mountains, Hungary), Tamás Müller, Attila Vörös, János Haas, Tamás Budai, Clemens V. Ullmann, Gregory D. Price, József Pálfy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dimerelloid brachiopods with patchy but cosmopolitan geographical distribution, including the Late Triassic (Norian) Halorella amphitoma, offer a unique opportunity to identify and reconstruct specific palaeo-microenvironments in the geological past. The group and this species are commonly associated with hydrocarbon seepage in Palaeozoic and Mesozoic records. In addition, mass occurrences of H. amphitoma are also known from neptunian dykes and palaeokarst cavities on the vast Late Triassic Dachstein carbonate platform. It has been suggested that the shells were either washed into these structures or the animals were living directly there in a dark environment, but normal marine conditions were implied for …

Precise Kinetic Parameters For Thermal Resetting Of Clumped Isotope Signatures In Biogenic And Abiogenic Calcites, Nico Kueter, Nathan Looser, Jordon D. Hemingway, Nils B. Gies, Gregory D. Price, Alberto Perez-Huerta, Stefano M. Bernasconi

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Carbonate clumped isotope (∆₄₇) thermometry is a powerful tool to reconstruct paleotemperatures. However, episodes of heating or cooling can alter original ∆₄₇ values through diffusive C-O bond reordering—i.e., isotopic exchange between neighboring carbonate groups within the mineral lattice—and/or oxygen-isotope exchange between carbonate groups and water (collectively termed “thermal resetting”). Nevertheless, if precise kinetic constraints are available, altered ∆₄₇ values can be utilized to reconstruct thermal histories of sedimentary basins or to restore primary ∆₄₇ values from carbonates which experienced thermal resetting in their geological history. Here, we present new high-resolution heating experiments on optical (abiogenic) …

Stability Of Sufentanil Sublingual Microtablets (Dzuveo) In Extreme Cold Weather Conditions: An Experimental Study, David Mcconnell, Hayley Manners, Paul Sutton, Nicola Gawman, Tim Parham, Jonathon Lowe

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Introduction Extreme cold weather environments are challenging for medication storage and delivery, particularly for injectable analgesics vulnerable to freezing and device failure. These risks may compromise pain management in austere or operational settings where temperature control cannot be maintained. Sufentanil sublingual microtablets (sold in the UK as Dzuveo) provide an oral analgesic option with manufacturer-reported sub-zero stability. Evidence describing the effects of sustained extreme cold exposure and repeated freeze–thaw cycling on chemical stability and delivery system function is limited.Methods We conducted a laboratory study assessing the effect of sustained freezing and repeated freeze–thaw exposure on sufentanil sublingual microtablets (30 µg …

Cracks In The Earth: Why Is East Africa Losing Its Soil?, Maarten Wynants, Aloyce Amasi, Will Blake, Pascal Boeckx, Andrew Brooks, Claire Kelly, Ivan Lizaga, Linus Munishi

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Pre- And Syn-Eruptive Processes During Ancient Pre-Caldera Activity At Campi Flegrei (Italy): Petrology And Chemostratigraphy Of The Vitafumo And Miliscola Tuff-Cones, Lorenzo Fedele, Claudio Scarpati, Annamaria Perrotta, Ileana Santangleo, Federica Güll, Paul Cole

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

A detailed petrological investigation of the juvenile clasts from the deposits of the Vitafumo and Miliscola tuff cones is reported here, representing the first attempt to reconstruct the architecture of the plumbing systems of Phlegraean volcanoes preceding the caldera-forming Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption. The Vitafumo and Miliscola juvenile clasts are remarkably crystal-poor to nearly aphyric, with sparse microphenocrysts of mostly sanidine, plus some plagioclase in the slightly crystal-richer and older Vitafumo samples. Groundmass glass compositions are trachytic and homogeneous for each volcano, with only slightly higher MgO, CaO and K ₂O and lower Na ₂O in the Miliscola …

‘Mobile Consumers’: Interpreting The Consumption Perceptions, Practices And Experiences Of Mobile Brazilian International Students In London, Mark Holton, Leonardo Santana Dos Santos Rodrigues

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This paper advances existing work on the mobilities and geographies of students by examining the complexities and contestations affecting international students' consumption perceptions and experiences. This is important in positing new ways of understanding how educational mobilities, in both their meta and micro forms, can influence, and be influenced by, consumption practices and ideologies. Drawing on a set of semi-structured interviews with Brazilian international students living and studying in London, UK this paper draws together mobilities and consumption theories as a lens for interpreting consumption knowledge and practice as an evolving and iterative set of performances that align closely with …

Amphibole Reaction Rims Record Shear During Magma Ascent, Paul A. Wallace, Janine Birnbaum, Sarah H. De Angelis, Elisabetta Mariani, Jessica Larsen, Jackie E. Kendrick, Thomas E. Christopher, Paul D. Cole, Anthony Lamur, Yan Lavallée

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Mineral reaction textures are fundamental archives of geological change. Amphibole reaction rims are among the most widely used to reconstruct pre-eruptive magmatic conditions, traditionally interpreted through changes in pressure, temperature and melt composition. However, these interpretations have largely overlooked the role of deformation, ubiquitous during magma ascent. Here we show that amphibole breakdown is not only thermodynamically sensitive, but also mechanically sensitive. Using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses of experimental and natural samples, combined with numerical simulations of crystal rotation under magma flow, we demonstrate that pyroxene nucleates topotactically on amphibole, forming rims, but can later reorient in response to …

Population Discontinuity In The Paris Basin Linked To Evidence Of The Neolithic Decline, Frederik V. Seersholm, Abigail Ramsøe, Jialu Cao, Philippe Chambon, Karl Göran Sjögren, Hugh Mccoll, Fabrice Demeter, Charleen Gaunitz, Lasse Vinner, Jesper Stenderup, Gabriele Scorrano, Ralph Fyfe, T. Douglas Price, Morten Fischer Mortensen, Sascha Krüger, Torben Dehn, Svend Illum Hansen, Kristine Vesterdorf, Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen, Morten E. Allentoft, Kristian Kristiansen, Laure Salanova, Eske Willerslev, Martin Sikora

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

At the transition between the third and the fourth millennium BC, there is evidence for a population decline concurrent with the end of megalith building across continental northwestern Europe. In Scandinavia this ‘Neolithic decline’ is followed by a massive population turnover, as farming communities disappeared and were replaced by people with steppe ancestry. In western Europe, however, ancestry associated with Neolithic farmers persisted beyond the Neolithic decline, and it remains unclear whether a similar demographic replacement occurred. To investigate the population dynamics around the Neolithic decline in present-day France, we sequenced 132 ancient genomes from the allée sépulcrale at Bury. …

From Street Level To Science: Advancing Methods For Climate Walks To Improve Human Thermal Comfort, Kevin Lau, Cho Kwong Charlie Lam, Eduardo Krüger, André Santos Nouri, Zhikai Peng, Daniele Santucci, Andreas Matzarakis

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Urban heat risk is increasing, while fixed monitoring networks remain too sparse and coarse to resolve the pedestrian-scale variability, especially radiative loads, that governs outdoor thermal stress. This short communication advances the concept of climate walks, defined as route-based, human-centred field campaigns that build on earlier work on “thermal walks”, and presents them as a practice-ready methodology for design-relevant evidence. We define climate walks as structured, route-based, georeferenced assessments that pair high-resolution mobile microclimate measurements with synchronous in-situ human responses to capture transient, spatially heterogeneous conditions along actual walks. We synthesize key methodological features, such as dynamic, stop-and-go protocols; human-centred …

Family Imprint Reveals Basin-Wide Patterns Of Amazon Forest Embolism Resistance, Julia Valentim Tavares, Emanuel Gloor, Thiago S.F. Silva, Rafael S. Oliveira, Fernanda Coelho De Souza, Caroline Signori-Müller, Francisco Carvalho Diniz, Luciano Pereira, Martin Acosta, Martin Gilpin, Manuel J. Marca Zevallos, Carlos A. Salas Yupayccana, Flor M. Perez-Mullisaca, Halina Jancoski, Marina Corrêa Scalon, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Yadvinder Malhi, Imma Oliveras Menor, Lucy Rowland, Patrick Meir, Paulo Bittencourt, Antonio Carlos Lola Da Costa, João Antônio R. Santos, Renata Teixeira De Oliveira, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Esteban Álvarez-Dávila, Miguel N. Alexiades, Edmar Almeida De Oliveira, Ana Andrade

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Amazon rainforests face intensifying water stress due to increases in vapour pressure deficit and changing hydrological regimes. Embolism resistance (Ψ₅₀) is a critical metric of tree survival under drought conditions, it is defined as a plant’s capacity to resist disruption of xylem water flow due to air bubble formation from water stress. However, measurements of Ψ₅₀ are only available for a limited number of Amazon locations and species. Conversely, data on forest taxonomic composition are abundant across Amazonia, and if Ψ₅₀ is conserved phylogenetically, these data could provide a way to scale-up drought resistance patterns. Here …

Tree Diversity Is Changing Across Tropical Andean And Amazonian Forests In Response To Global Change, B. Fadrique, F. Costa, F. Cuesta, G. Arellano, L. Cayuela, T. R. Baker, F. C. Draper, A. Esquivel-Muelbert, H. Ter Steege, M. Bauters, J. Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Z. Aguirre-Mendoza, M. N. Alexiades, E. Alvarez-Davila, E. Arets, E. Ayala, C. G.A. Aymard, F. Baccaro, S. Báez, C. Baraloto, R. I. Barbosa, P. Barbosa Camargo, J. Barlow, P. E. Barni, J. Barroso, M. Benchimol, A. C. Bennett, E. Berenguer, L. Blanc, D. Bonal

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Climate and atmospheric changes are impacting forest function and structure worldwide, but their effects on tropical forest diversity are unclear. Nowhere is the scientific challenge greater than in the Andes and the Amazon, which together include the world’s most diverse forests. Here, using 406 permanent plots spanning four decades of intact lowland and montane forest dynamics, we test for long-term change in species richness and assess the influence of climate and other variables. We show that, at a continental scale, species richness appears stable, but this masks substantial regional variation. Species richness increased in Northern Andean and Western Amazon plots, …

Does Increasing Human Impact Across The Holocene Result In Simplification Of Vegetation Composition And Diversity Across Europe? A Pollen-Based Spatio-Temporal Approach, Caterina Röhm, Maria Antonia Serge, Ralph Fyfe, François Gillet, Laurent Marquer, Agnès Lagnoux, Thierry Klein, Didier Galop, Florence Mazier

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Land use and climate change are the primary drivers of current biodiversity loss, but have had different impacts on biodiversity across the Holocene epoch. To enhance our understanding of current changes in diversity and its impact on ecosystem functions, knowledge of long-term interactions between vegetation diversity, land use change, and climatic change is crucial. Grid-cell estimates of quantified regional vegetation cover (RV_est) based on pollen data from 1607 sites across Europe, transformed using the REVEALS (Regional Vegetation Estimates from Large Sites) model, have been used to explore spatiotemporal changes in vegetation and regional diversity during the Holocene (25 …

Temporal Linkages Of Explosive Activity Of Kolumbo And Santorini Volcanoes (Greece), Abigail Metcalfe, Katharina Pank, Steffen Kutterolf, Jonas Preine, Paraskevi Nomikou, Christian Hübscher, Thomas A. Ronge, Sarah Beethe, A Bernard, Carole Berthod, Hehe Chen, Shun Chiyonobu, Acacia Clark, Susan Debari, Tatiana Fernandez-Perez, Ralf Gertisser, Christopher Jones, Raymond Johnston, Kumar Batuk Joshi, Jens Karstens, Günther Kletetschka, Olga Koukousioura, Hao Yang Lee, Xiaohui Li, Michael Manga, Molly Mccanta, Iona Mcintosh, Tony Morris, Dimitrios Papanikolaou, Ally Peccia

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The histories of submarine explosive volcanoes are commonly poorly known due to inaccessibility of their eruptive archives. This raises uncertainties in the eruption frequencies of these highly hazardous systems, and in their interactions with neighboring volcanoes. The submarine Kolumbo Volcanic Chain (KVC) northeast of Santorini is made up of the polygenetic Kolumbo Volcano and a linear zone of more than 20 smaller volcanic cones and is one of the most active eruptive centers on the South Aegean Volcanic Arc. However, despite the destructive eruption of Kolumbo in 1650 CE, and unrest in 2024–2025, the eruptive history of the KVC is …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Armie, A Portable Sps30-Based Low-Cost Sensor Node For Pm 2.5 Monitoring., Asbjørn Kloppenborg, Louise B Frederickson, Rasmus Ø Nielsen, Clive E Sabel, Tue Skallgaard, Jakob Löndahl, Jose G C Laurent, Torben Sigsgaard

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

BACKGROUND: Low-cost particulate matter sensors have enabled new opportunities for exposure monitoring but require evaluation before application in epidemiological studies. This study assessed the performance of the SPS30 sensor integrated into the ARMIE portable monitoring sensor-node under controlled laboratory conditions.

METHODS: Sensors were co-located with two comparison instruments-the optical DustTrak photometer and the combined Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS)-across multiple aerosol sources, including candle burning, cooking, cigarette smoke, and clean air, under both regular and high-humidity conditions. Calibration performance was evaluated using leave-one-sensor-out and leave-one-source-out approaches.

RESULTS: The ARMIE node demonstrated strong agreement with the …

Lower Suicidal Ideation Linked To Easier Access To Urban Green Spaces During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Study In Japan, Zheng Xian, Tomoki Nakaya, Clive E. Sabel, Ryo Okubo, Kun Liu, Jinguang Zhang, Takahiro Tabuchi

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Urban green spaces (UGSs) have been linked to improved mental health and lower suicide rates, yet their protective role during large-scale crises remains underexplored. We examined associations of UGS accessibility with long-term and pandemic induced new-onset suicidal ideation during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Japan, using data from a nationwide health survey of 17,376 participants (August 2020). Modified Poisson regression models estimated prevalence ratios (PRs) for suicidal ideation by UGS accessibility (area, number, and type) within 5, 10, and 15-minute walking thresholds from home, controlling for individual and area-level confounders. UGS accessibility exhibited dose-response relationships with …

Direct And Indirect Metal Contamination Of Estuarine Sediments By Boat Paint Particles, Andrew Turner, Ho Kwan Cheung

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Surface and subsurface estuarine sediments close to a cluster of abandoned boats have been fractionated (between <250 and 5000 μm) and analysed microscopically for paint particles. Paints were encountered in all samples, with concentrations calculated for whole sediment samples up to 1450 per kg (dry weight). X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of paint particles retained by the coarsest (>5000 μm) size fraction revealed heterogeneous concentrations of Ba, Cu, Pb, Sn and Zn that reflect pigments and antifoulants used in various recent and historical antifouling and above waterline boat paints. Analysis of sediments by XRF revelated heterogeneous distributions of these metals between locations, size fractions and depths, and among replicate measurements at different positions of the same sample. Consequently, no relationship with grain size (evaluated using Rb as a proxy) was evident and concentrations often greatly exceeded predicted effect levels for sediments. Re-analysis …

Assessing The Application Of Optical-Photothermal Infrared Spectroscopy For Single-Grain Chemical Palynology, Laura Scoble, Hao Meng, Simon J. Ussher, Mark F. Fitzsimons, Lauren Ansell, Mustafa Kansiz, Billy Simmonds, Nick Stone, Ralph M. Fyfe

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Single-grain pollen analysis is essential for advancing chemical palynology, which classifies morphologically similar taxa based on taxon-specific pollen and sporopollenin chemistry. Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and microspectroscopy (μFT-IR) are widely used to differentiate morphologically similar grains but face limitations from Mie scattering and coarse spatial resolution. Here, we present the first application of Optical-PhotoThermal Infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy to chemically treated single pollen grains, using Molinia caerulea as a model taxon to fully test and evaluate the technical capabilities and limitations of this technique. O-PTIR achieves sub-micron “super-resolution” infrared spectroscopy through non-contact, non-destructive measurements by exploiting the photothermal effect. O-PTIR spectra …

Quantifying The Response Of Bankfull Channel Width To Active Faulting In The Qianhe Graben On The Southwest Margin Of Ordos Block, China, Zhiheng Liu, Sarah Boulton, Suiping Zhou, Jianhua Guo, Tingting Wu, Wenjie Zhang, Ling Han

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

River longitudinal profiles have been widely used to quantify the transient landscape response to active faulting, but the fluvial cross-section is often ignored, yet width can also reveal river incision and tectonic activity. Channel width responds to tectonic forcing through flow concentration effects resulting in channel narrowing where vertical incision dominates during uplift acceleration. Here we employ a novel bankfull channel width extraction method using Landsat and ZY-3 satellite images, and SRTM DEM data to evaluate the cross-section landscape response to active faulting in the Qianhe Graben of southwest Ordos, China. Although some areas are difficult to access (e.g., thick …

Enhancing Monitoring In Protected Areas: Evaluating Mobile Apps As A Tourism Proxy, Jorge Costa, Alberto Gomes, Martin Stokes, Miguel Saraiva

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Crowdsourced data, such as that from mobile fitness apps (MFAs), has the potential to transform tourism research. This opportunity is particularly valuable as tourism to protected areas (PAs) increases, making it more difficult to manage their environmental impacts. However, such data sources come with challenges. Therefore, their representativeness should be carefully evaluated, particularly as their use continues to grow. We use the Paiva Walkways (Portugal) to assess MFAs as a tourism proxy using Spearman’s rank correlation, to evaluate kernel density and fishnet methods for spatialising visitor movements, and to analyse the visitors’ spatiotemporal behaviour using GIS, kernel density estimation, and …

Long-Term Evaluation Of The Energy Consumption Of 100 Energy-Efficient Buildings In Austria, Thomas Roßkopf-Nachbaur, Günter Lang, Martin Ploß, Markus Lang, Andreas Peter, Tobias Hatt, Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Souran Chatterjee, Luisa F. Cabeza

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

In 2019, buildings greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounted for 21 % of global emissions, therefore regions such as Europe have strong policies to decrease such emissions. The literature shows different examples simulating energy refurbishment of buildings or districts where an important GHG reduction can be achieved, but there is a clear gap on real measurements of exemplary buildings. This paper shows an assessment of more than 100 energy-efficient buildings in Austria, showing that this GHG emissions reduction is really possible. The paper evaluates residential and non-residential buildings, where the energy consumption was 50 % below the consumption of typical multi-apartment …

Presence And Characteristics Of Plastics And Microplastics On The Seabed Of The Western English Channel, Faye Read, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Little is known about the presence, distribution, origins and characteristics of plastic litter and microplastics on the ocean floor. In this study, plastics trawled from the bed of the western English Channel have been categorised and analysed by a variety of optical and spectroscopic techniques. A total of 90 plastic samples were classified, in descending order of abundance, as food-drink packaging, unknown, homeware, military and fishing. Most samples showed varying degrees of weathering (e.g., discolouration, distortion, cracking, fragmentation) and were visibly fouled by calcareous deposits. The majority of samples were constructed of polymers of negative buoyancy (e.g., polyamides, polyethylene terephthalate …

Heretical Freedoms, Paul Simpson

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This commentary explores Whitehead and Hannah's engagement with Paul Ricœur's conception of freedom. Their account frames freedom as an emergent, embodied experience negotiated between voluntary and involuntary conditions, challenging notions of autonomy and structural determinism. Drawing on Nancy's co-existential ontology and Esposito's ideas of community and immunity, this commentary poses freedom the challenge of the we – of thinking the experience of freedom as a plural opening onto difference rather than an individual possession.

A Less Than Ideal Journey: The Introduction Of Commercial Smart Card Ticketing For Local Bus Services In England, Jon Shaw, Iain Docherty, Andrew Seedhouse, Alison Rumbles

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Purpose: In the broader context of the pursuit of a more sustainable transport policy in the United Kingdom, the paper explores issues that emerged during the instigation, development and implementation of national smart ticketing policy for England.Design/methodology/approach: The primary empirical information in this paper was derived from 51 semi-structured interviews with 61 key stakeholders in the process of developing and implementing smart ticketing policy. Participants were identified through a purposive sampling approach designed to engage respondents because of the position they occupy and the quality of information they can provide.Findings: Difficulties emerged in the partnership approach to policy delivery made …