Seminar webcasts

If you missed our seminar series, you can view some of the presentations as webcasts.

Can we achieve all of our social, economic and environmental goals in urban river corridors? (Prof David Lerner, URSULA consortium director, The University of Sheffield)

The last of the URSULA seminar series was presented by the consortium director Prof. David Lerner. The talk asked the questions how have rivers that flow through urban areas traditionally been seen and used, what have been the consequences of this management, and can we have what society now wants? David argues that the costs associated with restoring urban river ecosystems to a state that we wish them to be in are too great for society to accept. River restoration interventions that have been implemented have been superficial and cosmetic, society is not aware of the large investment of resources that is required to address urban river issues, and the politicians are only able to plan short term benefits, and are not interested in the necessary long term benefits that could arise from enhancing urban rivers. To listen to the presentation click here.

Rivers, water, climate and cities (Dr Abigail Hathway, Civil and Structural Engineering, The University of Sheffield)

September’s seminar was presented by University of Sheffield academic Abigail Hathway, who talked about how rivers can help cities stay cool in a warming world. Keeping urban areas cool during the summer is a big and growing issue; global warming and increasing urbanisation resulting in more deaths due to heat stress and a considerable amount of energy consumed by air conditioning. One of the most environmentally friendly methods to cool cities is to exploit the cooling microclimates produced by waterbodies in cities, such as rivers or lakes. But this can only be done if we understand how extensive these microclimates are, and how they can be manipulated. In Sheffield Abigail has been taking temperature profiles of the city, and built up a picture of how the River Don cools the city, information that can potentially used to inform urban design. To listen to Abigail’s presentation, please click here.

Landscape Visualisation for communication, participation, and decision-making in planning and design (Professor Eckart Lange, The University of Sheffield)

Head of the Landscape Department at the University of Sheffield, Eckart Lange presented an overview of the use of landscape visualisation media (e.g. paintings, computer generated imagery) to communicate changes in the landscape (e.g. deforestation, new towns). Proving the adage that 'one picture is worth a thousand words', landscape visualisation has long been used to involve people in the planning and design of landscape change. Eckart provided an interesting account of the history of this approach to landscape design, from its beginnings (earlier than you might expect in Ancient Egypt) to the cutting edge work such as the 3D urban simulations currently being developed in the URSULA project. Click here to view the seminar.
 

Emotions and expertise in environmental policy work (Peggy Haughton, The University of Sheffield)

Peggy, a PhD student working on the URSULA project, presented some of her research on the role emotions play in shaping collaborative approaches to decision making. She focussed on Centenary Riverside and Malin Bridge as her case studies, both sites of high importance to stakeholders in the Don Catchment. Peggy concludes that many conventional ways of working restrict the contributions that lay stakeholders can offer to river governance. Click here to view the seminar.

Africa's future: do water issues matter? (Rober Dewar, retired High Comissioner to Nigeria and former Ambassador to Ethiopia)

Robert drew on his considerable experience of working and living in Africa to discuss the issue of water in shaping Africa's future. Topics included the geography of Africa and how this shapes its water resources, various environmental issues currently facing the sustainable usage of water in parts of Africa, and those of the future. The retreat of ice on Africa's highest mountains, and shrinking lakes suggest the climate is warming in places, and that water may become scarcer in the future. The talk then moved on to potential solutions to some of the issues, including political and technical opportunities. One particularly interesting discussion was the link between improvements to water supply and education benefits for children. To view the webcast of the talk click here.

Science for the new water management: People, pollution and plumbing (Dr Liz Sharp, The University of Bradford)

Another stimulating seminar was presented by Dr Liz Sharp, senior lecturer in environmental governance and management at the University of Bradford. Liz, whose research focuses on the social and institutional aspects of waste and water environmental policy, discussed the changing view of what water management should deliver, and some of the research issues that need addressing if the current mainstream vision of water management is to be realised. Specifically, Liz used the case study of plumbing misconnections to illustrate the need for both positivist science and interpretive social science to answer complementary research questions that inform how our aspirations for improved water management can to be achieved. However, as she explans, combining the two methods of generating knowledge is far from simple, and could boil down to fundamental differences in the way subscribers to both techniques view the world. To view the webcast of the talk click here.    

Eight basic ways of designing large geographic areas (Professor Carl Steinitz)

Emeritus Professor Carl Steinitz from the Graduate School of design at Harvard University presented the 5th of URSULA's seminar series, with an excellent talk that maintained the high standard of the series so far. Steinitz described eight basic ways of designing landscapes at medium scale; smaller than a region, but bigger than a site. Having had a long and illustrious career in landscape design, Steinitz drew examples from a wealth of projects from across the globe that he was personally involved in to illustrate the eight approaches. Thought provoking, the talk also covered philosophical aspects of landscape design, including the world view designers bring as baggage from their academic training. For those who missed the talk, or would like to hear it again, a similar presentation was recorded at the 2010 GeoDesign Summit, and can be viewed here.

The Mersey Life Project (Pete Worrall, Penny Anderson Associates)

The talk provides an introduction to The Mersey Life Project, a catchment-wide restoration project aiming to improve the Mersey for people and wildlife. Pete provides the perspective of a consultant who was extensively involved in the project, and covers some of the issues facing the restoration of a heavily degraded and urbanised catchment. This presentation is well worth a listen for anyone who wants to know what made the Mersey Life Project so successful. Click here to view the presentation.