The Don Catchment is one of the most well studied catchments in the UK, and is particularly interesting due to its urban and rural mix and its geological and topological diversity. A new website (www.sheffield.ac.uk/doncatchment)has just been launched to showcase the Don catchment as a study system, and detail the various water-related research projects that use the catchment as a study system. Obviously there is a large overlap with the work of the URSULA project, which features as a case study on the new website.  It is hoped that the website might inspire new collaborations and future research within the catchment.

To disseminate the results of the URSULA project in a format that can be quickly and conveniently understood by people who don't have time to get to grip with the academic literature (e.g. practitioners of urban design), a series of bulletins are being produced which sumarise the findings of our research. To download the bulletins click here. More will be added as new bulletins are published.

The last of the URSULA conferences held in November provided forum for the presentation of a wealth of research conducted during the URSULA project. Topics included how the River Don affects Sheffiled\'s microclimate, how the river could be harnessed to deliver hydropower, the effect of weirs in river ecology, the effect of biodiversity on wellbeing, as well as the approach developed in URSULA to design sustainable urban river corridors. We also had some great presentations from invited speakers, including Simon Ogden from Sheffield City Council, and Matt Kondolf from University California, Berkeley.

Many of presentations are available as pdfs on here on the URSULA website. 

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 click here or to see watch other URSULA seminars click here.    

We are pleased to announce August's seminar will be presented by URSULA's own Peggy Haughton, who is nearing completion of her PhD. Peggy will be presenting 'Emotions and expertise in environmental policy work'.

The talk will be given at 2pm Weds 17th of August in Lecture Theatre 14, Mappin Building (164 on this map).