Where have all the landscapes gone? W. Brian Whalley
[email protected]
@brianwhalley
University of Sheffield
The geomorphological nature of landscapes Most geomorphology in textbooks at present is concerned with ‘processes’ and ‘mechanisms’ rather than explaining landscapes; see in the past C.A. Co=on, 1948: Landscape (my copy signed ‘G. de Boer’) A.K. Lobeck, 1949: Geomorphology, An Introduc7on to the Study of Landscapes.
Are we, as BSG, forgeLng how to explain landscapes to our students and the public at large?
Should we be upgrading ‘Classic Landforms’ or producing a general guide (cf D. Mercier et al., Géomorphologie de la France, 2013 to the geomorphology of the BriSsh Isles? Should geomorphologists in the UK be contributing to ‘Critical Zone’ exploration?
How would you ‘explain’ this landscape?
(100 km SW of Hull, Derbyshire Peak District)
The Geomorphology of the Bri7sh Isles: Eastern and Central England, Allan Straw and Keith Clayton, 1979 A CriScal Zone Observatory
CZ is the ‘system of coupled chemical, biological, physical, and geological processes operaSng together to support life at the Earth’s surface’, invesSgated via CriScal Zone Observatories (CZO). For some interesSng CZ webinars go to the QR, right. A BSG ‘Landscape observatory’? For research: processes and mechanisms, long term monitoring, up-scaling, down-scaling and . integraSon, modeling, links to CZO and helping to explain landforms? Balgesvarri plateau
For collabora-on: BriSsh Isles, internaSonal, research projects and research students.
Braids, Lyngsdalen
For undergraduate training and disserta-ons: The area(s) would provide a training ground for budding geomorphologists (and perhaps linked to biology, etc) to carry our meaningful research-oriented work. School expediSons too? Maybe undergraduates should be given the opportunity to carry out research-based expediSons which contribute to their planning and project development skills etc. If you think the idea of a ‘Landscape observatory’ is a good one (or not!) and have some ideas about it then please e-mail me with ‘Landscape Observatory’ in the subject line. b.whalley@sheffield.ac.uk
Students digging in a sorted stone circle 0
Lyngsdalen
The Lyngen Peninsula in north Norway provides sea to mountain glacier environments, opportuniSes for river & slope monitoring, analogues for the BriSsh Isles. Previous work here
done by Ashworth, Ballantyne, Ferguson, Gordon, etc
