Geography & Environmental Science Seminar Seminar

Speakers:

Dr Hannah Williams – Landscape dynamics and Ecology, School of Geography and Environmental Science
Title: Analogue modelling of coastal overwash deposits

Abstract:

Overwash is a key mechanism controlling the flux of sediment from the front of a barrier island to the top and back during a storm event. This process is essential for barrier environments to maintain their height and width relative to sea level. Barrier topography and road networks and buildings – can direct overwash flow, and thus the shape and size of sedimentary deposits that overwash leaves behind. Controls on overwash deposition have been examined more closely in natural settings than in developed zones. But overwash poses a major hazard to coastal infrastructure, and accurate prediction of storm impacts requires quantitative insight into the dynamics of overwash morphology in built settings. Here, we use an analogue model to compare barrier floodplain controls across a range of spatial "fabrics", both natural and built to explore how these fabrics affect scaling relationships for overwash morphology.

Dr Daniela Anghileri – Environmental Change and Sustainability, School of Geography and Environmental Science
Title: Hydrological and crop modelling for estimating rainfed maize yield in Malawi

Abstract:

Agriculture is a key sector in fighting hunger in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Almost 95% of the agriculture in Africa is rain-fed and smallholder farmers play a crucial role as they produce most of the food consumed by local populations. These characteristics make the SSA agricultural landscape very diverse and particularly vulnerable to weather events such as droughts and floods. In this talk, I present some of the research activities on hydrological and crop modelling that are on-going within the UKRI-GCRF funded project BRECcIA - Building Research Capacity for sustainable water and food security In drylands of sub-saharan Africa. In particular, I discuss the challenges of analyzing and modelling hydro-climatic processes and their influence on crop growth in data scarce regions using Malawi as case study.