Civil Engineering and Geosciences

17.9.07
A funding award of £10,000 has been made from the De La Rue Charitable Trust to an interdisciplinary group of academics from Newcastle University to support establishment of a climate change research unit in and around the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development in Guyana. The Iwokrama Centre, located in the heart of one of the four last untouched tropical rainforests of the world (Guiana Shield of NE South America), aims to show how tropical forests can be conserved and sustainably used to provide ecological, social and economic benefits to local, national and international communities. Proposed research studies will involve staff from schools including Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Biology, and Arts and Cultures working through IRES to address questions relating to the relationships between tropical forest management, carbon and nutrient balances, bio-indicators, and eco-tourism and heritage within the context of climate change.

The funds will be used for exchange visits to establish the institutional/community links and collection of preliminary data that will facilitate development of longer term research programmes. Further information on the Iwokrama Centre can be found at www.iwokrama.org.

ceg at TechFest in september

Tom Bramald

17.9.07
The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences has completed its annual contribution to a festival of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland. Sessions were delivered at Strathallan, Glenalmond College, Ellon Academy, Keith Grammar School, The Gordon Schools and Bankhead Academy and allowed students to see how geomatics can support their studies in maths, physics or geography.

TechFest is organised by TechFest-Setpoint, part of the STEMNET charity that works with a range of partner organisations, including government, industry, professional institutions, education and other major companies, to support the promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Anybody interested in arranging a school visit should contact Tom Bramald.

TechFest

scientists explore the earth – virtually

12.9.07
Top experts from rivals Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth are setting out their vision of a virtual future at a conference organised by Newcastle University this week.

The geomatics technology, which enables people to travel the virtual globe from their desktop computer, is becoming increasingly popular in all walks of life. It is set to expand even further in the next few years so that we can ‘virtually’ navigate a town or city as if we were there on the ground.

Jon Mills, Professor of Geomatic Engineering at the University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, said: “All of our geomatics research revolves around this kind of technology, and bringing it to people’s desktops has gone a long way towards raising awareness. Geomatics is the science of capturing and manipulating data about the earth and its features and that’s what Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth do.”

Also at the conference are NASA Physical Scientist Bill Krabill, talking about latest findings around melting glaciers and ice caps in Greenland, which links into Newcastle University’s own work in this field (see below); and Neil Ackroyd, from Ordnance Survey, who is looking at the challenges facing Great Britain’s national mapping agency in an increasingly web-savvy world.

In addition, Professor Mills is talking about the University’s geomatics work, along with Dr Matt King, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Research Fellow in Geomatics. Dr King has been studying dramatic shifts in Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, the Amery, unlocking measurements from the late 1960s and comparing them with measurements from the last decade.

The Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society’s annual conference (RSPSoc 2007) is taking place at Newcastle University from 11-14th September 2007.

Further information: Conference home page

student expedition returns from uganda

29.8.07
At the beginning of summer, 12 students from the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences flew out to south west Uganda to begin a building project in a community just outside of Mbarara.

This was the fourth group from CeG to travel out to Uganda since the project started in 2004. This year's task was to complete the hostel block, built by the first group, that will be used to house nearly thirty orphans of AIDs sufferers once complete.

The team spent six months fundraising for this venture collecting almost £14,000 for the building materials for the project. The work entailed building internal walls, pointing all of the external brickwork, plastering the internal ceilings and walls, plumbing in toilets and showers and wiring-in electricals. For the five week duration of the project, the students lived and worked alongside the local community.

The group would like to thank everyone who supported the fundraising this year and would encourage any students to take the opportunity to be part of this exciting and charitable project.

It is anticipated that future expeditions will head to another location in Uganda to continue the work of the Mbarara Charity that has recently been established.

Good luck to the 2008 Team!

A Level results, admissions and clearing

15.8.07
On Thursday 16th August, many school leavers will get their exam results and find out if they have a place to study at university next year.

If you have applied to join a course in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, then visit the Admissions and Clearing 2007 page for information about how to contact the school once you have your results. When you call, you should have your UCAS number and your results to hand. This will help the Admissions staff to identify you correctly and convey the correct information. Information about clearing places will be available later in the week.

Opportunities to apply through clearing will be announced in time for the 16th August.

Good luck!

international planning and design workshop

Paul Quinn

14.8.07
International Planning and Design Workshop: Upper Mississippi River Basin Observatory

Dr Caspar Hewett of Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability and Dr Paul Quinn of School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences were instrumental in organizing a major workshop in Iowa, USA on the feasibility of developing an Upper Mississippi River Basin Observatory (UMRBO). The workshop was organized as part of the work carried out under a grant obtained from The University of Iowa’s Obermann Center for Advanced Studies which funded Dr Hewett and Dr Quinn to spend a month and a week respectively developing the observatory concept and collaborating with an international team on organizing the workshop. The forty plus delegate workshop, held in Amana, Iowa July 26-27, 2007, was jointly funded by Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research and The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

the future of civil and environmental engineering

31.7.07
Professor Richard G Luthy, Chair of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University, will present his vision for the future of CEE to the School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences at Newcastle University. The new vision of Stanford’s CEE department embraces “Engineering for Sustainability” as a unifying theme, and puts emphasis on

an integrated department with links across the school and university,
more focus on large societal problems,
increased understanding of both the built environment and natural systems,
and greater blending of environmental, construction, architectural and engineering processes.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear an exciting talk and to join in a spirited discussion! This event will be held from 1 to 2 pm on 9 August in room 3.25, Cassie Building.

climate science, earth systems and civil engineering

Jim Hall

30.7.07
2007 Prestige Papers lecture
Brought to you by the Proceedings of ICE

Thursday 11 October 2007
18.00 start
The Great Hall
Sherfield Building
South Kensington Campus
Imperial College London
London SW7 2AZ

Paper 1: Climate stability: an inconvenient proof
Professor David Bellamy & Dr Jack Barrett
Paper 2: Earth systems engineering: turning vision into action
Professor Jim W Hall, leader of the Tyndall Centre’s Cities research programme
Paper 3: Climate change and engineering challenges
Professor Julian Hunt, Professor of Climate Modelling, UCL

Free – advance booking essential (limited places available).
Tickets to be sent prior to the event.

how certain is the thames' flood protection

Mike Walkden

27.7.07
Without good ongoing management the cost of damage from flooding in the Thames and its estuary would quickly become huge. For this reason the Environment Agency has commissioned a series of projects linked under the title 'Thames Estuary 2100' (or TE2100) to assess the flood risk and strategies that might be taken to manage it. These projects will predict the way in which the overall flood risk develops over the 21st Century, under a series of different management scenarios. Such predictions can't be made with complete certainty. Much of the data on which they are based is uncertain; we do not know, for example the exact current state of the Thames estuary and we can not be precisely sure how the climate will affect future sea-levels.

The School has recently been commissioned to undertake its second TE2100 project in which it will examine the state of knowledge of the various inputs to the flood risk assessment and quantify the uncertainty associated with them. We will then pass these uncertainties through the flood risk assessment so that upper and lower estimates can be made of the future flood risk. Such uncertainty bounds make future predictions far more realistic, because they reveal the range of possible future situations that may have to be managed. Also, we will explore how sensitive the risks are to the various uncertainty sources. This will ultimately allow resources to be targeted where they will do most good improving our ability to predict future flood risk in the Thames estuary.

civil engineering and masters programmes accredited by JBM

Tom Bramald

26.7.07
Newcastle University's School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences has recently had its Undergraduate Civil Engineering Degrees and Masters Programmes accredited by the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) until 2011.

The JBM stamp of approval is a symbol of a quality education that helps to develop professional engineers.

The accreditation team were impressed by many aspects of the School, including the teaching and student facilities, the excellent laboratories and the professional IT and library support afforded to students.

JBM represents The Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers who together represent some 100 000 of the world's leading professional engineers.

school to host RSPSoc annual conference and ISPRS workshops

Jon Mills

20.7.07
The premier event in the UK’s remote sensing and photogrammetry calendar will be held at Newcastle University in 2007 and will have an increased international flavour, with three ISPRS working groups hosting workshops alongside the conference. Technical programme highlights include keynote presentations by Bill Krabill of NASA on recent ice sheet and glacier elevation changes in Greenland in the face of climate change, and back-to-back presentations on Digital Earth by industry giants Microsoft and Google. Further details on the conference, the theme of which is “Challenges for Earth Observation: scientific, technical and commercial”, can be found on the rspsoc2007 conference website.

over £3m of new research council funding in two weeks!

David Parker

18.7.07
In two weeks in June the school won funding from NERC and EPSRC for the following research projects.

NERC: Ian Head, Martin Jones and Neil Gray: £406k: Crude oil oxidation without an electron acceptor
NERC: Matt King and Phil Moore: £26k: High spatio-temporal resolution changes in Earth's gravity field from GOCE with application to ice mass
NERC: Enda O’Connell and Chris Kilsby: £206k : Land use management effects in extreme floods
NERC: Tom Wagner and Helen Talbot: £380k: Novel Biohapanoid Markers as Tracers of Methane Emission and Oxidation Events in the Quaternary Ocean
NERC: David Lavallee, Peter Clarke, Phil Moore and Matt King: £312k: Improved constraints on global-scale hydrological change by determining secular geocenter motion and low degrees of the surface
EPSRC: Tom Curtis, Ian Head, Vedrana Kutija, Paul Sallis, David Werner, Paul Younger, David Graham, and Russell Davenport: £721k: General & Unifying concepts for wastewater treatment plant design - Platform grant
EPSRC: Margaret Bell and Neil Thorpe: £496k: An evidence based methodology for understanding and shrinking the urban carbon footprint
EPRSC: Neil Thorpe and John Nelson: £207k: Regional visions of integrated sustainable infrastructure optimised for neighbourhoods
EPSRC: Four grants totalling £345k in the ‘Collaborating for success through people’ programme for 1/ Jim Hall 2/ Stephanie Glendinning 3/ David Werner and David Graham and 4/ Paul Younger and Tom Curtis

Added to this RC funding was an announcement of £174k from the Environment Agency for Enda O’Connell’s grant Multi-scale experimentation monitoring and analysis.

Excellent grants to fund excellent research!

copper geochemistry and methanotrophs

David Graham

18.7.07
David Graham and Charles Knapp in CeG, along with colleagues in the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas (KU) reported in the July 17, 2007 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science– USA cover article a basic explanation for why previous attempts at predicting methane oxidation rates in nature have failed. Methane, the second most significant greenhouse gas, is ubiquitously released from anaerobic settings (e.g., sediments, landfills, etc.), but estimating methane flux rates, which are needed for climate change modeling, has been difficult because factors that control methane destruction are not understood. Graham Knapp and colleagues showed that geochemical copper conditions affect the type of enzymes that methane-oxidizing bacteria have available for methane destruction (called methane monoxygenases; MMO), which is of broad practical significance for predicting methane destruction patterns in the future.

This work, which combined tools from microbial ecology, molecular genetics, and Cu mineralogy, redefines what must be known to accurately estimate methane flux rates in geochemical systems. Specifically, the research showed that certain chemical states of copper are required to allow MMO to be most active and that copper geochemistry in the organism’s local habitat must be known to explain observed rates of methane destruction. The research asserts that soil copper conditions and the presence of a class of molecules called methanobactins (which were discovered by Graham’s team and reported in Science in 2004) defines the type of soils that allow optimal MMO production and which do not. This observation is a huge leap forward because it will allow future researchers to simply measure soil conditions and then extrapolate such data to predict methane oxidation potentials.
Graham’s goal is expand the PNAS results to other soils and minerals, and further calibrate the MMO expression markers developed by Knapp. The ultimate hope is to explicitly define soil types that optimally support methane destruction (based on local experiments), but then extend local predictions to regional scales through landscape level geologic mapping data. New work is now underway at Newcastle University and KU, with Neil Gray, Helen Talbot, and Simon Poulton of CeG joining the research efforts.

The PNAS study was performed by Charles Knapp (Marie Curie Research Fellow in ECOSERV in CeG), David Graham (ECOSERV Team Leader), Ezra Kulczycki (KU geology PhD student), and David Fowle and Jennifer Roberts (assistant professors of geology at KU).

great yorkshire show is a great success

Paul Quinn

17.7.07
Paul Quinn, Oliver Heidrich and Mark Wilkinson presented the PROACTIVE project for 3 days at the GYS. Prof Donald Lee, The GYS Universities Pavilion organiser, described the display as 'very popular.' Over 120,000 people attended the show and we were able to promote Newcastle as a vibrant and proactive place to study and work.

Work related to renewable energy, flood control and waste trapping on farms were presented and many new leads are now being followed up. Oliver's Aquadyne recycled plastic drainage material proved very popular and we have been invited back to advise on the improvement of the drainage at the GYS showground for next year!

The picture shows Paul Quinn presenting the Newcastle display to The President of the Society Mr Michael Abrahams.

CeG road safety CPD course to be delivered in the US

Neil Thorpe

17.7.07
The US Department of Transportation in Madison, Wisconsin has invited Neil Thorpe and colleagues from Jacobs Consulting to deliver a CPD course on Road Safety Audits at the University of Wisconsin, Baraboo on 23rd-24th July 2007 as part of a week-long Intersection Safety Workshop.

Up to 40 delegates are expected to attend the course which builds upon the successful Road Safety Audit CPD course run here annually at the University in conjunction with CIV8410. Details of the Road Safety courses run at Newcastle can be found at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/civ847.php

string bridge swings design award for girls

Barry Clarke

11.7.07
An all-girl team of budding Hexham engineers has taken the top prize in a regional competition.

Building bridges: Hexham Middle School pupils Lucy Joyner, Rachel English and Lauren Dunn are pictured with their winning bridge design as they receive their prize - an original painting of the Tyne Bridge - from Stephen Larkin and Nicholas Allan, from the Institution of Civil Engineers, Prof Barry Clarke of Newcastle University, graduate engineers Kris Hird and Phil Renforth, ICE regional education co-ordinator Mike Gardner and Kate Palmer, also from ICE.

Hexham Middle School pupils Lucy Joyner, Rachel English and Lauren Dunn trumped teams from across the North-East to win the Creative Construction Competition. Organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the competition challenged pupils to design a bridge, fulfilling all the requirements of design and economics.

Lucy, Rachel and Lauren came top of their school in round one of the competition, when they were tasked with making a bridge out of paper tubes and bolts, before taking on another 100 or so pupils in last Saturday's final. There the girls, who are in Years 7 and 8, impressed the judges with a bridge made out of string. Their prize was a painting of the Tyne Bridge by North-East artist Jon Hall.

Head teacher David Watson said: 'We are delighted with their achievement and proud of their efforts and inventiveness. They produced an extremely good design out of string that was economical, but highly effective. In winning this competition they have beaten the best from across the North-East.'

On the day, the judges were looking for a bridge that was both strong and aesthetically pleasing, said Kate Palmer, chairman of the ICE's regional graduates and students committee.

'The final of the Creative Construction Competition is the result of months of school visits and contests to help raise the profile of civil engineering among young children through fun activities' she said. 'We had a great day and a lot of fun was had by all involved, young and old. It showed there are a lot of budding young engineers out there in our schools, who have the intelligence to find a solution to the type of problems which are faced in our profession.'

The four runners-up were teams from St Robert of Newminster RC School, in Washington, Central High, in Newcastle, St Anthony's, in Sunderland, and Longbenton Community College.

Article by Helen Compson: Hexham Courant

professor among new royal academy of engineering fellows

Paul Younger

11.7.07
Paul Younger, HSBC Professor of Energy and Environment, is among the 30 pioneering engineers elected this year to a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Younger is an environmental engineer who directs the highly-successful research group known as 'HERO' (Hydrogeochemical Engineering Research & Outreach), the activities of which won Newcastle University the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education last year. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost
experts in the remediation of pollution associated with mining.

In summer 2006 he was appointed 'Energy and Environment' Science Theme Leader within the major Newcastle Science City initiative, and is currently leading a North East consortium bid to host the UK's new Energy Technologies Institute, an initiative with a potential budget of a billion pounds. His personal research is also at the forefront of clean energy technologies. From 2004 to 2006 he directed the highly successful drilling and testing of the first deep (1000 m) geothermal exploration borehole to be constructed in the UK in twenty years.

Professor Younger is currently leading a major EU-funded technology transfer project on management of conflicted natural resources in Latin America, and is now launching an EPSRC-funded programme of collaborative professional development of young environmental engineers in the UK and India, which has a focus on improving the environmental performance of coal extraction and use in the sub-continent.

On hearing the news of his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Professor Younger said: "This is an honour I never imagined I would ever receive, so I'm absolutely ecstatic! If I'm honest it's a bit scary to be elected to such an august circle of experts. Having said that, I'm really excited at the opportunity which Fellowship of the Academy gives me to get involved in devising engineering solutions to some of the greatest challenges we face as a society'.

Read the full story
Royal Academy of Engineering

professor Eric Sampson receives CBE in queens birthday honours

Eric Sampson

3.7.07
The Transport Operations Research Group are delighted to announce that Professor Eric Sampson received a CBE in the Queens Birthday Honours, for services to transport. The award is in recognition of the immense contribution Professor Sampson has made to transport and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) research and policy delivery during his time with the Department for Transport and more recently with Newcastle University. Professor Phil Blythe said, “ This is a hugely well deserved award, which rightly reflects Eric’s unique contribution to the development of ITS both here in the UK and internationally over many years. Eric is recognised worldwide as one of the key proponents of ITS and through his position as Chairman of the Board of the ITS World Congress, he was responsible for organising the highly successful World Congress in London in October 2006”

professor Eric Sampson takes over as chairman of ITS united kingdom

Eric Sampson

3.7.07
ITS United Kingdom, the Intelligent Transport Society for the United Kingdom, held its AGM in May and elected new Officers to serve for 2007/08. Professor Mike McDonald of Southampton University, who had led the Society for the last two years, stepped down on the completion of his agreed term. In his place, Professor Eric Sampson of the University of Newcastle was elected. Eric retired recently from the Department for Transport, where he headed the Transport Technology and Standards Division. Eric was instrumental in setting up ITS (UK) in 1992, a pioneering move since this was the first national ITS association to be set up in Europe. Eric has also always been associated with the ITS World Congress, right from the first one held in Paris in 1994 . DfT was a major supporter of the World Congress in London in 2006, marking a very fitting finish to Eric’s career within the Department.

Eric says: “I am delighted that I have this opportunity to help with the development of UK transport and transport policies. I thank the ITS (UK) members for their support and hope that I can achieve as much in my term of office as Mike did during his.”

Professor Mike McDonald, who steered ITS United Kingdom through its share of the responsibilities for the UK World Congress, can look back on a period when the national and international standing of the UK’s intelligent transport society was markedly increased.

newcastle professor gives evidence on the draft local transport bill to the transport select committee

Phil Blythe

3.7.07
Professor Phil Blythe of Newcastle University and Neal Skelton, head of Professional Services, ITS UK, recently spoke on behalf of ITS UK when they gave oral evidence to the Transport Select Committee on the draft Local Transport Bill proposals to assign greater control to Local Authorities to encourage public transport interchange. The ITS UK evidence submission offered opinions on a number of issues contained in the draft Bill including the need to understand local and regional land use planning, the impact on transport and public transport, the use of various technologies, enforcement means and the environmental impact.

A transcript of the evidence given can be found at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmtran/uc692-ii/uc69202.htm

CIWEM accreditation of masters and cpd courses

Alison Bird

2.7.07
CIWEM, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, have accredited all relevant Masters programmes and associated CPD courses within the School.

The accreditation followed the submission of extensive documentation. outlining:

the programmes aims, content and modes of study, particularly their alignment with the CIWEM core competencies required for chartered status
staff, their qualifications, research and professional activity
facilities
graduate employment
involvement of key sector employers

This was followed by a 2 day visit by the Accreditation Panel who met staff, students and graduates. The Panel’s report, which formed the basis of the Institution’s decision to accredit the Masters programmes and CPD courses for 5 years (2006/07 – 2011/12), was enthusiastic, fully endorsing the programmes and courses it had reviewed.

‘The curriculum of the courses, both taught and flexible learning, was found to be a thorough foundation preparing students for employment in water and environmental management’

‘The Panel was impressed with the facilities offered to the students within The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and in the associated laboratories and agreed that these offered enhanced practical project opportunities for the students’

‘The input from external practitioners offers excellent additional knowledge and experience to the course’

‘The Panel reviewed the background of the staff involved in the delivery of the course and felt that there was a strong and appropriate range of expertise. They were impressed by the positive and enthusiastic nature of the staff and of the broad expertise present in the course team’

‘The students at the meeting expressed their appreciation for the support they receive from the staff and said that they found them approachable, knowledgeable and receptive to requests on various matters brought up in the many ways available to them’

‘They (the students) felt that the courses are demanding, well-organised broadening and very rewarding, and they were complimentary about the whole experience at Newcastle University’

Further information about CIWEM accreditation

rapid mapping techniques in coastal environments: monitoring the coastline

David Barber and Jon Mills

2.7.07
The coastal environment is an important asset and its condition needs to be carefully monitored in order to improve the understanding of coastal processes and mechanisms. Understanding these processes can lead to improved management decisions and policies.

However, the coastline and inter-tidal zone are notoriously difficult to monitor given the limitations on activity imposed by the tide, the extent of the coastline, and the limited availability of reliable, permanent control.

Scattered, periodic measurements have been used to survey coastal change, but recently have often been replaced by airborne surveys which use photogrammetry and/or airborne laser scanning (ALS) that provide data at a higher spatial resolution.
This RICS Education Trust funded research report by Drs David Barber and Jon Mills of Newcastle University, UK, investigated the potential of a ground-based Mobile Mapping System by collecting data along the 7km stretch of coastline at Filey Bay, North Yorkshire, UK. This data was compared with a similar dataset collected by ALS. The findings from this study contribute towards the discussion on new methodologies for the rapid survey of linear features, and should help to provide coastal managers and engineers with a clearer view of these dynamic environments.

full article

electrokinetic revolution looms for sludge dewatering

John Lamont-Black

2.7.07
Electrokinetic sludge dewatering is close to becoming a commercial reality. The concept of electrokinetic sludge dewatering combines electro-osmosis with mechanical dewatering. The idea was explored through research started at Newcastle University in the 1990s and continued by technology companies Elekctrokinetic, a spinout from the university's School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Initially the research was looking into the development of geosynthetic materials for ground engineering applications.

Dr Lamont-Black expects that EKG will play an important role in minimising man's disturbance of the environment and use of natural resources in the future. "The environmental applications will help industry accomodate the ever changing environment it finds itself in, and make previously prohibitive waste treatment economically attractive.

There is also a very strong economic incentive with the potential annual value of this technology to the UK economy estimated at £555M."

full article