special air quality and health interest group launched

Anil Namdeo

9.2.12
Researchers have launched The Air Quality and Health Interest Group (AQHIG) to encourage collaboration between those interested in issues surrounding this topic.

Subjects covered at the launch ranged from air quality monitoring and modelling to personal exposure to air pollution, and environmental justice, the latter linking air quality, health and social deprivation. The group intend to meet quarterly for presentations and discussion and will also establish an online forum with a regular update by means of an e-mail newsletter.

The founding group is made up of researchers from the Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) and the Institute of Health and Society (IHS) under the umbrella of Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability (NIReS).

Professor Margaret Bell CBE, Professor Tanja Pless-Mulloli, Dr Susan Hodgson, Dr Anil Namdeo and Dr Vera Araujo-Soares will steer this interest group and we expect to attract members from the University, local authority officials, NHS researchers and air quality and health practitioners.

If you are interested in finding out more or joining the group, then please contact Dr Anil Namdeo, TORG, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

natural flood management

Paul Quinn

20.1.12
House of Commons, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

Paul Quinn was invited to speak on his work related to Natural Flood Management at the House of Commons Office of Science and Technology. This Parliamentary review meeting was set up to help refine the inputs to the governments Environment White Paper. A full Briefing Note has been written for politicians and practitioners which includes the Belford case study http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/POST-PN-396

Leading exponents of the NFM approach were invited to speak before an invited audience of politicians, regulators, consultants, academics and insurance companies.

‘Flood risk management today uses a range of approaches to reduce risk, including structural works, such as hard flood defences, and non-structural approaches, such as improving flood warning systems and land-use planning. The restoration, alteration and use of natural landscape features are also receiving attention as potentially cost-effective ways of reducing flood risk that can provide other environmental benefits, such as water quality improvements or carbon storage.

This seminar will review some “natural flood management” strategies, look at developments in the recent science behind these strategies, and investigate some of the challenges involved in spreading this way of working across the landscape.’

Programme
For more information on the Belford case study see http://research.ncl.ac.uk/proactive

driver behaviour article is journal’s most downloaded paper in 2011

Neil Thorpe

17.1.12
Publishers Taylor and Francis report that a joint paper by Neil Thorpe and Simon Heslop from TORG and Joan Harvey from the School of Psychology was the most downloaded article from its journal Transportation Planning and Technology in 2011.

The paper proposes a categorisation of drivers in relation to attentiveness and boredom based on the statistical analysis of data collected from an Internet-based survey of over 1500 drivers in the UK, and draws out some of the implications of driver boredom for highway design and the road environment in a bid to improve road safety.

The paper can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03081060.2011.530829

Urban Carbon Capture (UCC) seminar

David Manning

6.1.12
London - 1 March 2012 • Newcastle - 16 March 2012

At Newcastle University we have a special interest in carbon capture and storage in soils. Urban soils can capture very large amounts (up to 300 T C/ha) of atmospheric CO2 and store this in stable mineral forms.

This occurs as a consequence of plant growth in soils that contain artificial materials such as concrete or slag from metal production. Our approach provides an opportunity for tangible carbon capture in urban environments.

As well as investigating existing sites, the University have created Newcastle Science City Central’s Carbon Capture Gardens, to demonstrate how effective this carbon capture process is, from the perspective of a range of ecosystem services. The Gardens are located at the former Scottish and Newcastle Brewery site. It has been shown that carbon accumulation can be designed into a landscaping project, and for little extra cost a carbon capture function can be included.

There is now the opportunity to extend the work, bringing it to the attention of a wider audience. Between now and July 2012, there will a number of events and consultations, to make sure that the work is well informed by the opinion of practitioners.

This seminar is on such event and will aim to address the following questions:

• Technical aspects of the process: speed, capacity, carbon storage time, safety?
• What are the ecosystem service benefits: biodiversity, green infrastructure?
• What are the potential economic and social benefits?
• How can you build a ‘Carbon Capture Garden’?

To register please see:
http://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=2548 – London
http://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=2553 – Newcastle

infrastructure plan good news for civil engineers of the future

Chris Kilsby

30.11.11
Leading experts at one of the country’s top institutions for civil engineering research have today welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement to invest £30bn into infrastructure schemes across the UK.

The team based in Newcastle University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences say the investment into our transport networks, buildings and communication systems is vital if we are to deliver an infrastructure for the 21st century. And achieving this goal will require a new generation of civil engineers with the vision to build a sustainable infrastructure that will continue to meet our needs in an ever changing environment.

Rated second in the country for research power in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise Newcastle University’s civil engineering department is doing just that. Chris Kilsby, Professor of Hydrology and Climate Change, is part of a world-leading research team responsible for an EPSRC-funded, £6.1million programme aimed at addressing the fundamental issue of ensuring sustainable infrastructure for the UK.

He explains: “Our infrastructure is acutely vulnerable to weather extremes and other threats and the risk is made much greater because of the interdependence of our key networks – energy, transport, water and telecommunications. “At the same time, efficient and resilient infrastructure is essential to the growth and competitiveness of the UK economy and to quality of life and the environment in the face of rising demand and increasing energy prices. “This investment is vital and here at Newcastle we are recruiting some of the best students from all over the UK and worldwide to train to be the engineers who will design, adapt and build the infrastructure for the future.”

An estimated £150 billion has been invested in the UK’s infrastructure over the last five years and experts predict a further £40-50 billion will be needed every year between now and 2030 in order to maintain current levels of service. Privatisation of key services such as water and energy, new expectations that many decisions are to be taken locally and the fact that information and communications technologies are now integrated into every one of these key networks means the whole system is vulnerable.

Toll roads - one of many of the mooted infrastructure projects and an initiative in which Newcastle University is a world leader - requires the development of hi-tech systems in order to be implemented and the University has received more than £4m in transport research grants to help deliver solutions to managing transport systems.

Professor of Intelligent Transport Professor Phil Blythe said there would be huge demand for excellent civil engineering graduates over the next few years. “Transport is vital in delivering a successful economy and at the moment it is estimated that congestion and unpredictable journey times is estimated to cost the UK economy up to £20bn a year. “It is vital that the government invests in new transport infrastructure projects to maintain the UK competitiveness and to utilise the skills and expertise of the world class civil engineering students that Newcastle University delivers.”

CIHT north eastern branch regional dinner

Gareth Evans

30.11.11
The CIHT North Eastern Branch Regional Dinner took place in the Assembly Rooms, Newcastle upon Tyne on Thursday 24th November 2011. TORG took a party of 41 that included lecturers, research staff, PhD and MSc students which, as in previous years, turned out to be the largest group from an individual organisation!

Throughout the evening, the students were introduced to the CIHT President and members from large transport organisations such as Jacobs and Colas. The opportunity to meet potential future employers and network with contacts served to strengthen our continuing strong links with the transport industry in the region.

One highlight of the evening was the guest speaker for the night, our very own Professor Eric Sampson. Eric delivered an entertaining and insightful speech into his experiences in the transport sector which was appreciated by everyone in attendance. Once again, the CIHT dinner was a successful and enjoyable evening out for all concerned!

three new researchers in TORG

Gareth Evans

30.11.11
TORG continues to expand its research personnel and expertise with the appointment of three new researchers on our ITS projects.

Craig Higgins and Myriam Neaimeh will be working with Graeme Hill and Yvonne Huebner on the analysis of Electric Vehicle data through the SWITCH EV project. Katerina Pavkova will be working with Dan Brennan on the SiDE project in developing our research expertise on the newly installed driving simulator located in the Devonshire Building, and she will also be supporting the SAVE ME project activities on occasions.

We are very happy to welcome Craig, Myriam and Katerina to the group and wish them every success in their new positions with us.

MSc transport student wins 2011 Colas papers competition

Roger Bird

17.11.11
Carly Foster, currently studying for Transport and Business Management MSc at Newcastle, has won the 2011 Colas Papers Competition.

The national final was held on 2 November, and seven entrants from different regional branches of the CIHT (Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation), presented their papers and took part in a lively question and answer session.

The competition was extremely close and after much deliberation the judging panel awarded the winner’s laurels to Carly Foster who was the North Eastern Branch’s entrant. The judges were particularly impressed by Carly’s enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge of her chosen topic which was “Cashless Travel: How Fair is Fare Collection?”. This looked at the pricing and social benefits of public transport ticketing policy.

Carly was presented with her prize – a trip to visit the Colas Laboratory in Paris, courtesy of Colas UK – by the Institution’s President David Gilham and Richard Evans Business Manager Colas North.

scientific assessment of northumberland rock art panels

David Graham

15.11.11
Northern England has a rich array of Neolithic and Bronze Age rock art panels scattered across its landscape, which is among greatest concentrations of such panels in the world (see http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era). However, pollution, vandalism, and human and agricultural intrusion are impacting the integrity of these non-renewable heritage resources. Unfortunately, scant scientific research has been performed on drivers of panel deterioration, therefore to identify environmental factors that influence panel condition, a joint science and heritage investigation was performed in Summer 2011 by Prof David Graham from CEG, Drs Myra Giesen and Aron Mazel in the International Centre for Culture and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University, and Dr Patricia Warke from Queen’s University – Belfast.

Ms Anais Ung, a CeG environmental engineering MS student with Prof Graham, quantified over 30 physical, geochemical and biological environmental factors associated with 18 panels at the Lordenshaw and Weetwood sites in Northumberland. These data then were combined with panel condition staging data, and it was discovered that perched, but flat panels in soils with relatively low moisture were consistently most deteriorated. To assess how panel integrity might change in the future relative to these parameters, fine-scale climate modelling was performed for both sites (assisted by Prof Chris Kilsby in CeG), and modelling predicted temperature and precipitation levels could increase by 3°C and 10% over the next 80 years, respectively; changes that will almost certainly influence rates of stone deterioration.

This successful project was the first of its kind and the results being prepared for a high-impact publication. The research team hopes to return to these and new sites in Summer 2012 with the goal of expanding the scientific and condition databases, especially panel mineralogy with assistance of Prof David Manning in CeG. The ultimate goal is to develop guidance advice for heritage managers around the world to help preserve such sites into the distant future.

CeG research on increasing global antibiotic resistance is highlighted in a swiss TV documentary

David Graham

15.11.11
David Graham and Beate Christgen (CeG Environmental Engineering) were interviewed and highlighted on 36.9°, the Swiss TV equivalent to BBC Horizon or Panorama, on work related to increasing antibiotic resistance (AR) around the world. Filming was performed in the CeG microbiology laboratories in April, 2011 and was broadcast in September this year. The show highlighted awarded winning work that showed background levels of intrinsic AR have increased in agricultural soils since the 1940s post industrialization of antibiotic manufacture. The show is in French and can be watched at http://www.tsr.ch/emissions/36-9/3363776-organes-a-vendre-sur-internet.html.

The show first presents examples of the impacts of reduced effectiveness of our antibiotics and antibacterial agents in medicine. It then proceeds to examine different possible causes of reduced AR, including the influence of pollution and waterborne AR transmission via food from the environment. Graham appears in last 10 minutes of show and discusses the big picture, especially his growing impression that we are slowly changing Nature, broadly selecting bacterial species that are resistance to all drugs. Analytical approaches used in the research are also highlighted, including the molecular biological diagnostic capacity in CeG for tracking AR in the environment.

This international TV interest arose from the work of Graham and others (Charles Knapp at Strathclyde University, Jan Dolfing in CeG, and Phillip Ehlert at Wageningen University) on the relative contributions of medical, agricultural and pollution-related AR to the development of natural “superbugs”, work which now is being extended to India with colleagues at the Freeman Hospital. The past seminal work used soil archive analysis and genetic methods to show statistically significant increases in soil AR over the last 80 years, which was awarded Runner-up for Science in ES&T at the American Chemical Society. Recent work has further shown that environmental AR often correlates with background soil metal levels (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0027300), suggesting that different landscapes might intrinsically retain and contribute differently to AR in exposed populations.

newcastle civil engineering graduate shortlisted for graduate of the year award

Tom Bramald

15.11.11
2010 graduate Simon Rawlins has been selected from more than 90 nominations from across the world for the NCE 2011 Graduate of the Year award. A graduate from the MEng Civil and Structural Engineering course, and now working with Amey, Simon will visit the Institution of Civil Engineers in December for the awards presentation lunch where a share of more than £3000 of prize money is on offer.

Run by New Civil Engineer, the major trade magazine for Civil Engineering, the graduate of the year award is sponsored by 16 leading companies. The competition is judged by a panel of senior engineers and aims to recognise the valuable contribution graduates make to the civil engineering community.

geomatics students win inaugural TSA bursaries

Tom Bramald

9.11.11
The Survey Association (TSA), the trade group for surveying companies in the UK, have offered two £1000 bursaries to Newcastle Geomatics students. Andrew Templeton and Jonathan Caltieri, both Stage 2 students studying on the BSc Surveying and Mapping Science degree, are the first recipients of the new bursary scheme and they recently collected their first cheques at the TSA meeting in Manchester.

Dr Stuart Edwards from Newcastle University said, “With the Government's White Paper, we are entering a new age of recruiting in to universities and initiatives such as these bursaries will play a vital role in ensuring that we can continue to attract bright and motivated people to the survey industry.”

royal society announces prestigious university research fellowships 2011

Casey Hubert

8.11.11
The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has announced the appointment of 40 new University Research Fellows (URFs) for 2011. The scientists started to take up their new posts at institutions across the UK in October.

The University Research Fellowship scheme aims to provide outstanding scientists, who have the potential to become leaders in their chosen fields, with the opportunity to build an independent research career. The scheme is extremely competitive and URFs are expected to be strong candidates for permanent posts in universities at the end of their fellowships.

The newly appointed URFs are working on a wide variety of projects including new stem cell research; understanding exploding Supernovae; a study of neurodevelopmental disorders; and developing clean energy materials.

The full list of appointments includes Dr Casey Hubert, Newcastle University, Microbial biogeography and the deep biosphere.

planning public transport services

Gareth Evans

26.10.11
Dr Gareth Evans recently attended a series of 2 x 2-day courses on 'Planning Public Transport Services', led by Professor Graham Currie (Monash University, Australia) and Professor Avi Ceder (Auckland University, NZ), hosted at PTRC's office in Barons Court, London.

The courses encompassed a wide range of topics relating to Public Transport services, covering frequency determination, timetable development, network design, demand forecasting, crew and vehicle scheduling, patronage data collection and project evaluation. The content was developed around existing and new research from Prof Currie and Prof Ceder's respective research groups, with the intention of bridging the gap between innovative academic theories and day-to-day Public Transport operations.

Participants on the course came from local authorities (both in the UK and overseas), transport consultancies and academic institutions. This mix of backgrounds brought different viewpoints, experience and knowledge to discussions and allowed the practices from different authorities and different countries to be compared. The knowledge and insight gained from this course will be applied through the teaching of CEG8412 'Characteristics of Public Transport Systems' led by Dr Evans on the MSc/MEng Transport degrees, and also in future research proposals.

EC study on public transport smartcards - final report published

Gareth Evans

26.10.11
The EC Study on Public Transport Smartcards Final Report has been released online by the EU. The report summarises the work undertaken by a consortium including AECOM, the Transport Operations Research Group at Newcastle University, PJ Associates, AustriaTech and NEA. The Study set out to identify what steps, if any, should be taken by the European Commission to encourage interoperability between smart ticketing systems, with the overarching aim of reducing barriers to the use of Public Transport.

Greater deployment of smart ticketing systems can be expected to result in improved travelling experiences for the passengers and an increase in Public Transport usage. This would deliver benefits to public authorities, private operators, Public Transport users and society as a whole. In addition to increasing revenues, more journeys being made by Public Transport, instead of by private car, have the potential to contribute positively towards a wide range of sustainable transport and other goals. Benefits include reducing congestion by making networks more efficient and reliable; reducing vehicle emissions, contributing to a lower carbon footprint and improving the quality of life of those living near main roads, through improved air quality, reduced noise pollution and road safety.

The report begins with a review of the current situation with regards to Public Transport ticketing, payment and verification systems across Europe and globally. This is followed by an assessment of trends in ticketing and fare payment/management and technological development in this area, considering the value chain and the business drivers associated with such technology and synergies with other potential applications. Current and emerging standards for such ticketing and fare payment systems are analysed to identify areas for integrated ticketing development. In light of the current and emerging future scenarios, the report suggests steps that could be taken at an EU level to enhance/accelerate the development, deployment and integration between smart ticketing schemes and considers the likely impact of such initiatives. Finally, the report presents recommendations for actions to be taken by the European Commission to encourage and support the implementation of interoperable smart ticketing schemes within Europe.

The Final Report can be downloaded (.pdf, 945KB) at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/urban/studies/urban_en.htm. Please note that this link can cause compatibility problems with Internet Explorer 8, a copy of the report can be obtained by emailing Dr Gareth Evans if this is the case.

newcastle scientists to solve the mystery of antarctic mass loss

Matt King

18.10.11
Despite a world-wide effort to understand the changes being brought about by climate change, the question over how fast the ice caps are melting remains largely unanswered. Now an international team of experts are leading an investigation which could finally give a definitive answer about the impact Antarctica is having on sea level change globally.

Newcastle and Bristol universities have been awarded £760,000 by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to investigate the changing mass of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Using a combination of satellite observations, Global Positioning System (GPS) data and climate model output, the team hopes to be able to determine the evolution of the mass of the Antarctic ice sheet over the last 20 years.

Dr Matt King, Reader in Polar Geodesy who is leading the Newcastle University side of the project, explained: “There are now lots of measurements that tell us something about the recent state of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, but none of those measurements gives the complete picture. “The project aims to bring together the strengths of every data set to gain the most accurate estimate of Antarctica's contribution to sea level as a whole, as well as identify which regions are changing and which are not.”The team, which includes academics from the University of Bristol and partners from the Netherlands and USA, aims to tackle the controversy around how well we understand recent ice-mass loss.

“Here at Newcastle University we are using GPS data to measure the motion of the bedrock surrounding the ice and poking out from amongst it on mountain outcrops,” explains Dr King. “Because the ice sitting on the Antarctic continent compresses the bedrock like a spring, measuring its motion tells us something about changes in the mass of ice sitting on top. To do this requires measurements with accuracies of better than one millimetre-per-year – the thickness of a fingernail.

“There is also a much slower response from the solid Earth to the changing ice mass - due to the flow of molten rock within the Earth's mantle more than 100km below the surface. “This change lasts thousands of years and also causes the surface to move, so the same GPS measurements, incredibly, also tell us something about ice mass change since the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago, all the way to the present.” The project is being led by Professor Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol.

CeG host tyndall assembly and public debate on cities being forces of good

Stephanie Glendinning

13.10.11
The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences hosted the Tyndall Assembly from 13 - 16 September 2011. The Tyndall Assembly is the annual conference for the researchers and staff of the partner Universities of the Tyndall Centre, which brings together world leading scientists, economists, engineers and social scientists who are working to develop sustainable responses to climate change.

As part of the Assembly an Open Debate was held on 14 September and some 150 experts, interested parties and members of the public debating whether we can re-engineer cities to be forces for environmental good. Cities are the home to half the world’s population and growing rapidly, cities consume large proportions of the world's resources and are responsible for as much as 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. The debate was led by Stephanie Glendinning (CeG) and the panel was made up from local (Mr Andy Mace, Arup: Newcastle Office; Mr Adrian Hilton, Regional Climate Change Coordinator for North East Councils and Georgia Giannopoulou from the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, Newcastle University) and international experts.

Shobhakar Dhakal from the Global Carbon Project in Tsukuba (Japan) stated that “Cities are definitely forces for environmental good”. He said that we need to strengthen the management of cities in order to make them a good force for the environment. He argued that there are windows of opportunities as new technologies and best knowledge can be applied in Asia as cities are newly designed rather than being retrofitted as is the case in the UK and Europe.

Cynthia Rosenzweig from NASA Goddard Institute in New York (USA) shared with us the experiences and research of over 100 members representing 50 cities from across the world, work which is summarised in her latest book (Climate Change and Cities). She said that although cities are highly vulnerable to climate change, that they also have great potential to lead on climate change adaption and mitigation efforts. She concluded by giving a resounding YES! that cities can be re-engineered for environmental good, but we have to have the right players and processes in pace. She said that cities can be forces of good (and New York is a good example for this!) but it requires experts, engineers, scientists, politicians and the public working together under a common leadership.

Please see: https://lectopia.ncl.ac.uk/lectopia/lectopia.lasso?ut=15875&id=11182 for the speaker presentations

new water quality science paves the way for improving river health in the UK

Paul Quinn

5.10.11
A new river monitoring system to assist local communities to improve water quality of the River Eden and its tributaries goes online today.

Researchers from Lancaster University, Newcastle University, Durham University, the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, Askham Bryan College (Newton Rigg) and the Eden Rivers Trust have installed 10 river monitoring stations to collect valuable data on river water quality that is available to farmers, local communities and anyone interested. The research is part of the Defra-funded Eden Demonstration Test Catchment (EdenDTC), one of three national projects to understand how land management affects the water environment and to test measures for reducing agricultural pollution.

The live, real-time data, made available via the web, can be used by councils, rivers trusts and the public to help in understanding how to improve river water quality where they live. EdenDTC is one of the first projects of its kind to provide live data on river water quality to the public, setting a national standard for managing diffuse pollution in rivers throughout the UK.

Water pollution from agriculture can arise from artificial fertilisers, livestock manures or soil erosion and is strongly affected by the way the soil is managed. By monitoring water quality in the River Eden, communities will be able to stay better informed about the issues affecting their local river, so they can make decisions about how to tackle them.

Professor Phil Haygarth, co-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Water Management at Lancaster University, who is leading the project, said: ‘Along with installing state-of-the art, up-to-the-minute, high frequency monitoring equipment, EdenDTC is providing a platform for scientists, farmers and the wider community to come together and learn about this place -- the River Eden.

This project is among the first of a new type of integrated river monitoring and social science being done in the UK’.

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=112988&CultureCode=en