School of Geography and the Environment

Jenny has a studentship from the SEAHA (science and engineering in arts heritage and archaeology) Centre of Doctoral Training funded by EPSRC to undertake heritage science research. Jenny read Geography at Oxford University and has an MRes in heritage science from UCL. She has also undertaken research at Adelaide University.

Jenny's project is aiming to investigate the use of site-scale, natural approaches to preventive conservation of earthen heritage sites in NW China. Earthen heritage sites are deteriorating rapidly, often in response to climatic hazards such as storms, and their resilience in the face of future environmental change could be low. Previous conservation efforts have included consolidants, drainage system and sheltering but have had mixed success. A combination of fieldwork and modelling will be used to investigate future methods for earthen heritage conservation.

Jenny's project is undertaken in partnership with the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute through the SEAHA CDT.

Journal Articles

• Richards, J., Bailey, R., Mayaud, J., Viles, H., Guo, Q. and Wang, X. (2020) Deterioration risk of dryland earthen heritage sites facing future climatic uncertainty. Scientific Reports, 10. 16419.
• Richards, J., Mayaud, J., Zhan, H., Wu, F., Bailey, R. and Viles, H. (2020) Modelling the risk of deterioration at earthen heritage sites in drylands. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45(11): 2401-2416.
• Richards, J., Tibby, J., Barr, C. and Goonan, P. (2020) Effect of substrate type on diatom-based water quality assessments in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. Hydrobiologia, 847: 3077-3090.
• Richards, J., Viles, H. and Guo, Q. (2020) The importance of wind as a driver of earthen heritage deterioration in dryland environments. Geomorphology, 369. 107363.
• Richards, J., Orr, S.A. and Viles, H.A. (2019) Reconceptualising the relationships between heritage and environment within an Earth System Science framework. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development.
• Richards, J., Zhao, G., Zhang, H. and Viles, H. (2019) A controlled field experiment to investigate the deterioration of earthen heritage by wind and rain. Heritage Science, 7, 51.
• Tibby, J., Barr, C., Marshall, J.C., Richards, J., Perna, C., Fluin, J. and Cadd, H.R. (2019) Assessing the relative impacts of land‐use change and river regulation on Burdekin River (Australia) floodplain wetlands. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
• Tibby, J., Richards, J., Tyler, J., Barr, C., Fluin, J. and Goonan, P. (2019) Diatom-water quality thresholds in South Australia in streams indicate the need for more stringent water quality guidelines. Marine and Freshwater Research, 71(8): 942-952.
• Richards, J., Wang, Y., Orr, S.A. and Viles, H. (2018) Finding Common Ground between United Kingdom Based and Chinese Approaches to Earthen Heritage Conservation. Sustainability, 10(9).