Landscape Dynamics

By reconstructing how environmental conditions evolved across southeastern Arabia over time, the research aims to explain how early human populations adapted to extreme arid landscapes and dispersed beyond Africa.

Congratulations to Professor David S.G. Thomas who was awarded the British Society for Geomorphology's David Linton Award at the BSG's Annual Conference in September 2025.

Congratulations to the Academy of Conservation and Care for Environment (ACCE) initiative, who have been awarded the prestigious 'Star of Discovery' at the 2025 Global Awards for World Heritage Education Innovative Cases (AWHEIC).

New research shows that dust storms over Etosha Pan in northern Namibia are influenced not only by local weather conditions but also by global climate patterns. Dr Natasha Wallum, from the School of Geography and the Environment, explains how atmospheric dust plays a critical role in Earth system processes.

A team, led by Professor Louise Slater in the School of Geography and the Environment, has created the most complete map of the world’s rivers ever made offering a major leap forward for flood prediction, climate risk planning, and water resource management in a warming world. The new study, published in Water Resources Research, introduces GRIT—a mapping system that finally shows how rivers really flow, branch, and connect landscapes.

The University of Oxford, in partnership with five leading institutions, has launched the Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science Landscape Award (ILESLA). This ambitious doctoral training programme will prepare a new generation of creative, collaborative, and entrepreneurial researchers who are equipped to meet the complex, cross-disciplinary challenges the world faces.

The SXNCH network and ACCE projects, led by Dr. Katrin Wilhelm and Dr. Martin Michette, have received international recognition for their work in heritage conservation, featured in a major Italian newspaper. Currently in Pompeii, ACCE unites global professionals to integrate natural and cultural heritage.

Following devastating floods in 2020, five successive failed rainy seasons caused drought which exposed millions of people to acute food shortages in East Africa. The field project, MASIKA, is the first of its kind and aims to understand the atmospheric processes operating at the start the rainy season.