Landscape Dynamics

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. 

The second ‘Sites at the Intersection of Natural and Cultural Heritage’ (SXNCH) symposium was held in SoGE on 1 December and was a great success, drawing both in-person and virtual participation. This innovative event brought together academics and professionals from a variety of sectors from the UK and internationally, with approximately 50 in-person and 90 online attendees.