EG7519 Starts this week

Hi all,

Sustainability and Global Systems (EG7519) starts this week:

1-3pm in room E317

Material is already up on Moodle now.
This is my unit (which I share with Callum)...so I am expecting good attendance !

See you at 1pm

Mark

MSc Project Dissertation: SUPERVISORS

Hi All,

Based on the topics you have chosen to pursue for your MSc dissertation, I have now allocated you supervisors. This list has been discussed and agreed amongst the various staff involved and is thus final.

Please download the list (PDF) >HERE<

I would advise you to contact your supervisor in the next week or so - introduce yourself and your topic ideas. Contact email addresses can be found in your student handbook...also available online here:
http://www.ukscience.org/pg/academic-resources/

Or... the MMU staff search facility here:
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/staff/

For discussions about your placement - please contact Kosta....but don't be too hasty....many of you still haven't completed the taught part of the course yet...so concentrate on the Dissertation topic details over the next few weeks.

Thanks
Mark

Staff-Student Liaison Meeting

Hi all,

The next staff-student liaison meeting will take place next week - on Wednesday 20th February.
If you have any issues you want raising at that meeting, please communicate these issues (positive or negative) to your Course Rep:


EMSD/EMB/SA : Michael Stiff (MICHAEL.STIFF@stu.mmu.ac.uk )
GIS : Francis Gasana (FRANCIS.GASANA@stu.mmu.ac.uk )
CM : Ruji Surjan (rujjs@yahoo.co.uk)

Thanks
Mark

EGS Seminar – Tuesday 12th February 2013

Tuesday 12^th February 2013, Room E419, 4^th floor, John Dalton East Building, from 1.00-2.00pm.

New Developments in Flood Flow Measurement: Improving the Estimation of Risk

Andrew Black, University of Dundee

Methods of estimating flood flows in watercourses date back at least as far as the late 19th C with the rational method of Kuichling (1889). Given the massive growth in river flow monitoring and the development of hydrological science since that time, it is frustrating that the estimation of flood risks remains subject to high levels of uncertainty. The value of robust estimates of flood risk relates to an increasing diversity of applications, especially in the face of climate change and its likely effects.

The data to underpin any site-specific estimate of flood risk may be specific to the watercourse in question, or may be transferred from so-called donor catchments, or both. However, contemporary methods of risk estimation in the UK struggle to make the most of the information available from ungauged watercourses which experience rare flood events, while rare events at gauged sites are often surrounded by issues of highly uncertain data.

This presentation looks at the use of hydro-acoustic, hydraulic and radar methods for assessing peak flows in a range of catchment settings, and examines the contribution they can make to improving the estimates of flood risk for high event magnitudes.

Royal Meteorological Society talk

Date: Tuesday 5 February 2013

Time: 18:00 (17.40 for refreshments)
Location: Manchester Metropolitan University, T0.03

SPEAKER: Vladimir Jankovic, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Title: Where is the Weather: Urban and Social Scales in the History of Atmospheric Sciences

Historians of science usually argue that the development of modern atmospheric research can be seen as a result of advances in physical, chemical, and mathematical representation of large-scale meteorological phenomena. The emergence of modern atmospheric sciences is thus often seen as a replacement of the descriptive and place-specific approach to weather with an increasingly theoretical, hemispheric and numerically oriented research. Contributing to this shift is the internationalisation and growth of observation networks, standardization of units and measurement techniques, trans-national exchange of weather information, technologies of communication, military-oriented research, air transport and the rise of numerical forecasting.
However, as a result of this, agricultural, forest, urban and indoor meteorologies have received relatively little attention to date, as have microclimatology, air pollution meteorology and the study of atmospheric turbulence. In this paper I wish to explore the benefits of recovering the history of small-scale research in atmospheric sciences and explain how urban air pollution meteorology in particular can be shown to epitomize the relevance of local- and applied investigations into the non-free atmospheres. Furthermore, I wish particularly to emphasize how such investigations shaped the recognition of the 'anthropogenic' changes as a key concept in contemporary environmental sciences.

See http://www.rmets.org/events/tbc-3 for details and a map.

As always, the meeting is free and open to all without registration.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Regards,
Mike Bennett