FutureThames – London Earth Seminar | 13 May 2011

Cities, catchments and coasts:
applied geoscience for decision-making in London and the Thames Basin

A seminar held at the Institute of Physics, London on 13 May 2011.

Introduction

The British Geological Survey supports industry, planning and research throughout London and the Thames Basin by providing objective geoscientific data, information and knowledge.

BGS organised this seminar to disseminate information about our wide-ranging research and regional focus on the Thames, how our work can benefit your environmental and engineering projects and how we can work together to achieve more.

FutureThames is an initiative designed to bring together our expertise in the region with that of potential collaborators to ensure that our combined activities are as relevant and accessible as possible to our stakeholders’ needs.

Through FutureThames, the BGS focuses on supporting land-use planning and development, minerals, waste and groundwater management by undertaking interdisciplinary research and the development of applied geoscience in order to improve decision-making.

London Earth is the recently completed soil geochemical survey of Greater London.

This survey provides unique information on the soil chemistry, which is of direct relevance to human health studies, land-use planning and development, urban regeneration and the assessment of contaminated land.

Our new series of 10 maps showing the distribution of environmentally sensitive elements across London were displayed for the first time at this seminar.

During the afternoon we held a technical workshop for practitioners to give advice and information on how to obtain and interpret the London Earth data as well as demonstrate cutting-edge techniques researching environmental impacts on human health.

The programme, below, includes links to the oral presentations and posters given at the seminar. Any that are not currently available may be added at a later date.

Download the soil chemistry maps and learn how to license the data at London Earth.

Programme

Title	Download	Presenter	Organisation
Welcome and Chair	No	Dr Andy Howard	BGS
The Thames Basin in the context of the BGS Strategy	No	Prof Denis Peach	BGS
Environmental challenges and integrated solutions – how integrated environmental options and solutions can contribute to sustainable development	No	Dr Paul Leinster	Environment Agency
FutureThames – applied geoscience for decision-making in London and the Thames Basin	Yes	Jon Ford	BGS
Sustainable use of underground space	No	Dr Helen Reeves	BGS
London Earth: the chemistry of the surface environment in the UK's most populous city	Yes	Cathy Scheib	BGS
Organic and heavy metal pollution in Thames Estuary sediments	No	Dr Christopher Vane	BGS

Technical workshop: Soil chemistry and medical geology

Title	Download	Lead author	Organisation
Welcome and outline of the workshop	No	Cathy Scheib	BGS
BGS's urban geochemical survey data and its interpretation in the context of urban-rural comparisons and underlying geological influences	No	Dr Louise Ander	BGS
Measuring human exposure to harmful elements in soils: exploring the links between bioavailability, bioaccessibility and geochemistry	No	Dr Mark Cave	BGS
Examples of use of data from the Clyde. Cr inhalation, deprivation scores, land use etc.	No	Fiona Fordyce	BGS

Posters

Title	Download	Lead author	Organisation
A new record of Holocene sea-level change in the Thames Estuary and its implications for geophysical modelling	Yes	Nicole S Khan	University of Pennsylvania
Arsenic speciation of sediments from the River Thames estuary, London, UK	Yes	Michael J Watts	BGS
BGS flood response	Yes	Marieta Garcia-Bajo	BGS
Compound geohazards: planning for future climate scenarios	Yes	Katy Booth	BGS
Data and research for environmental applications and models [DREAM]	Yes	Carl Watson	BGS
Examining the soil chemistry of London's parklands	Yes	Kate Knights	BGS
Future Thames: applied geoscience for decision-making in London and the Thames Basin	Yes	Emma Bee	BGS
Geoscience for urban development	Yes	Dr Katherine Royse	BGS
Groundwater: site scale, catchment scale, basin scale	Yes	Stephanie Bricker	BGS
Integrated modelling within the Thames Basin — examples of BGS work	Yes	Dr Andrew Hughes	BGS
Modelling the quality of sand and gravel resources in 3D	Yes	Dr Katy Mee	BGS
Spatial distribution of trace metals in urban soils and road dusts — an example from Manchester, UK	Yes	Raqule Cardoso	Manchester Metropolitan University
SuDS in the Thames: suitability of the ground for infiltration	Yes	Dr Rachel Dearden	BGS
The London Earth field survey: collection of samples and data	Yes	Paul Everett	BGS
Urban soil chemistry data for Great Britain	Yes	Andreas Scheib	BGS

Contact

For further information contact londonearth@bgs.ac.uk