Glasgow and the Clyde Basin — Clyde Urban Super Project (CUSP)

BGS Research

Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, is built along the upper Clyde estuary and lower River Clyde. Areas of central Glasgow form part of an urban regeneration priority for Scotland over the next 25 years. 

Finnieston-Bridge-Glasgow
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Finnieston Bridge, Glasgow — sometimes known as Squinty Bridge. BGS © UKRI.

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The regeneration is intended to stimulate economic growth and tackle concentrated deprivation resulting from industrial decline.

To underpin this regeneration, the Clyde Urban Super Project (CUSP), led by the BGS, developed a series of shallow-earth 3D models in partnership with Glasgow City Council and other organisations. This multidisciplinary project aimed to improve knowledge of the subsurface beneath the city of Glasgow and make geoscientific information more accessible to the wide range of users involved in the sustainable regeneration and development of the city.

The CUSP project has been used as an exemplar for other cities in Europe and the wider world. Lessons learnt in Glasgow have been shared, especially through the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action (SUB-URBAN; TU1206). This has focused on sustainable urban subsurface use and transforming relationships between those who develop urban subsurface knowledge and those who can benefit most from it — the planners and developers of the cities of tomorrow.

Research themes and main outputs

Bearcock, J M, Smedley, P L, Fordyce, F M, Everett, P A, and Ander, E L. 2017. Controls on surface water quality in the River Clyde catchment, Scotland, UK, with particular reference to chromium and lead. 249–267 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Campbell, S D G, Merritt, J E, Ó Dochartaigh, B E, Mansour, M, Hughes, A G, Fordyce, F M, Entwisle, D C, Monaghan, A A, and Loughlin, S E. 2010. 3D geological models and hydrogeological applications: supporting urban development – a case study in Glasgow-Clyde, UK. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften, Vol. 161(2), 251–262.

Dick, G , Eriksson, I, de Beer, J, Bonsor, J, and van der Lugt, P. 2017. Planning the city of tomorrow: bridging the gap between urban planners and subsurface specialists. 327–335 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). 2017. The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Special Issue, Vol. 108(2–3). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G. 2017. The geoscience context for Europe’s urban sustainability – lessons from Glasgow and beyond (CUSP). 119–122 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Fordyce, F M, Everett, P A, Bearcock, J M, and Lister, T R. 2017. Soil metal/metalloid concentrations in the Clyde Basin, Scotland, UK: implications for land quality. 191–216 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Fordyce, F M, Ó Dochartaigh, B É, Bonsor, H C, Ander, E L, Graha, M T, McCuaig, R, and lovatt, M. 2017. Assessing threats to shallow groundwater quality from soil pollutants in Glasgow, UK: development of a new screening tool. 173–190 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Jones, D G, Vane, C H, Lass-Evans, S, Chenery, S, Lister, B, Cave, M, Gafeira, J, Jenkins, G, Leslie, A, Breward, N, Freeborough, K, Harrison, I, Kim, A W, Lacinska, A, Milodowski, T, Ridgway, J, Riding, J, Strutt, M, Wagner, D, ans Wilkinson, Ian. 2017.  Geochemistry and related studies of Clyde estuary sediments. 269–288 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Kearsey, T I, Whitbread, K, Arkley, S L B, Finlayson, A, Monaghan, A A, McLean, W S, Terrington, R L, Callaghan, E A, Millward, D, and Campbell, S D G. 2017. Creation and delivery of a complex 3D geological survey for the Glasgow area and its application to urban geology. 123–140 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Kim, A W, Vane, C H, Moss-Hayes, V L, Beriro, D J, Nathanail, C P, Fordyce, F M, and Everett, P A. 2017. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in urban soils of Glasgow, UK. 231–247 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Lopes dos Santos, R A, and Vane, C H. 2017. Tracking natural organic carbon in the River Clyde, UK using glycerol dailkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGT). 289–298 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Ó Dochartaigh, B, Bonsor, H, and Bricker, S. 2017. Improving understanding of shallow urban groundwater: the Quaternary groundwater system in Glasgow, UK. 155–172 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Vane, C H, Lopes dos Santos, R A, Kim, A W, Moss-Hayes, V L, Fordyce, F M, and Bearcock, J M. 2017. Persistent organic pollutants (PAH, PCB, TPH) in freshwater, urban tributary and estuarine surface sediments of the River Clyde, Scotland, UK. 299–313 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Vane, C H, Moss-Hayes, V L, Kim, A W, Edgeley, K E, Cave, M R, Bearcock, J M.  2017. Mercury (Hg), n-alkane and unresolved complex mixture (UCM) hydrocarbon pollution in surface sediment across the rural-urban-estuarine continuum of the River Clyde, Scotland, UK. 299–313 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Williams, J D O, Dobbs, M R, Kingdon, A , Lark, R M, Williamson, J P, MacDonald, A M, and Ó Dochartaigh, B É. 2017. Stochastic modelling of hydraulic conductivity derived from geotechnical data; an example applied to central Glasgow. 141–154 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

Wragg, J, Broadway, A, Cave, M R, Fordyce, F M, Palumbo-Roe, B, Beriro, D J, Farmer, J G, Graham, M C, Ngwenya, B T, and Bewley, R J F. 2017. Linkage between solid-phase apportionment and bioaccessible arsenic, chromium and lead in soil from Glasgow, Scotland, UK. 217–230 in The Geosciences in Europe’s Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Glasgow and Beyond (CUSP). Fordyce, F M, and Campbell, S D G (editors). (Edinburgh, UK: The RSE Scotland Foundation.)

  • Abertay University
  • Clyde Gateway
  • Deltares
  • Glasgow City Council
  • Middlesex University
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Glasgow
  • University of Strathclyde
  • Scottish Enterprise
  • Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
  • South Lanarkshire Council

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