Cold baths, and bathing in the landscape

Research by Dr Clare Hickman of Bristol University has brought to light the little-known geography of Britain's cold baths.

A fashionable folly of Georgian Britain, cold baths were plunging pools set in panaromic landscapes, dotted across the country. The baths were filled with cold spring water to ensure purity and preserve good health.

Medical writers of the period promoted cold bathing as part of an exercise routine, fuelled by a trend at the time for more interaction of nature due to concerns that luxury and civilization caused ill-health amongst the wealthy classes.

Water wasn't the only attraction at these precursors to lidos. Occupying commanding views, cold bathers walked through the landscape to reach the baths. Their enjoyment and appreciation of the landscape was thought to contribute to health and wellbeing.

Cold baths' popularity declined in the early 20th century, to be replaced by lidos and swimming pools, which can be thought of an extension of cold baths, carrying on the linkage of health, water and landscape.

  Dr Hickman's research is part of the Historic Gardens of England project

  Geographer calls for advanced radar satellites to help rainforest study

  More on Professor Heiko Balzter's work
  University of Leicester

  Caribbean resorts need more than sun, sand and sea to survive

A team of geographers are calling on the Caribbean to become the world’s first ‘carbon neutral’ tourism region in a bid to survive as a destination.

The call, in a study by Dr Murray Simpson, Senior Research Associate at Oxford University’s Centre for the Environment, Dr. Stefan Gössling of the Western Norway Research Institute and Dr. Daniel Scott of Canada's University of Waterloo, suggests that growth in the number of UK and other international tourists going on Caribbean holidays will drop, affected by climate change policies.

Tourism in the Caribbean is estimated to be the largest sector to contribute to GDP and employment.

However, fuel prices and aviation taxes, coupled with environmental regulations and voluntary schemes such as carbon offsetting, will result in a slow-down in Caribbean tourism growth. The study suggests that holiday-makers will re-consider travelling on long-haul flights either because of air travel costs or environmental impacts.

In the Caribbean, climate change will also affect the tourism industry negatively, including an increase in extreme events, such as storm surge, greater hurricane intensity, sea level rises, land and sea surface temperature changes, and changing precipitation patterns.  According to Dr Simpson, ‘Although the Caribbean is only responsible for about 1% of global green house gases, in 2005 global aviation was responsible for 40% of carbon emissions caused by tourism.’ 

Dr Simpson says that the future of the Caribbean as a holiday resort could be significantly affected by the physical impact of climate change as well as the financial impact. He said: ‘The vulnerability of the region to climate change highlights the need for the tourism industry to change its behaviour and market itself differently.

‘Tourists go the Caribbean to experience sun, sea and sand, but to survive as a destination, it will have to sell itself as a carbon neutral destination. In this way, it lessens its contribution to climate change, while at the same time marketing an image as an environmentally pristine and sustainable destination.’

  Dr Murray Simpson, Senior Research Associate at Oxford University Centre for the Environment

  Geographer develops curriculum for Vietnamese integrated rural development course

Charles Howie, a PhD student from Royal Holloway University of London’s Department of Geography, worked with teachers at Vietnam’s An Giang University to develop the country’s first undergraduate integrated rural development course.

The curriculum, the culmination of four years’ work, has already proved to be a success, with most of the graduates employed by the government of the province, commercial banks and a growing number of seed and aquaculture companies.
 
Some 60-70% of Vietnam’s 85 million people live in the countryside. The largest concentration live in the Mekong Delta. Here, An Giang University (AGU) offers the course enrolling 80 students annually into its four-year programme.

On completion of the curriculum's first draft, Charles led a consultation process to hear the views of local government and private enterprise - the potential employers of the graduates - and to find hands-on experience for students during training.

Once the curriculum was completed, Charles had a chance to go into the field with students to find out how it worked out.

“The students have an huge thirst for knowledge and learning”, said Charles. “This was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. It drew on skills and knowledge gathered over 40 years. Vietnamese farmers are ambitious for their children and realistic about how many people the land can support, so the need for more off-farm employment is crucial. I hope these graduates will have an understanding of how to bring that about and will, in time, come to occupy senior positions in the delta.

At first Charles worked as a volunteer, funded by the British Executive Service Overseas. Later, a Higher Education Link, funded by The British Council, between AGU and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, enabled exchanges of staff between institutions, including assistance for a member of staff to come to the UK for higher education. Later, Charles gained an award from the ESRC/NERC. In return for this work, AGU is assisting Charles to do a PhD entitled Farmer decision making in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

  More on Charles Howie's work
  An Giang University

 

  Arsenic: a global problem
An estimated 137 million people have been exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic in their drinking water, according to research by geographer Peter Ravenscroft at the University of Cambridge.

Arsenic - a potent cause of cancer
Arsenic can occur naturally in water supplies drawn from underground, where water has reacted with sediments and rocks containing the element.

The most characteristic symptoms are a variety of painful skin diseases, but arsenic can cause many cancers including skin, lung and bladder, as well as deaths from heart and lung disease and gangrene.

Arsenic - a global threat
Ravenscroft maintains that mapping of arsenic pollution is incomplete, and large numbers of people may be unknowingly exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water.

This water may also contaminate food if used for irrigation.

Areas where there is a high risk of arsenic pollution include parts of southeast and southwest Asia, South and Central America, and some areas in Africa.

Bangladesh is thought to be the worst affected country, where, without action, hundreds of thousands of people may die from arsenic poisoning, according to Ravenscroft.

  See a map showing populations at risk from arsenic polluted groundwater
  More on Peter Ravenscroft's work

  Helping Namibian families grow own crops

This year, for the first time, several Namibian families have been able to harvest pumpkin, squash, carrots, onions and watermelons from their own home gardens, thanks to The Kalahari Garden Project.

Funded by a Neville Shulman Challenge Award from the Society, the project provides training and assistance to cultivate home gardens for San households. The San, southern Africa’s oldest inhabitants, currently largely rely on food aid for survival.

Managing water in dry environments
Managing water is crucial in their dry environment, with pumps, drums, piping provided and existing boreholes maintained. One village has seen the amount of water available daily double, ensuring supply for the households and gardens.

The 10 x 14 metre gardens, designed by horticultural technician Ian Martin, the project team and San beneficiaries, help 550 San people learn about crop growing and become sustainable.

  More on Neville Shulman Challenge Award
  More on Kalahari Garden Project
  Kalahari Garden Project blog

  Restoring urban rivers
River experts are turning to nature after decades of managing canals and rivers with concrete and steel. 

River managers now seek out parks and fields near rivers and estuaries to use as floodplains. The Cole river near Birmingham is one such river, where a new over-sized channel has been cut to allow the river to return itself to a more natural state. 

Designing ecological river channels
"The river has formed a channel that is not rigidly stable but has a dynamic equilibrium" said Professor Angela Gurnell who helped design the river’s new position. 
 
The new channel has been successfully colonised by indigenous plant species. "Within 3 years, trees of up to four metres have planted themselves and over 150 plant species are thriving and moulding the gravel banks."
 
Cost-effective environmentalism
The technique is cheaper than building channels from rocks, gravel and top soil. "If you cut the channel correctly - with the right sinuosity and gradient - then the river deposits the soil, plants the plants, and attracts insects and fish," said Gurnell.

  More on Professor Angela Gurnell's work

  Managing coastal retreat
An alarming red line runs through the middle of clifftop cottages near Staithes in North Yorkshire.

The line, plotted on a map, predictd how far the cliff would erode over the next century - erosion caused by rising sea levels and climate change.

Half of the 24 cottages would fall into the sea over the next century according to the maps, drawn up by consultants commissioned by local councils.

Cliff edge homes saved
But local residents were not  convinced. Some of them had lived there for over 30 years and remembered that a small hedge on the cliff edge had been there for decades.

The residents asked for a second opinion. They invited Professor David Petley and Dr Nick Rosser to help. 

The team of geographers used laser scans with incredible accuracy to measure changes on the cliff face.  They also used GPS surveys and Second World War aerial photographs to understand the cliff's geometry.

Their work found the impact of climate change was negligible. Less than 2 metres of the cliff had eroded in fifty years – much less than the consultants’ predictions of 50 metres over the next century.

  More on Professor Dave Petley's work