Impacts of illegal gold mining in Colombia's Chocó - Professor Richard Teeuw

Professor Richard Teeuw presents River Stories: the multi-faceted geography of illegal alluvial gold mining in Colombia.

Colombia’s Chocó region, extending from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, is one of the wettest places on the planet, averaging 9,000 mm of rain per year. It's a biodiversity hotspot, but it's also a region of devastating illegal gold mining.

This lecture presents the findings of a multidisciplinary team of UK and Colombian researchers, ranging from satellite remote sensing of illegal gold mining activities and GIS-based modelling of the of the devastation caused to the affected rivers, to community-based sampling of water quality and mining pollution.

Socio-economic and cultural studies of the impacted riverside communities, as well as the legal actions and attempts to police to illegal mining activities, will also be discussed.

About the speaker

Professor Teeuw is a geomorphologist and remote sensing scientist specialising in low-cost applications for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

He has lead the MSc in Crisis and Disaster Management at the University of Portsmouth and works with practitioners to deliver SimEx, one of the world's largest annual disaster response simulation exercises.

His research combines geomorphology, GIS and remote sensing to map geohazards, natural resources and environmental change.

Professor Teeuw has also consulted for industry, government and international development organisations, including BP Minerals, Rio Tinto, the UK Environment Agency, DfID, CIDA, GTZ and JICA.

Recent work with the UK Satellite Applications Catapult and UNITAR has focused on detecting illegal gold mining in Colombia using satellite remote sensing and supporting climate adaptation in Small Island Developing States. 

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This event has been organised by the South East regional committee.

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