Landscape detectives meet at Aberystwyth University

Professor Stephen Tooth, Chair of the 2018 Annual Meeting of the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), and Dr Hywel Griffiths, both of the Department of Geography and Earth Science at Aberystwyth University, who will launch their booklet 10 Reasons Why the Geomorphology of Wales is Important during the meeting.

Professor Stephen Tooth, Chair of the 2018 Annual Meeting of the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), and Dr Hywel Griffiths, both of the Department of Geography and Earth Science at Aberystwyth University, who will launch their booklet 10 Reasons Why the Geomorphology of Wales is Important during the meeting.

31 August 2018

Geomorphologists from around the world will convene in Aberystwyth in September as Wales hosts the discipline’s top annual UK academic gathering for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The Annual Meeting of the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), which takes place from the 10-12 September 2018 at Aberystwyth University, will see early career and more seasoned geomorphologists showcase cutting-edge research and discuss new collaborations.

Referred to as “landscape detectives”, geomorphologists study the history of a landscape and how it has been moulded over millennia by the action of running water, wind, snow, ice and gravity.

The focus is on Earth’s landscapes but increasingly interest is also turning to landscapes on other planetary bodies such as Mars and Titan.

And it isn’t only the gradual evolution of the landscape that attracts their interest. Geomorphologists also study the effects of fast-acting, disruptive hazards such as coastal storm surges, river floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides.

A key theme of this year’s Annual Meeting is communicating the relevance and importance of geomorphology in an era of rapid environmental change. 

This includes going beyond university circles and developing approaches for improved communication of geomorphology in schools, among the general public, and with land owners and environmental policy makers.

Delegates will also hear from one of the UK’s most eminent geomorphologists and a Fellow of the BSG, Aberystwyth University’s Emeritus Professor John Lewin, who will deliver the meeting’s Frost Lecture.

There will also be keynote addresses from the BSG Award Winners for 2018, including Hervé Piégay (David Linton Award), Larissa Naylor (Gordon Warwick Award), Edwin Baynes (Dick Chorley Award), and Bradley Johnson (Wiley Award).

Delegates also have the option of staying on after the meeting for field trips on 12, 13 and 14 September that will take them to the uplands, valleys and coastline of mid Wales.

The meeting is chaired by Professor Stephen Tooth, from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University.

Professor Tooth said: “This is the first time for many decades that the BSG has hosted such an event in Wales, and given the contributions of Aberystwyth-trained geomorphologists and Welsh landscapes to development of the science, it is fitting that the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences is able to host the Annual Meeting as part of its centenary year celebrations”.

As part of the conference, Professor Tooth and Dr Hywel Griffiths, also from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, will release a booklet entitled 10 Reasons Why the Geomorphology of Wales is Important.

The booklet is based on a series of parallel blogs by Dr Griffiths (Welsh) and Professor Tooth (English), providing examples of Welsh landforms and landscapes that illustrate the 10 reasons.

Further details of the Annual Meeting can be seen on the BSG’s website www.geomorphology.org.uk and Facebook page www.facebook.com/geophemera. Developments can also be followed on Twitter @BSG_Geomorph #bsg2018.