The Geographer: Greening (Autumn 2016)

The

Geographer AUTUMN 2016

The newsletter of

the Royal Scottish Geographical Society

Green and Blue Infrastructure • Raingardens and Place-Making • Valuing the Green and Blue • Vertical Farms and Alternative Prescriptions • Midwife Toads and Fossorial Voles • Collections Insight: Shirreff Map • Brexit: Some Direction • Reader Offer: Classic Mountain Scrambles

“Show me a healthy community with a healthy economy and I will show you a community that has its green infrastructure in order.”

Will Rogers, The Trust for Public Land

plus news, books, and more…

The

Geographer

green infrastructure

A

s our climate, population and environments change, our green spaces are under ever-increasing pressure.

Our demand for housing continues to grow, and in many of our towns and cities there has been a trend towards replacing green areas with bricks and tarmac, perhaps most evidently in our drives and gardens. As a result, increasingly heavy rainstorms have increasingly small areas to sit, permeate the ground or drain to, leaving our streets and homes more prone to pluvial flooding than ever.

High Arctic A new exhibition by wildlife artist Claire Harkess 10thSeptember RSW, renowned for her watercolour paintings of th to 9 October the natural world, is on display at the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff from 10th September to 9th October 2016. From her travels north of the Arctic Circle, Claire’s delicate paintings explore the remote wildernesses of Greenland and the Svalbard Archipelago, focusing on the frozen land and sea and the life that it sustains. See www.strathearn-gallery.com or contact info@ strathearn-gallery.com or 01764 656100 for more information.

Even in places blessed with green space, such as North Berwick where I was recently on holiday, there are massive increases in housing on some of its green spaces and then a knock-on pressure for increased roads, amenities and town centre parking. And even more housing. In North Berwick’s case there is even a proposal to concrete over parts of the beach for parking, so this pressure is very real. But does this matter? Is this the inevitable cost of progress? A price worth paying? Or is it crass short-termism and environmentally criminal?

The European Commission defines green infrastructure as “the use of ecosystems, green spaces and water in strategic land use planning to deliver environmental and quality of life benefits. It includes parks, open spaces, playing fields, woodlands, wetlands, road verges, allotments and private gardens.”As a guideline, it is suggested that 40% of the total land should be earmarked for green infrastructure for a town or development to be suitably sustainable.

And then there is the blue infrastructure, including drainage, swales, wetlands, rivers and other watercourses. Both green and blue spaces can mitigate pluvial flooding, and perform a range of other crucial functions, such as reducing the heat island effect, or improving localised air quality and biodiversity. They provide significant quality of life and breathing spaces, and bring character to our towns and cities. But we need to learn to protect them, to value them, and to integrate them into our essential infrastructure better, to break up the grey with the green and the blue.

This way we can ensure that they not only survive but become part of our wider solutions.

As Will Rogers, President and CEO of The Trust for Public Land, stated,“Show me a healthy community with a healthy economy and I will show you a community that has its green infrastructure in order.”

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive

Our thanks to RSGS member Brian D’Arcy for his help in compiling this edition, and to Glasgow City Council (see page 20) and WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff (see page 21) for their financial support towards its production. If the articles spark your interest, then you may like to get in touch with the Scottish Green Infrastructure Forum (www.sgrf.org), a group of organisations, businesses and individuals interested in promoting and encouraging the building of Green Infrastructure across Scotland.

RSGS, Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU tel: 01738 455050 email: enquiries@rsgs.org www.rsgs.org Charity registered in Scotland no SC015599 The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the RSGS. Cover image: Water vole. © Jules Cox Masthead image: © Mike Robinson

RSGS: a better way to see the world

Tivy Education Medal The 2016 RSGS Tivy Education Medal has been presented to Val Vannet, Geography Teacher and Deputy Rector at the High School of Dundee, in recognition of her 40-year contribution to the inspirational teaching of Geography in the classroom and field, her sharing of knowledge and leading by example in the use of innovative technology, her motivational leadership of the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT), and her all-round enthusiasm for promoting Geography.

Val (left) received the Medal from RSGS Board member Erica Caldwell, in front of an appreciative High School of Dundee audience in August. Erica said, “Throughout Scotland, and England too, Val is known by teachers and by former pupils as first and foremost an inspirational Geography teacher. She saw the huge potential of using IT in teaching Geography at an early stage, developing some of the first Geography blogs, contributing her excellent photographs to geograph.org, becoming enthusiastically involved in the ground-breaking Staffordshire Learning Network, and pioneering the use of SMART Boards in producing creative, innovative virtual fieldwork. Being Val, as she’d done throughout her teaching career, she generously shared her knowledge, her expertise and her enthusiasm.”

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David Grevemberg FRSGS We are delighted to report that David Grevemberg, who was Chief Executive of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and is now CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation, has received an RSGS Honorary Fellowship for his contribution to the Glasgow Games in 2014.

Glasgow 2014 was a fantastic spectacle of sport, and really brought out the best of Glasgow, and whilst a highly commendable organisational feat, it is for the integrated legacy planning that we particularly wanted to recognise David’s trail-blazing and substantial contribution.

At a lunch in Glasgow, David (right) received his Fellowship from Dr Robert Rogerson, academic advisor on the continuing legacy of Glasgow 2014, and former RSGS Board Member.

New Edinburgh Map In July, the cycle campaign group Spokes published the tenth edition of their cycling and walking route map of Edinburgh. Two RSGS members were closely involved in the production of the new map, which features all new facilities since the 2010 edition, including the Council’s new network of signed ‘quiet routes’.

Geographer The

The newsletter of

SPRING 2016

the Royal Scottish

Making a splash

Geographical Society

We were pleased to see the International Water Security Network publish a detailed summary and some comments on a paper – Water security, economic growth and sustainable development by Professor Asit Biswas and Dr Cecilia Tortajada – from the spring 2016 edition of The Geographer. As Professor Biswas, winner of the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize in 2006, commented, “We thought you may wish to see the impacts your journal is producing.”

Water and

the Hydro Nation

• Annie Lennox Receives Livingstone Medal • Scotland the Hydro Nation • Origins of Onshore and Offshore Freshwater the • Water Towers in Himalayas • Portrait of Pskov: Exhibition • National and International Water Policy • Water, Food, Energy and Economics

Geography in schools We have been continuing to make the case for Geography in Scottish schools as widely as possible, and recently had useful meetings with the Minister, with SAGT, and with SQA. The exam results for 2016 came out in August.

The number of Geography entries for National 4 was down year on year, but so were all National 4 entries so this was not exceptional.

Otherwise, numbers held up fairly well; National 5 saw a 5% reduction in entries (11,018), but Higher (8,157 entries) and Advanced Higher (900 entries) were around the same as 2015. At all levels, Geography remains in the top ten most popular subjects.

The Higher remains the main area of concern, in terms of balance, assessment and marking. The pass percentage for Higher was lower than hoped, with only 26.1% at ‘A’, compared with 36.8% in History and 31% in Modern Studies, so this requires consideration and action. The assignment is causing particular concern, and we will be looking to address this with SQA once the results of the current SAGT survey are complete and analysed.

Our dialogue with SQA and other key educational bodies continues. SQA have expressed a commitment to listen and improve the assessment and content – for the Higher in particular. There is an opportunity to help guide this over the coming 18-24 months, so please get in touch if you wish to help and contribute.

get involved

• Wet and Windswept on Rockall • Reader Offer: The Railway Atlas of Scotland

worth of water “We never know the until the well is dry.”

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Gnomologia, 1732 Thomas Fuller,

14/03/2016 10:44

RSGS GEOGRAPHER

SPRING 2016N.indd

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24th

September

Doors Open Day

On Saturday 24th September, we will be celebrating Doors Open Day 2016 with a special display of maps on the theme of architecture. Come and explore with us!

Marcia Rae, Graduate Research Assistant, Highland Council and Scottish Natural Heritage Scottish Natural Heritage, Highland Council and the University of Salford are studying multiple benefits from Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), particularly as habitats for wildlife, places where urban dwellers can experience nature, and green hearts for communities. Our work focuses on amphibians as they are easy for the public to identify, do not require specialist equipment to observe, and are popular with adults and children. The project has included several public engagement events with local residents and primary and secondary schools to encourage a reappraisal of SuDS as places to relax, valuable educational resources, and features which give communities a sense of place.

Initial results this year show that amphibians are breeding in the majority of Inverness SuDS ponds; ponds that are good for amphibians are also good for a variety of other wildlife; and ponds with high vegetation cover and shallow margins are more beneficial to amphibians as they provide a predator refuge. Results from frog DNA analysis (looking for evidence of inbreeding or, hopefully, interchange of individuals between ponds) will be complete by the end of this year, along with a Habitat Network model which will help to determine how easy it is for the three common species of amphibians to move between the SuDS sites. This will be a valuable tool to help planners and developers to design the best SuDS for wildlife as part of wider green infrastructure, and has the potential to significantly increase valuable wetland habitat within the urban environment and support amphibian populations that are in global decline.

green infrastructure

Inverness SuDS

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news

Green prescribing

Success at Dundee

James Hutton Institute researchers have produced a new report examining the barriers that older people face in getting out and about, and outlining measures aimed at removing or reducing such barriers. Outdoor activity is beneficial for physical and mental health and well-being, but the report found that less than 50% of over-60s and 40% of over-75s participated in outdoor pursuits one or more times a week, and said that GPs and medical professionals could help by encouraging older people to exercise more outdoors.

A project led by Dr Mark Cutler (Geography) has secured £300,000 (over 2016-18) from NERC for research on the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Forest Response to ENSO Drought. A NERC pilot grant of £50,000 will fund a project on Assessing the risk to the coastal and rural road network in Scotland due to the effects of storms and extreme rainfall events; this a joint award between Geography and Civil Engineering at Dundee and will be led by Dr Sue Dawson (Geography).

Report co-author Dr Margaret Currie said, “We have been able to identify a number of potential interventions, such as green prescribing which should be integrated with existing initiatives like health walks that offer opportunities for overcoming social and motivational barriers.” John Nugent, the Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Officer, said, “Using Scotland’s ‘natural gym’ to walk, run or cycle, is an ideal way for all ages to combine exercise with an appreciation of Scotland’s natural beauty.” Access to outdoor recreation by older people in Scotland is available at www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/8917.

UK City of Culture 2021 Perth has become the latest to bid for the title of UK City of Culture 2021, along with Scottish rival Paisley. Both are up against Coventry, Sunderland and Stoke-on-Trent, who have already announced their plans; Milton Keynes and Cardiff are also said to be interested in bidding. The winning city would host a number of high-profile cultural events and could see a multi-million pound boost to the local economy. The winner will be announced towards the end of 2017. Perth & Kinross Provost Liz Grant said, “We have such a fantastic wealth of culture and heritage here, I can’t wait to showcase it to the world.”

Geography Days

Our next Geography Day, on 17th September, has a theme of plant collecting, with talks from RSGS Explorer-in-Residence Craig Mathieson, Our Dynamic Earth Director Hermione Cockburn, Tom Christian from the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, and the RSGS Collections Team.

Climate Week Scotland’s first Climate Week (16-23 September 2016) is a national initiative to raise awareness and inspire action on climate change across Scotland. The Climate Change Hub of the Scottish Government is asking organisations and groups to host events and activities with their staff to highlight the importance of reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate. The aim is to engage and inspire, by involving people across the country in various activities, ranging from bike tours and electric vehicle demonstrations, to presentations from inspirational speakers, film viewings and workshops.

Diversity of land ownership Researchers at the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI, collaborating with Scotland’s Rural College, the James Hutton Institute, Pareto Consulting and Andy Wightman, have completed a large, interdisciplinary research project comparing three Scottish parishes dominated by one or more large private landowners with three similar parishes which have been broken up into smaller units.

The research found that scale of land ownership is one of many complex factors that influence the economic, social and environmental development of local communities, and that it is too simplistic to conclude that scale of land ownership is a significant factor affecting their sustainable development. The impact of diversity of ownership scale on social, economic and environmental outcomes is available at www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/07/1094/0.

University News

On Saturday 23rd July we welcomed 60 members and guests to the first Geography Day of 2016, to enjoy a day of exploration and discovery on the theme of geology.

We received some fantastic feedback from visitors, and are grateful to our speakers – Vanessa Collingridge, Bruce Gittings, Jo Woolf, and Collections Team volunteers Margaret, Kenny, Tony and Pat – for sharing their experience and enthusiasm.

In the last year 27% of the University of Dundee’s Geography and Environmental Science undergraduate students graduated with a First Class Honours. The departments also saw ten research students successfully completing their PhDs: Drs Oana Iacob, Sophie Sherriff, Verity Flett, Shiraz Sheriff, Skhue Ncube, Martin Muir, Inti Keith, Lizzy Young, Amy Holden and Soyini Ashby.

In addition, Zoe Ross received the Walton RSGS Prize for Physical Geography for the best Undergraduate Dissertation.

University News

green infrastructure

AUTUMN 2016

Buy an inspiring gift that lasts all year.

RSGS Gift Membership makes an excellent Christmas present for friends or family.

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Packard Award for Prof Crofts RSGS Chairman Professor Roger Crofts CBE has received the Packard Award from the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. This prestigious award recognises Roger’s significant contributions to protected areas policy, governance, management and advocacy for over 40 years – nationally, regionally and globally.

The Polar Academy Craig Mathieson, RSGS Explorer-in-Residence

Rob Hain, Artist We have been in discussion with artist Rob Hain about the possibility of commissioning an original artwork which features the Fair Maid’s House and the landscape of Perth.

Our hope is that we can find someone who will pay for the original to be produced (which they will keep, of course), and A Grand Day Out in Edinburgh. © Rob Hain we can then produce limited edition prints for sale to members and visitors. Rob’s paintings are charming and colourful townscapes, and we believe a new painting of Perth would be a popular souvenir. To find out more, please contact Mike at RSGS HQ.

University News

Missing people Much has happened since my last Polar Academy update.

Back in March we again set off from Glasgow to Tasiilaq in East Greenland.

Apprehension amongst the young adults was initially high; however, this soon disappeared as they started hauling their sledges through the virgin snow and ice of the Arctic.

In late August, Professor Hester Parr (Glasgow University) delivered a keynote address to an event in Cardiff jointly funded by ESRC and the charity Missing People, on The Return of Missing People. The event was designed to bring together national leads in the police, charity and local authority sectors to learn about and plan around the prevention of missing people incidents. A briefing paper authored by Hester and the charity, and designed for policy communities, detailed ‘evidence of need’ in order to bring about influence in future strategy. The event itself was a legacy of the ESRC Outstanding Impact Award 2015. See www. geographiesofmissingpeople.org.uk for more information.

Kirkcaldy venue for October talk Doug Allan will be giving the first Inspiring People talk of the Kirkcaldy season on Monday 17th October. Because we expect this event to be very popular, we have booked a larger venue: Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, Kirk Wynd, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1EH. All other talks in Kirkcaldy will be at the usual School of Midwifery, University of Dundee Fife Campus.

Fitness levels were very high, meaning we could push the team much further north than our 2015 expedition. As a team they were fantastic, quickly gelling into a very proficient and slick group.

However, once home and exams completed, the real work began. In June the team conducted an epic series of talks – every high school in Edinburgh received a visit from a member of the Polar Academy. It was incredible to witness the confidence shared with their peers when talking about the entire experience of the past year, but much more importantly, what they are now planning to achieve in the future. This has resulted in a continuous flow of parents and pupils getting in touch with me to be involved with the Polar Academy.

In late September it all begins again: 20 young adults will be attending our now infamous selection weekend.

Craig

RSGS Explorer-in-Residence

Ordering is easy. Email or phone today!

Simply contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org or 01738 455050.

Please order by 30th November if possible.

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4 AUTUMN 2016

news

With the eradication of mink, the predator of water voles, ‘ratty’ as we fondly call it is returning to our rivers and streams. In the Howe of Cromar around Tarland in Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen University and the MacRobert Estates have reintroduced a number of water voles in the Tarland Burn and the side streams. The poster describes the work which has been enthusiastically supported by local people and the farmers.

Freshwater pearl mussels

The first RSGS University Medal was awarded in 1909, at the end of the first academic year of university geography teaching in Scotland, to James Cossar MA of the University of Edinburgh for an essay on The distribution of towns and villages in Scotland, and the geographical circumstances affecting the importance of the towns at different times.

Now, every year, Scottish university Geography departments have the opportunity to recognise their outstanding graduates through the award of an RSGS University Medal. This year’s winning graduates are Alasdair Pilmer (University of Aberdeen), Amy Walker (University of Dundee), Leonardo Marioni (University of Edinburgh), Jenna Kirk (University of Glasgow), and Fergus McFarlane (University of Stirling). We congratulate them and look forward to presenting them with their medals at suitable occasions over the next few months.

Geoarchaeological investigations in the Middle East Prof Ian A Simpson, University of Stirling

Glazed & Saved Perth company Glaze & Save recently fitted their innovative secondary glazing, a polycarbonate ‘window’ with cleverly bespoke magnetic strips to hold it in place, throughout the Fair Maid’s House. This will save RSGS money on bills and make the visitor centre and office more energy efficient, and it has been done very cost effectively too, as this system is easy to fit and has brought us all the benefits of secondary glazing without us having to replace or redecorate windows.

Since installing this unique product, the building has been noticeably less draughty and warmer, but we expect the real benefit to be during the winter months. Glaze & Save are confident that we should experience a temperature increase of at least 5˚C. The secondary glazing also has the advantage of InvisiTherm™ anti-fading properties, helpful for the preservation of the many beautiful maps, books and artefacts on display here. We are delighted with the installation, although as you can see from the picture, the units are really well blended in – in fact, Glaze & Save is so discreet, you’d be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t there at all! All of this while preserving the look and lifespan of the original windows.

We are grateful to Perth Common Good Fund for their assistance towards the costs, and to Glaze & Save, who offered a significant discount as they wanted to help our charity. We are also pleased to be working with a fledgling local business, who will be back for a second phase to better insulate all the doors. Please contact us or visit www.glazeandsave.co.uk if you would like to know more.

The early multi-period urban site of Jerash, Jordan, is recognised as one of the great cities of the classical Middle East and has been the subject of ongoing systematic archaeological investigations since the 1920s. It is now emerging as part of a comparative network of early urban sites (the UrbNet programme funded by the Danish National Research Foundation) from which new understandings of urban evolution are anticipated.

Earlier excavation focused primarily on the monumental and public architecture until its demise as a city in 749 AD as a result of major slip fault. Areas of domestic, everyday activity in the early city had been largely ignored by the research community until now. Similarly, the environmental context of the site has not previously been considered, although the significance to urban development of the River Chrysorhous and spring lines in the area are recognised.

As part of these new research imperatives, geoarchaeology has been introduced to the excavation programme at Jerash, and the wider UrbNet programme, to give new insight into urban site formation processes and to explore relationships between the city and its hinterland within an urban evolution setting. An exciting aspect of our work is that these new geoarchaeology approaches are being recognised by international and national heritage agencies, and are now being built into site and environment research strategies for other early city sites in the Middle East and Mediterranean.

University News

A University of Glasgow team (Dr Rhian Thomas and Prof Colin Adams), with partner Scottish and Southern Energy (Dr Alastair Stephen) and advisers from SNH and SEPA, have been awarded a NERC CASE PhD studentship to investigate the impact of hydrodynamics on the behaviour of the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera). These mussels are an important component of aquatic ecosystems, yet habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution, loss of host fish, invasive species, water abstraction, hydropower and climate change are all factors that can negatively impact the mussels’ diversity and population structure. Contact Rhian.Thomas@ glasgow.ac.uk for more information.

University Medals

University News

Water voles return

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My favourite place in Scotland slope towards the western cliff-tops, passing ruined, sand-encroached crofts, huddled together like humpbacked widows in mourning-grey.

Although the people must have lived a precarious life on the margins, looking down on the village, nestled above a bay of azure, the place transformed into a perfect, sunny haven. At over 200 metres, Mingulay’s sea cliffs are among the highest in Europe and home to a plethora of puffins, razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes. I stood atop a deep cleft gouged into the cliffs by the boisterous sea and spent the late morning watching the birds fly to and from their nesting ledges.

Mingulay, Jamie Arnaud Like its inhabitants a century earlier, the morning’s tide had fled the shore, leaving a wide-arced smile of golden sand polished and glistening. Grey seals lounged lazily on the beach, nonchalantly turning to watch our incoming boat. I was instantly beguiled by the haunting beauty of this barren outpost of Gaeldom.

Two hours earlier, rippled cirrocumulus had promised fine weather as Donald MacLeod, one-time fisherman, now skipper of the Boy James, welcomed eight of us aboard his small boat.

The Perkins engine purred and the clouds dissipated into blue sky as we set out from Barra’s harbour in Castlebay into choppy waters towards the penultimate island of the southern tip of the Western Isles archipelago. I trekked up the broad, tussocky

Inspiring People 2016-17

My ancestors are a proud line of boat-builders, crofters and bards from the Outer Hebrides. Though I had grown up steeped in their stories of tossed seas, safe landfall and Celtic hospitality, my only prior knowledge of Mingulay derived from the popular Scottish folk song. As the island’s contours disappeared over the horizon, I thought about the last 21 families who left behind their village homes in 1912.

Only then did I appreciate the romance and longing felt by those men in the ‘Boat Song’ who, in time to the pull of their oars, sing about sailing homeward to their beloved Mingulay.

What care we though white the Minch is?

What care we for wind or weather?

Let her go boys! ev’ry inch is Wearing home, home to Mingulay.

© Harry Hook

With the talks season fast approaching, we have an impressive line-up of talks from a wide range of speakers. The speakers in the first half of the programme are photographer and climber James Lamb, radio broadcaster Mark Stephen, map expert Mike Parker, wildlife cameraman Doug Allan, geomorphologist Prof Colin Ballantyne, film-maker Harry Hook (whose stunning image this is), travel writer Ash Bhardwaj, climber Victor Saunders, Mary’s Meals founder Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, and authors Philip Hatfield and Jenny Balfour Paul.

We are delighted that, for the next three years, the RSGS Inspiring People talks programme will be run with the support of the Tiso Group.

Incorporating Blues the Ski Shop, Alpine Bikes and Tiso Outdoor Experience, the Tiso Group is Scotland’s leading outdoor specialist retailer for outdoor clothing, camping equipment, cycling and climbing gear.

In partnership with

6 AUTUMN 2016

Synchronicity: green infrastructure for multiple benefits in a r Richard Ashley, Director EcoFutures Ltd, and Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield; Dr Taneha Bacchin, Assistant Professor, Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology Straitened financial times make people think about whether they need to change what they are doing in order to survive.

And although business as usual (BAU) professional practices have largely delivered what society has needed, the world is changing at a faster and faster rate and our established systems will not suffice, as they were only designed for modest progressive change. Unfortunately BAU will not continue to work.

In response, many ideas have emerged in the past decade or so that are prompting us to think about whether we can get more from the assets we already have. There are difficulties in doing this as many existing assets lock us into a particular pathway of doing things – BAU. Regarding green infrastructure we cannot, for example, abandon all of our underground assets such as drainage systems because we believe that many of the services they provide should now be from surface-based alternatives like green infrastructure.

value of nature, just that we need to ‘dress up’ the way we present this in neoliberal economic terms. Having failed in the ‘sustainability’ movement, where schemes and developments were understood as needing to deliver equally in terms of society, environment and economy, the monetisation of natural assets is now the only way forward. There are now many tools available to support professionals in this endeavour, not only the MEA, but specific sectoral tools for valuing blue and green infrastructure in the context of, for example, providing more urban green spaces, the urban drainage sector, and valuing health benefits from blue and green spaces.

“The inherent flexibility, adaptability and resilience of green infrastructure assets contrasts starkly with the business-as-usual grey infrastructure.”

We have been working with two major sets of ideas and system changes that are in different stages of development, providing us with pointers for thinking about a potential way into the future to address human needs. The first of these has the most developed ideas and is the way in which we view and value ecosystems and nature. The second set of changes is in the different ways in which society will need to live in the future; coping with more people and greater numbers living in urban conurbations.

With the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) a precedent was set that we can value our ecosystems in such a way that we believe we can monetise many of the benefits these bring. This is important because neoliberal economic perspectives require value for money and ‘the environment’ is another asset that can bring financial benefits. Although morally questionable, this view prevails and we need to be able to promote schemes that conform to this as professionals in order to effectively engage decision makers.

This does not mean that we cannot still promote the intrinsic

In order to get the maximum benefits from utilising blue and green infrastructure, it is essential that the various professional groups work better together than they have in the past under the ‘silo mentality’ where, for example, engineers did ‘engineering’ and medics did ‘health’. There is also a need to question BAU practices. Especially in England, there is a reluctance to innovate, not least due to the fear of failure, blame and litigation. This attitude is much less prevalent in virtually every other country, where innovation in infrastructure provision and management is the norm.

For example, a recent project has been looking at blue-green infrastructure provision as a means of urban regeneration.

In two of these areas, Zwolle in the Netherlands and Kiruna in Sweden, the approach being taken is to consider ‘nature as infrastructure’, which takes the legacy of existing man-made drainage systems and retrofits blue-green infrastructure for infiltration, conveyance, retention, detention, evapotranspiration and use of rainwater. Roofs and inner gardens, setback gardens, sidewalks, roadways, parking lots

The

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rapidly changing world and public open spaces can in this way handle rainfall runoff; at the same time bringing ecological, amenity and other benefits as well as filtering pollutants. In this approach, the renaturing of cities is being planned at a range of scales and designed as a network system of connected Designing nature as infrastructure blue-green spaces, for the New Kiruna, Sweden. bringing a wide range of multiple benefits along with the multiple uses of urban land.

Our second area of interest concerns the rapid societal change that seems ‘beyond the ken’ of many professionals.

When looking to the future, BAU considers today’s infrastructure and projects it into a mono-future with a small range of climate changes and urban growth, with change as defined by planning professionals. Yet, by taking just one example, that of autonomous vehicles, the naivety of this approach can be demonstrated. In Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, there is an expectation that all motor vehicles will be electrically powered within 10-25 years. Many of these vehicles will be autonomous and, in 25 years, personally controlled vehicles will be restricted to very few in society.

Today’s designed and constructed infrastructure will still be functioning in 25 years, including any green infrastructure system. One major benefit of green contrasting with grey infrastructure is that it is easier to modify if it needs to be adapted. With all vehicles being autonomous in 25 years, the current dominance of roads and motor vehicles in urban spaces will no longer prevail and, as there will be some 90% fewer vehicles, there will be a huge amount of spare urban spaces, once populated by cars, that can be colonised by blue-green infrastructure.

This perspective on the future is only an example and illustrates that today’s design – blue-green or otherwise – must consider how urban spaces may change in the lifetime of the blue-green asset if we are to keep up with change and society’s needs. It is essential to use techniques like scenario planning to consider if our designs will be fit for purpose in the mid- to longer-term future; termed ‘robust design’ in flood risk management. The inherent flexibility, adaptability and resilience of green infrastructure assets contrasts starkly with the BAU grey infrastructure and makes these systems so much more valuable in facing an uncertain future.

Ongoing developments are now determining how to assign the financial value to the flexibility of blue-green infrastructure that is demanded by the neoliberal economists in their decision processes. This flexibility and the intrinsic provision by green infrastructure of multiple functions, addressing for example health, urban heat, ecosystem diversity, surface water control, food and cultural needs, means we can ‘sweat’ these assets today and in the future as much as we need to for future challenges, at the same time as limiting any additional investment.

How can ecosystem services help us plan better urban green infrastructure?

Dr Peter M Phillips, Collingwood Environmental Planning Green infrastructure (GI) and its role contributing to various societal objectives is discussed frequently in public policy and academic discourse, but why are urban planners and designers in particular interested in GI? We know that societies are becoming increasingly urban – in 2010, approximately 70% of Europe’s population was living in urban areas and this is projected to rise to 80% by 2050. Furthermore, a recent report from the European Environment Agency identified urbanisation as the key current and future trend in land use change for Europe.

We also know that unsustainable patterns of urbanisation can reduce and fragment the remaining natural and seminatural habitats in our towns and cities. This erodes our urban natural capital and the vital benefits and functions it provides to society – ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services are the benefits or advantages provided by healthy natural environments that are subsequently enjoyed and utilised by people. These services include the provision of food and building materials (wood and fibre), important ‘cultural’ services like attractive places and spaces to walk and play, as well as the crucial regulating functions provided by healthy well-functioning ecosystems such as protection against floods and the storage of carbon. We know also that many of these services are in decline as a result of unsustainable use and management of our natural capital.

Within our towns and cities, a plethora of green and natural environment land uses provide a framework of greenspace and semi-natural habitats, at different scales.

This ranges from large city parks and urban forests to private gardens and individual street trees. This urban green infrastructure provides critical functions or ecosystem services to urban populations, which we know are becoming larger. Poorly managed, this process of urbanisation will place increased pressure on urban land resources and services – including ecosystem services – which we know are inexorably linked to land. Managing urbanisation to protect, restore and enhance urban GI is therefore a critical objective for the 21st century.

“Urban green infrastructure provides critical functions or ecosystem services to urban populations.”

© B D’Arcy

8 AUTUMN 2016

Integrated Green Grey Infrastructure (IGGI) Dr L A Naylor, Dr S C Fitzer, and Dr A Mesa-Lopez, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow

Urban green infrastructure (GI) includes a range of green and blue spaces that enhance ecosystem service provision in cities. GI definitions often exclude greening of non-building assets (eg, pavements, walls, piers, bridges) that need to remain primarily grey. The greyest areas of our cities have the fewest ecosystem services, have limited physical space for conventional GI approaches, and have essential building and non-building infrastructure (eg, roads, tramways, quay walls, flood defences, street furniture) that must remain primarily grey to retain their essential function.

“A variety of techniques are used to green ‘primarily grey’ assets that must retain their essential grey function.”

What if it were possible to green these grey features whilst retaining their essential grey function? Drawing on research and innovation from outside of the GI, urban ecology and landscape architecture lenses, we identify a suite of measures in historic, coastal and the non-building urban fabric that can usefully be greened. We call this Integrated Green Grey Infrastructure (IGGI) where a variety of techniques are used to green ‘primarily grey’ assets that must retain their essential grey function.

IGGI seeks to improve the multifunctionality of hard, essential grey infrastructure in towns and cities where softer, nature-based green infrastructure (GI), such as wetlands, swales, parks and tree planting, are not socially, technically or economically feasible.

These IGGI approaches complement, rather than replace, existing GI tools and techniques, and can usefully extend the range and extent of urban landscapes which can be greened to provide improved ecosystem service benefits for society, and help address the challenge of improving green space provision in dense urban areas with limited land and water for conventional GI approaches. Thus, IGGI can be seen as an important middle ground on a ‘continuum of greening’ from grey to GI. By reframing GI as a continuum, IGGI can showcase how including a much larger range of grey infrastructure assets on non-buildings (as well as more conventional greening of buildings) in GI planning and practice can lead to improved greening in the most urbanized areas of cities, helping to address spatial variations in GI intensity across urban landscapes, and helping to address the challenge of including green space in rapidly urbanizing, compact cities.

A systematic review of 35 GI policy documents found no mention of IGGI, and a recent survey of 53 UK practitioners showed that while 64% were interested in applying IGGI, 58% felt that policy and 24% felt that guidelines were needed before implementation could occur. This clearly demonstrates there is practitioner interest in applying IGGI techniques, and a clear policy gap; new innovation research funded by NERC

is currently helping to address this gap.

The table outlines the range of building and non-building grey asset types that can be greened using IGGI approaches, the methods used and some of the multi-functional and ecosystem service benefits that have been measured to date. These case studies are currently being developed into business case examples for practitioners as part of the NERC innovation project. We are looking for examples of IGGI from Scotland and beyond as part of this project. Please do get in touch with larissa.naylor@glasgow.ac.uk if you have IGGI examples you are happy to share.

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A continuum of urban greening from grey to green, illustrating where IGGI approaches can usefully extend the existing range of GI tools and techniques available. Adapted from Environment Agency 2012; permission from Aaron Dunkerton for the bird-nesting brick.

SETTING

ASSET TYPE

TYPES OF GREENING USING IGGI METHODS

MULTIFUNCTIONAL BENEFITS MEASURED TO DATE

terrestrial

buildings

green roof, living walls, insect and animal habitat

regulating runoff, micro-climate and air quality; improved ecological and amenity value

terrestrial

free-standing walls (including historic assets)

soft cappings, green and animal walls

reduced risk of asset deterioration; improved ecological, air quality, social cohesion and amenity value

terrestrial

perimeter fencing

green screens

improved amenity and air quality (decrease in NOx and particulate matter)

terrestrial

pavements, car parks

street trees, pocket parks

absorbs rainwater; improved ecological, public health and amenity value

terrestrial

rubble

rocky green roofs, pocket habitats

improved ecological and amenity value

terrestrial

street furniture

benches with animal and plant habitat niches

improved ecological and amenity value

river

flood walls, sheet piling, piers, gabion baskets

retrofit habitat niches, green gabions

improved ecological value

estuaries and coasts

flood walls, sheet piling, outfall pipes, piers, rock revetments

create niche habitats, select ecologically favourable materials, passively orient rock material to improve ecological suitability

improved ecological and amenity value; increased abundance of commercial species; supports biodiversity policy

all

transport infrastructure

green bridges, green cycle storage, green tram and railways, green harbours and ferry terminals

improved wildlife habitat, including biodiversity and ecological benefits

Potential essential grey infrastructure asset types that can be greened via IGGI.

This article is based on ongoing work involving the University of Oxford as well as Arup, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

FURTHER READING Environment Agency (2012) Greater working with natural processes in flood and coastal erosion risk management: A response to Pitt Review Recommendation 27 Naylor et al (2014) Enhancing hard infrastructure for improved multifunctionality (www.ciria.org/Events/Enhancing_hard_ infrastructure_for_improved_multifunctionality.aspx)

Retrofit rock pool. Š Arc Consulting

Naylor et al (under review) Along a continuum of urban greening: the nature and role of green grey infrastructure (Ambio, A Journal of the Human Environment)

10 AUTUMN 2016

Green infrastructure and place-making in Scotland Arthur Keller, Scottish Natural Heritage

“People don’t move to buildings, they move to places.” That was the message from design impresario Wayne Hemingway at the 2016 Central Scotland Green Network Forum. He argued that architects, builders and planners should think first about the sense of place that their development will create, and then design a neighbourhood around that – making a place, rather than just building houses and roads. This puts green and blue infrastructure, especially greenspace, at the heart of the design process, making it an integral part of the project, rather than an add-on.

“There is a movement to enhance and reinforce a sense of place in our towns and cities.”

This is not a new idea. During the Victorian era, when the population shift to the cities was at its fastest, urban centres were built with parks and tree-lined avenues, giving us today some of our most cherished green spaces. However, fashions changed, and the industries on which the wealth of some of our towns once depended declined. As a result, we also have extensively paved city centres, suburbs with precious little and sometimes poorly-maintained public open space, and vacant and derelict land which blights some of the areas hardest hit by economic change.

So there is a movement to enhance and reinforce a sense of place in our towns and cities that includes the contribution of the green (and blue) infrastructure to the public realm. This approach has been gathering momentum in Scotland. The Scottish Government produced Green Infrastructure: Design and Place-making in 2011.

That planning guidance argued that green infrastructure “should be thought about at every scale of planning, from the strategic framework right down through neighbourhoods and within streets to the individual house or flat.” More recently, the National Planning Framework and Scottish Planning Policy also seek to protect, enhance and promote green infrastructure as an integral component of successful place-making.

The planning system and planning authorities therefore have a key role in taking this forward. A good example is Fife Council.

It developed planning policy guidance through its Local Development Plan via a series of collaborative, design-led workshops leading to a green network spatial strategy for its settlements. The strategy safeguards existing green infrastructure assets, identifies opportunities to enhance these resources, and sets out priorities for green network delivery in areas of proposed development. The Making Fife’s Places supplementary planning guidance published in 2015 supports delivery.

Outside of planning, a number of large-scale projects are also being developed. An example at the site level is Maidenhill, an 85ha greenfield site in East Renfrewshire which has been identified as a key strategic development proposal for urban expansion. The council has developed a master plan for the site, setting out its vision for the area which was developed in collaboration with key agencies and the respective landowners and house builders, which forms supplementary guidance. The plan sets out how the green network should be an integral part of the development, and how developers should enhance the existing landscape features of the site to provide multiple benefits. It includes a green spine cutting through the site, which will be an active travel corridor, connect habitats, provide a recreational resource, and contribute to a sense of place for the development site. Existing woodland is incorporated in the plan, and new planting will take place. Swales and sustainable urban drainage systems will provide amenity as well as a water management function on the site.

On the north-east outskirts of Glasgow and North Lanarkshire lies the Gartloch-Gartcosh community growth area, earmarked for

4,300 new homes in the Strategic Development Plan. Right in the middle of that proposed new housing, a major natural heritage resource is being developed – the Seven Lochs Wetland Park.

This project has been driven by the Glasgow & Clyde Valley Green Network Partnership. It was awarded £4.5m by the Heritage Lottery Fund in June 2016 which, with contributions from other partner organisations, will enhance the connections to the lochs, peatlands, woodlands and historic resources that are there – but that is just the start. The intention is to develop green links into the Park from the existing communities, and new housing, so that it is integrated with the whole development.

While there is often a focus on new development with innovative approaches to urban expansion, a greater challenge lies in bringing green infrastructure into our existing settlements. This is best exemplified in the ‘dear green place’ – Glasgow – which has a number of high-profile parks and open spaces, and yet these are all a little distance from the city centre where so many people work, live and shop. As part of the City Deal funding programme, the council is undertaking a green regeneration of some of the main thoroughfares, including Sauchiehall Street, which is a centre of evening activity as well as residential and retail uses. The proposals will give more space to pedestrians, create avenues with new street planting, and incorporate surface water management for rainy days (there are some!) which doubles as green infrastructure.

Changing the nature of our townscapes and neighbourhoods will take time. The Greenspace Map shows how much we have got and where more is needed. Over time, it can be used to measure the progress of this green approach to place-making.

Scotland’s Greenspace Map: a developing resource to inform green infrastructure policy 2011 saw the publication of Scotland’s Greenspace Map (SGM), believed to be a world first. It was the culmination of years of partnership working to ‘stitch together’ 32 separate local authority greenspace datasets into a single GIS dataset.

The data shows the type and extent of greenspace in urban Scotland, categorising greenspace into 23 different open space types (eg parks, private gardens, play areas, semi-natural and allotments). The dataset has been used to inform strategy and planning in local authorities, climate change adaptation opportunities mapping in Glasgow, and open space and health research in urban Scotland, to name but a few.

Ordnance Survey (OS) have been working with the partnership in a collaborative project under the One Scotland Mapping Agreement to develop the methodology for a new version of SGM. OS will be publishing a Great Britain-wide open product and premium product in March 2017. The new datasets will vary slightly from the original in terms of the way the greenspace types are categorised and how the datasets are structured, but will benefit from far greater consistency and will be updated on a regular basis.

© Crown copyright 2016 OS 100021862.

Use of this data is subject to terms and conditions.

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How does a landscape architect think about GI? Sue Illman, Illman Young Landscape Design, and Past President (2012-14) of the Landscape Institute

We are all now familiar with the description of green infrastructure (GI) as “the network of natural and seminatural features, green spaces, rivers and lakes that intersperse and connect villages, towns and cities”, their role as assets, and the functions that they perform. We have gone down the route of categorising and systematising GI, to assert its scientific basis as a means of justifying its role as an ‘essential infrastructure’, which it clearly is, but in doing so, do we also rather miss the point? When you look at GI, what do you see? The benefits it brings to health and wellbeing? A reduction in flooding? New habitats?

Improved biodiversity? Or do you see a landscape of beauty that also provides those benefits?

towns and cities. More people and buildings exacerbate the issues of climate change, with hotter and dryer conditions, or extended rainfall and flooding, creating ever more challenging conditions, demanding new approaches to soil specification, plant selection and management, whilst being aware of the problems that pests and diseases can cause in these changed environmental conditions. So we have to be brave and experiment, work with colleagues to develop new ideas and solutions, consider new technologies and how they can be applied. How grey and green can come together effectively.

“Our landscapes are inherently multi-functional systems in a way that most designed or engineered structures are not.”

How does a landscape architect think about GI when considering site design? It seems a strange question to ask, as designing with and for the landscape is the essence of what we do. Consideration of trees and vegetation, biodiversity and ecology, flood risk and opportunities, soils and aspect; all sit alongside the client’s desired outcomes, and the planning context and framework, but where do we begin? Those are all a ‘given’, as we also want to consider the visual quality and setting, the landscape or townscape character and quality of the site, and to understand the needs of both those who currently use it and those who will do so in the future. As our landscapes are for people, and will be both shaped by, and respond to, those who pass through.

So all the above perhaps explains why I like being a landscape architect, and how we can add value.

Landscape, green infrastructure, natural capital; call it what you will, they are all intrinsically part of our palette. We don’t own it, and there are plenty of fellow professionals who will want and need to add their contribution. That’s also part of the fun, and how we approach it.

Part of the issue is the fact that we actually take GI for granted most of the time, as there are few sites where (for us) it is not part of the mix; but how it is used is completely dependent on the site factors and intended outcomes for its use. That is the creative bit and part of the fun, as it also opens up lots of opportunities.

Our landscapes are inherently multi-functional systems in a way that most designed or engineered structures are not.

So the approach to thinking about soft landscape design naturally allows us to consider a wide range of approaches.

We are only limited by our imagination, a willing client and the budget!

Sustainable drainage (SUDS) is one of my interests, and I can sell it as reducing flood risk, providing drainage infrastructure, improving biodiversity, improving water quality, improving air quality, as well as an attractive environment for staff/visitors/others to enjoy. And if pushed I can get really creative and sell it as improving solar and thermal efficiency in buildings. I can also sell its virtue as often being cheaper than more engineered solutions. Whatever pushes the appropriate buttons for that project. However, what I hope I am delivering is a place that adds quality and beauty to the local environment, that will be robust and enduring, and will become valued by the community for whom it was designed.

The rest comes as part of the package we provide, even though we may not shout about it.

Bioengineering is also a great interest, as the future needs us to adapt what we do, particularly in the urban environment, linking hard and soft engineering to provide innovative multifunctional solutions to the problems of densification of our

SUDS and GI at Conference Centre, Portland. © Sue Illman

Public Health and Landscape, a position statement from the Landscape Institute.

12 AUTUMN 2016

Vertical gardens in Barcelona Marc Grañén, Landscape Artist and Creator of PhytoKinetic

Undoubtedly, we need more green space in our cities.

And although at times we go out of our way to construct and preserve parks, gardens, and small urban forests, our population continues to grow sometimes as uncontrollably as our lack of common sense. This is a fact that nowadays many people from across different sectors acknowledge. Fortunately there are more and more people fighting against the clock to try to remedy this.

There are many examples – renewable energy strategies, efficient construction practices, and the environmentally responsible management of waste, public spaces and roads, which can become essential social pillars in strengthening a future built on greater balance and harmony – where our re-engagement and re-integration with nature is pivotal.

The road to achieving this hopeful goal inevitably involves our schools, because children grow not only from absorbing what they learn from adults but also through their direct contact with the environment.

So when the children assume the daily habit of taking care of plants that bear us fruit and which make our existence richer, everything begins to take on a different dimension, allowing us to assess many other functional aspects of our co-existence with nature.

In order for this to be possible, we need to be able to count on schools having large enough spaces to grow and nurture nature, which, unfortunately, many schools do not have. As a result, we have been forced to seek and find tangible nearby alternatives: so in Barcelona we have looked to the walls.

Vegetated walls have thus become a very practical solution to the growing needs for this re-encounter with nature in urban environments. The plants get used to it very easily and they have new areas in which to grow and thrive without fear of being trampled upon or abused. Along with plants the children can eat or use to cook with, these vertical gardens play host to numerous animal species that enrich the new garden, creating unsuspecting ecosystems where before there was only brick and cement.

Thus, many birds, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates discover new places to live close to our lives, allowing us the privilege to witness first-hand their vital rhythms, and helping us to learn how to learn.

Fortunately, cultivating a farm on the balcony or rooftop of a home or in a schoolyard is beginning to become more common, propelling us towards a socially co-operative and engaging future. Therefore, this logical evolution leads inescapably to vertical horticulture.

Here, in Barcelona’s schools, we are faced by an unbeatable combination of factors because vegetation awakens an innate attraction within us, strongly intertwined with the natural curiosity and interest of youngsters. Spurred by encouraging staff, the children want to know more of everything, to experience new sensations, and are open to new knowledge and perceptions, so creating an environment which is

“Vegetated walls have become a very practical solution to the growing needs for this re-encounter with nature in urban environments.” increasingly interdisciplinary and increasingly multisensory.

Therefore, a simple project involving Mediterranean gardening, such as a vertical garden, ends up becoming an open classroom to work on volumes, geometry and arithmetic; artistic workshops are created, and new challenges in technological, environmental, and social areas are devised. From the very beginning, all of the students have shown a special interest in knowing what was going to be installed in their schoolyard, including being able to participate themselves in its design. And so, almost without thinking, the children have found themselves painting and cutting to scale the modules of the vertical garden, calculating the required volumes and areas, while at the same time questioning technical aspects of its assembly.

And now that the vertical gardens dress the patio walls, they touch, smell, feel, and live them; they learn the names of plants and animals that soon colonize here. And the senses are filled with fragrances that the leaves and flowers offer. The reality of a new, more rich, diverse, and healthy environment will give the children a better quality of life. In addition, the diversity of neighbourhoods in the city offers the possibility of observing the behaviour of different ecosystems; each has different microclimates and therefore different nesting birds, and variability in the adaptation of plants because not all living walls are oriented in the same manner, nor do the soft breezes blow in the same way.

Thus, children can share the same basic experiences but with many different results, and by linking with other schools, create an urban network of biological information vital for understanding the natural biological rhythms of the city.

The school children will observe the birds and study their habitats; they will learn how water is saved by drip irrigation and using the rain sensors; and their eyes will be enriched with the colourful variety that the seasons present in different parts of Barcelona.

That is to say, they will grow wiser, living and experiencing the vegetable garden at school as something routine, of a dayto-day nature, contributing knowledge and lessons shared, working from an active and dynamic methodology adapted to the tempo that beats from outside in the street as if it were a social network.

Language, science, and environment in one act; this is called the open classroom. We have managed to open all classrooms and let the whole world enter because we have allowed the children to go outside to learn and experience as much as inside.

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© Marc Grañén

14 AUTUMN 2016

Charles Shirreff Kenneth Maclean FRSGS and Tony Simpson, RSGS collections volunteers

In January 1766, a letter was sent to the editor of the Scots Magazine praising the drawing skills of Charles Shirreff (c1750-c1831), the first pupil of the first regular school for the deaf and dumb in Great Britain. We recently (re-) discovered in the RSGS collection a manuscript map dated 1766, drawn by this same Charles Shirreff.

Charles was the youngest of five sons of Alexander Shirreff, a wealthy wine merchant of the Port of Leith, and his wife Agnes. Little is known of Charles’s early life; it appears, however, that he lost his hearing when three years old and, aged ten, was enrolled as the first pupil in ‘Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf and Dumb’, bordering the King’s Park, Edinburgh.

The Academy was the brainchild of Thomas Braidwood (1715-1806), who originally specialised as a maths tutor but followed a broad-based curriculum that also stressed the importance of good manners, etiquette, and speaking correctly. Alexander Shirreff was aware of Braidwood’s attentiveness to elocution and speech therapy, and seems to have inspired the school by asking if he “could try and teach my deaf son Charles.”

So from 1760, Braidwood Academy became the world’s first school for deaf children. In its early years, both deaf and hearing pupils were taught together.

In succeeding years, other parents were

no less impressed and, by 1783, enrolment reached 20 pupils, drawn from throughout Britain and even the American colonies. Braidwood’s school became known as ‘Dumbie House’ and is recorded as such on contemporary maps.

It is reflected today in the name Dumbiedykes, a post1960s redeveloped, residential area, close to the Scottish Parliament.

Favourable publicity for the school and information about Charles came from advertisements in Edinburgh broadsheets such as The Edinburgh Evening Courant. The edition of 12 March 1776, for example, noted that Charles “reads any English book distinctly, and… answers the questions put to him with great readiness, and the manner of pronouncing is articulate and distinct.” And in the January Scots Magazine that year, it is recorded that Charles “writes with elegance; is thoroughly master of arithmetic, book-keeping, and geography; and is no (sic) inconsiderable proficient in drawing. He is to be bred a merchant, and it is thought he will excel in that business.”

“Charles’s final creation combining map and sketches is an attractive fusion of map-making and pictorialism.”

Charles, however, did not pursue a career in business, but instead became an excellent and successful artist, specialising in miniature portraits. It is likely that Shirreff’s manuscript map, unearthed in the RSGS, was a ‘one-off’; arguably, the product of a challenging school exercise set by

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Braidwood to test and hone Charles’s skills of observation, copying and drawing. And, possibly, as suggested by Peter Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Deaf History Society, Charles’s map assignment afforded Braidwood another opportunity to “show off one of his star pupils.”

Various maps and their cartographers were compared in an attempt to find the starting place for the exercise. Charles’s map has two elements: first, in the centre, a framed map of Scotland, which is bounded, secondly, by seven sketches of famous historic Scottish buildings, and a heraldic shield.

By process of elimination, it appears that Charles’s copy accurately replicates Scotland (1749), a map engraved

by Thomas Jefferys and reproduced that year in Thomas Salmon’s A New Geographical and Historical Grammar. Overall, Charles faithfully duplicates – apart from a few place-names, eg ‘Mull of Cantire’ – virtually all of the substance of Jefferys’ map which displays political and topographic material in close-packed detail; no mean challenge for the teenager. The cartouche (the ornamented panel at the bottom left corner) depicts fishing nets, barrels and possibly a sea eagle, and displays the map’s scale, ‘60 miles to a degree’ (ie 1 inch to c50 miles), and title, ‘Scotland’.

The scrupulous care lavished by Charles on the map is further demonstrated in his surrounding sketches, derived from two illustrated books. The earlier publication was Theatrum Scotiae (1693) by John Slezer, Chief Military Engineer with the army in Scotland from 1671. Portrayed in the remaining sketches are significant Edinburgh buildings, which include St Giles’ Cathedral, Holyrood Palace, the Royal Infirmary, Heriot’s Hospital, Edinburgh Castle, and Holyrood Abbey Church. All the Edinburgh buildings were situated within easy walking distance from Dumbie House; however, the final, carefully-executed sketches appear to be drawn from historian and topographer William Maitland’s The History of Edinburgh, published in 1753.

Viewed as a whole, Charles’s final creation combining map and sketches is an attractive fusion of map-making and pictorialism. These talents were developed further when Charles moved to London in 1769 to attend the Royal Academy Schools. After successfully graduating as silver medallist in 1772, he pursued a very successful livelihood as a miniature painter, living and working in Bath and London, and building up a wealthy clientele that included famous actors and the aristocracy. His financial circumstances further improved after a period of 12 years, from 1797 to 1809, spent in India, where his sitters included East India Company administrators and army officers. After returning, he married in 1810, and continued to paint and exhibit his works until he passed away.

16 AUTUMN 2016

Green infrastructure and the planning system Rufus Logan, Director, BRE Scotland

At a conference in late 2015, the session ‘Green Infrastructure and the Planning System’ looked at how green infrastructure (GI) is applied within the urban planning context, and the importance it plays in underpinning better places for work and leisure. The session introduced possible new approaches for city-scale planning taking full account of GI, based on the ecosystem services framework. There was a clear case for a greater focus on strategic GI across the planning and development process, moving from oneoff, relatively small-scale project level interventions. The aim was to open up a debate about how strategic/city-scale GI planning can be delivered. Who is doing what already? What is working well? What are the barriers to delivery?

The European Commission defines GI as “the use of ecosystems, green spaces and water in strategic land use planning to deliver environmental and quality of life benefits.”

Therefore GI is not just about green spaces like parks and woodland, it also incorporates blue infrastructure such as sustainable urban drainage, swales, rivers and canals.

Considering green spaces as infrastructure arises because elements like trees and watercourses can provide valuable services in an ecological way. GI can deliver on functions and services such as shelter, access and travel, drainage, pollution mitigation and food production – as part of a wider ecosystem. Moreover, this approach has the added benefit of enhancing habitats and creating attractive places. The multi-functional nature of GI is one of its intrinsic benefits.

Individual elements of GI can serve a useful purpose without being connected. However, when components are linked together to form green networks, further combined benefits can be achieved at a strategic level, and this type of approach is beginning to gain traction.

For example, within BRE, credits are awarded for GI components under the BREEAM Communities scheme, embedding GI into the development process. The Strategic Ecological Framework within BREEAM covers the approach taken to address ecology. The Framework: • reflects current best practice; • focuses on the context of the development; • allows wider socio-economic benefits to be demonstrated; • improves the value of biodiversity; and • balances the cost and the ease of implementation.

In Glasgow, the Local Development Plan commitments include a ‘geodiversity in natural environment’ policy. Glasgow City Council’s planning team are also developing subsurface supplementary planning guidance, supported by NERC and the British Geological Society. This development of fully-integrated above- and below-ground 3D BIM, a 3D planning mechanism, will improve the delivery of GI in the city.

Greenspace Scotland have been looking at whether an existing urban centre could be retrofitted to incorporate effective levels of GI. A small study area in central Glasgow assessed those GI measures that have been or could be retrofitted to understand if GI can be incorporated into the existing urban form in sufficient quantities and in the right locations to tackle projected overheating. The study also looked at other benefits, such as surface water management, place-making and improved public realm (including on stalled sites), and air quality improvements. Whilst sufficient opportunities were identified to retrofit the required quantity of GI, the key constraint was cost. They proposed a pragmatic approach of introducing GI in a number of ways including: • promoting green roofs and walls through planning; • seeking to significantly increase any green cover where it currently exists; • requiring GI, such as raingardens and swales, on new developments.

Scotland is blessed with a great policy framework for planning and sustainable development but lacks practical tools and techniques to help urban planners take a strategic view of their GI assets. Peter Phillips of Collingwood Environmental Planning (see page 7) has made the case for better strategic planning of urban GI to ensure the provision of critical ecosystem services in the right places. Strategic planning should recognise and enable project-level activities that work with nature.

Using a GI planning modelling tool, it is possible to highlight ‘hotspots’ of ecosystem service demand. This approach enables recognition of the multiple benefits of GI in urban spaces at strategic through to project level, thus delivering a key component of the Scottish Government’s land-use strategy, namely that “Opportunities for land use to deliver multiple benefits should be encouraged.” With such a clear statement of intent, surely the opportunity to see greater emphasis on GI has never been greater.

“Trees and watercourses can provide valuable services in an ecological way.”

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The Green Infrastructure Fund Martin Faulkner, Green Infrastructure Project and Funding Officer, Scottish Natural Heritage

Scottish Natural Heritage’s Green Infrastructure Fund is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-20 Programme. The Fund aims to transform some of Scotland’s most deprived urban areas through creating or improving multi-functional green infrastructure. We intend to support a minimum of 15 projects that improve or create at least 140ha of urban green infrastructure. The Fund is a competitive fund for grants up to 40% of minimum costs of £650,000. All projects need to be complete by 31 December 2018.

and communities. Well-designed physical environments can have a positive impact on health and well-being. “How people feel about their physical surroundings can impact on not just mental health and wellbeing, but also physical disease,” said Sir Harry Burns, former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland.

“We are looking for truly multi-functional green infrastructure.”

A blueprint for green infrastructure: outcomes which change lives We are looking to fund projects in areas in Scotland that have a deficit of good quality greenspace, and suffer from multiple deprivation and an excess of vacant and derelict land.

Communities will benefit through green infrastructure projects that help to deliver successful multi-functional places, address inequalities, provide opportunities for better health, and support sustainable economic growth through five Outcomes: Outcome 1: Nature, biodiversity and ecosystems. Habitat network improvements increase space for biodiversity and help species to adapt to climate change. Better natural connections between urban and rural environments redress some of the losses resulting from our heavy industrial past.

Outcome 2: Environmental quality, flooding and climate change. Planned improvements and new multifunctional greenspaces reduce the impact of environmental problems like noise pollution, poor air and water quality, urban heating and flooding, by improving the ecosystem services that urban land provides.

Outcome 3: Involving communities and increasing participation. An increased choice of greenspace with a range of different sizes, facilities, habitat, natural play features or equipment and experiences to visit close to home encourages people to spend more time outside and become more active.

Empowering communities to engage in the management of their neighbourhood is a Scottish Government objective that could help address social inequalities.

Outcome 4: Increasing place attractiveness and competitiveness. Places are more attractive to live, work and invest in and are more economically competitive as a result of green infrastructure improvements. The quantity of vacant and derelict land is reduced and is transformed into positive and productive greenspace where communities need and want it.

Outcome 5: Improving health and well-being. Green infrastructure close to where people live provides health and recreational benefits and enhances their quality of life through improving the quality of their local environment and their sense of place.

Taking ‘Improving health and well-being’ as an example, green infrastructure has well-documented benefits for people © B D’Arcy

Horizontal themes All projects will need to show how they are taking account of all three of the ERDF horizontal themes: Environmental Sustainability, Social Inclusion, and Equal Opportunities. The themes correlate well with Scotland’s National Performance Framework Outcomes, including “We live in well-designed, sustainable places where we are able to access the amenities and services we need,” and “We value and enjoy our built and natural environment and protect it and enhance it for future generations.”

What kind of projects are we looking for?

The Green Infrastructure Fund is competitive, applications will be scored on eligibility and quality, and applicants are encouraged to look through the guidance at an early stage.

Successful projects will be able to clearly evidence need (at both strategic and community levels) and will be engaged with local communities and will continue to do so. Sometimes a small change to a proposed project could significantly increase its potential to deliver across the Outcomes. For example, we know that street trees are useful at removing particulate pollution, but the choice of species, spacing and how the ground in between the trees is managed can change how much they contribute to biodiversity, surface water management and urban cooling.

We are looking for truly multi-functional green infrastructure; projects which deliver across several of the Outcomes are likely to score highly. Projects that show how the proposed improvements will integrate into the wider urban green infrastructure to provide multiple benefits at a strategic level are also likely to score well.

Innovation Innovation is core to ERDF funding and we will be looking for projects that can demonstrate innovation through design, implementation and/or monitoring and evaluation. For example, a technique may have been used in mainland Europe but never in Scotland.

Round 2 deadline The deadline for applications to Round 2 is 31 October 2016.

Please visit www.greeninfrastructurescotland.org.uk or contact us at greeninfrastructure@snh.gov.uk to find out more about the Green Infrastructure Fund.

FURTHER READING

The Scottish Government (2010) Equally Well Review 2010: Report by the Ministerial Task Force on implementing ‘Equally Well’, the ‘Early Years Framework’ and ‘Achieving Our Potential’ (www.gov.scot)

© Mike Robinson

18 AUTUMN 2016

Action on public health Professor Roger Crofts, RSGS Chairman

A fundamental change has occurred with medics placing emphasis on what individuals can do out of doors. A poster in the Edinburgh Cancer Centre exhorts patients to “sit less and move more”, suggesting physical activity helps to manage tiredness and fatigue, and reduces stress and anxiety.

There is clear evidence that green infrastructure benefits people’s health and well-being, and is a means to that end.

“Green infrastructure benefits people’s health and well-being.”

Why do we need green infrastructure?

People are disassociated from their surroundings. They are faced with neglected wasteland and have no link with nature. Those living in areas of highest deprivation are worst affected. We should help them to have better lifestyles and life chances.

People are given the wrong medication. Traditional medication is dispensed at a high cost: analgesics cost £13m per year. Medical services focus on specific ailments, not on the whole person. Surely the better ‘pill’ is outdoor experience and activity. Medical and other professionals are not yet working together effectively to find solutions for the whole person or family or locality.

Lack of environmental prioritisation in and around our towns and cities. Planners claim to plan with greenspace in mind, and National Planning Framework 3 has a strategic objective of green infrastructure. But, planning is too focused on providing land for houses and development. The South East Scotland Plan, for example, fails to refer to environmental quality in house building, or to link quality of the environment with reducing social deprivation.

What can we learn from evidence and activity elsewhere?

Physical inactivity is a major health risk according to the World Health Organisation: 30 minutes a day of physical activity makes a substantial difference to individual health.

Work for the Scottish Physical Activity Research Collaboration shows that the annual cost of physical inactivity in primary and secondary care sectors is £94m, equivalent to £18 per person per year. Surveys show that outdoor activity physically reduces factors contributing to cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and hypertension, and mentally improves self-esteem, alleviating anxiety, and increasing self-awareness.

A recent review on links between human health and outdoor experience showed that: • access to safe and high quality green space benefits individuals across every stage of their lifespan, and enhances their physical, mental, social and spiritual health and well-being; • in urban areas, parks foster social connections that are vital to community cohesion and contribute to social well-being.

The Scottish Physical Activity Task Force estimated that if physical inactivity in Scotland decreased by 1% each year for

the next five years, the benefit from the life years saved would be £85.2 million.

The research-based evidence and a growing divergence between urban populations and natural parks persuaded Parks Victoria, Australia to develop Healthy Parks Healthy People to entice people to visit and enjoy space protected for nature. A decade on, it is an international movement.

What lessons can we learn? New partnerships are required between education, medicine, urban planning, outdoor recreation and nature. Remember that health and environmental benefits can go hand in hand, particularly improvements in ecosystem services and people’s well-being.

And, remember to join in as partners with international bodies in the ground-breaking Healthy Parks Healthy People programme to share knowledge, exchange ideas and learn about good practice.

So, what action is needed in Scotland?

There is a lot going on, but medical professionals are not sufficiently engaged and the planners are not delivering integrated, multi-objective planning. I would like to propose a four-point plan with the overall objective of achieving greater physical and mental well-being of people and improved local environments for them to use actively.

1) T he whole nation activity plan. Let’s have a real action programme of ‘healthy people healthy outdoor activities’ throughout Scotland, in every health board area, every primary care group and every GP surgery, in a partnership with outdoor activity experts and providers. The Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform is taking a lead but her colleagues and others must join her.

2) A utomatic prescription of the ‘outdoor pill’. Rather than prescribing complex drug treatments, medics should prescribe outdoor activity in association with local providers, alongside their mainstream medical support.

This will require training of primary care medics, GPs and pharmacists in the offering of alternative therapies involving outdoor activity.

3) D eliver special programmes for target groups and places.

Two targets are essential: those with the poorest health, and school children due to obesity and influencing the behaviour of family members. School teachers and parents associations should be actively encouraged to lead on these programmes.

4) M ake the urban land use planning system fully integrated and multi-purpose. The known benefits of a green, clean and friendly environment should always be part of the planning, building and operation of new hospitals and local health and care centres. A cohesive and integrated green infrastructure should be a fundamental plank in the development of sustainable towns and cities.

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AUTUMN 2016

2,020 raingardens in Scotland by 2020 Brian J D’Arcy, independent environmental consultant

The term ‘raingarden’ implies all the positive associations of a garden with the fact that it is a feature designed with rain in mind. Strictly speaking, a raingarden was originally conceived in the US as a bio-retention feature applied usually at a small scale. In a well-publicised example a few years ago in Australia, Melbourne Water launched a public awareness raising campaign to encourage people to install raingardens designed to take roof runoff, as a measure to reduce demand on public water supplies during the then ten-year drought.

The campaign for 10,000 raingardens in Greater Melbourne included green roofs and walls, community-sized ponds and wetlands, as well as small house-plot units.

I learned from that example when visiting the Duloch Park development in Dunfermline, which is well known (but not to locals) as a demonstration district for Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). It contains various landscape features, including detention basins (hollows designed to detain peak inflows of runoff), retention ponds (permanent ponds with sufficient retention time to allow biodegradation of entrained pollutants in runoff), grass swales (shallow linear depressions which should be applied alongside roads etc to provide a first level of attenuation of flow and pollutants), and permeable pavement (meaning roads, not footpaths).

When photographing a pleasing array of wildflowers in a detention basin at Duloch Park, I was approached by a young mum with children who looked to see what I was doing. “I’m photographing the detention basin.” The lady looked horrified and I followed her gaze to a large and somewhat forbidding block of flats. “No, I mean a community raingarden,” and I pointed to the flowers and open expanse immediately in front of us. What a change a few words can make. As the family looked over the toddler fence, I explained to the older boy that the community raingarden was where the tadpoles in his garden pond will go when they turn into little frogs. He looked interested (and hopefully will ask his mum to get a garden pond...).

That incident is perhaps an example of where efforts to champion multiple benefits from green infrastructure have so far failed to capture public imagination. SUDS is a term embedded in legislation in Scotland, as the technical term for a suite of measures with SUDS at Duloch Park, Dunfermline. equally esoteric jargon terms as far as the public is concerned. But the Melbourne Water idea of raingardens, as an all-encompassing term for that technology, has much public merit.

Scottish Water have surveyed SUDS in relation to their adoption criteria, established under the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003. Poor compliance with target standards has been found in many instances.

Whilst there can be disagreements on what are the optimum desirable elements of a feature, there can be little disagreement about inlet and outlet structures, side slopes, and other basic details. And far too many fail to optimise wildlife benefits or visual appeal. Perhaps there would be more pressure on designers and public sector organisations to create more inspirational features if the public could be brought into the process. None of the aspirations for amenity value, wildlife habitat or aesthetics preclude drainage effectiveness or pollutant removal and degradation in a system. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 requires public sector organisations to have regard for biodiversity in the course of their business, so perhaps raingardens of all kinds should feature in annual compliance reports to the government. Yet at least one local authority is proudly spending public money creating two ponds as new habitats, whilst ignoring the 30 ponds and wetland features created for ‘drainage’.

“Efforts to champion multiple benefits from green infrastructure have so far failed to capture public imagination.”

Resource is available, if multiple benefits for green infrastructure can be sought by integrating work plans between local authority departments, with SEPA and Scottish Water too. What has been missing is a bit of vision on how to do it, and a sufficient degree of interest at higher levels.

Local partnership initiatives to promote the multiple benefits of green infrastructure features of all kinds would be a great way for environmentalists and value seekers to get public sector organisations and developers to up their game and seek better, more fit-for-purpose, more attractive features.

Maintenance: beauty is in the eye of the budget holder Optimising wildlife benefits can save money too. At first there was protest when local authorities, hard hit by budget cuts, drastically reduced grass cutting frequencies in public parks, but there can be real habitat creation benefits from such actions. For example, a linear raingarden has been created by reducing the frequency of cutting the vegetation in an excellent swale in Kinross. In parks in Glasgow and Fife, swathes of wildflowers provide landscape diversity in lawns, with intelligent mown paths through the longer vegetation showing the pattern is intentional. Ultimately, a mixture of landscape vegetation patterns is good for aesthetics and wildlife – and saves us all money.

20 AUTUMN 2016

Fossorial water voles in Glasgow’s East End Catherine Scott, Natural Environment Officer (Biodiversity and Ecology), Land and Environmental Services, Glasgow City Council; Robyn Stewart, Water Vole Ambassador, University of Glasgow / Scottish Natural Heritage A partnership project was set up with Glasgow City Council (GCC), University of Glasgow, Glasgow Natural History Society, and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to investigate the distribution and ecology of populations of water voles in the East End of Glasgow, including investigating any associations with different land use.

strongly correlated to the distribution of certain tussock-forming grass species. Road verges, parks, greenspace, and vacant and derelict land showed the greatest occupation rates.

A direct outcome of this project is that SNH now considers this discovery of significant numbers of fossorial water voles inhabiting urban areas to be of national significance.

“Water voles are considered to be one of Britain’s fastest declining mammal species.”

Water voles (Arvicola amphibius) are considered to be one of Britain’s fastest declining mammal species, and national surveys conducted by the Vincent Wildlife Trust show that since 1990 there has been an overall UK decline Water vole in traditional riparian habitat. © Les Foster of 88%. Historically, water voles have been declining since the early 1900s due to changes in land use and habitat fragmentation, with the move towards intensive agriculture and urbanisation resulting in the loss and degradation of vast areas of wetland habitat. Due to these dramatic declines in the populations of water voles, they are now legally protected. In Scotland it is primarily the habitat that is protected.

The scientific research is currently being used to develop fossorial water vole guidelines on land management, development and mitigation to complement the existing guidelines for riparian water voles. The information will be used by GCC to update the Local Biodiversity Action Plan and produce trigger maps to assist the planning process.

There is, however, still concern that these fragmented populations are more vulnerable to extinction. The next step to protect these important populations in the long term is through planning policies and the implementation of green network and green infrastructure projects.

See www.glasgow.co.uk/watervoles for more information.

In Glasgow, water voles were known to be present in watercourses mainly at the edge of the city. But in 2008, fossorial water voles were discovered by GCC living in grassland approximately 1km away from water in the East End of Glasgow.

Fossorial means mole-like, and refers to a more subterranean lifestyle in terrestrial habitats. The range of water voles in the UK is generally restricted to riparian margins along watercourses and reed beds, and they are considered to have strict habitat preferences, with very few examples of fossorial behaviour. The most documented example of fossorial water voles in the UK is from a population on islands off Jura.

Extensive field surveys were carried out within a 34km2 area in the East End of Glasgow. There were a total of 65 survey sites, and mark-recapture studies were carried out to investigate biometrics and population densities at two key sites.

The study revealed that 43% of sites occupied by water voles were within 0-150m of riparian habitat, and 38% were over 550m from riparian habitat, indicating that the East End is home to two ecologically distinct populations of water voles: one living in close proximity to wetland habitat and using grassland opportunistically, and the other living and breeding in grasslands independent of water. With the exception of the Jura study, this is the first time that such extensive fossorial populations have been recorded in the UK. The density of these populations was high in comparison to other studies in the UK, and the East End may be home to some of the greatest water vole densities ever recorded.

Robyn Stewart checking traps which are baited with carrots and apples, particular water vole favourites. © Glasgow City Council

Habitat preference research discovered that water voles were associated with heavily modified and disturbed urban habitat types, although habitat preference was thought to be

Monitoring Glasgow’s water voles under licence. A juvenile male is caught and microchipped as part of a mark-recapture study to estimate population density. Many water voles in Scotland have black fur, and in Glasgow brown and black animals are found together. © Stef Scott

FURTHER READING Rushton SP, Barreto GW, Cormack RM, MacDonald DW, Fuller R (2000) Modelling the effects of mink and habitat fragmentation on the water vole (Journal of Applied Ecology Vol 37) Stewart R (2015) The ecology of the water vole (Arvicola amphibius) in grassland habitats in the City of Glasgow (MSc of Research thesis, University of Glasgow) Strachan R, Moorhouse T (2006) Water Vole Conservation Handbook (2nd Edition) (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford) Telfer S, Piertney SB, Dallas JF, Stewart WA, Marshall F, Gow JL, Lambin X (2003) Parentage assignment detects frequent and large-scale dispersal in water voles (Molecular Ecology Vol 12)

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Where the athletes stayed Neil McLean, Associate, WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff

Second in the medals table! Who would have believed it? Now that the dust has settled after the Rio Olympics, Brazil can be pleased with a very successful event. A great achievement and a massive amount of arrangements and construction. With 11,000 athletes and 6,000 coaches, where did they all stay? The story was similar in many ways to the Commonwealth Games when Glasgow proudly hosted around 5,000 athletes during 2014.

Scotland out-performed expectations in the medals table, and the ‘Friendly Games’, although on a significantly lower budget, were considered by many (and you need to whisper this bit) to be more successful, as an event and speaking relatively, than the London Olympics.

So where did the athletes stay? In Glasgow, as with Rio, a dedicated complex was developed. Glasgow’s Athletes’ Village was a new development built as part of a massive regeneration programme in the East End of the city. The Village was constructed initially to house the athletes for the Games, before further work to ‘adjust’ the houses and their contents ready for permanent residents and the good folks of Glasgow.

Highly sustainable methods of construction and infrastructure were used, including an extended district heating system. In addition, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) were installed, as is required by the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 as amended, also known as (the easier to say) CAR. The surface water drainage system was disconnected from the combined sewer system which had originally been directed to the adjacent Dalmarnock Sewage Treatment Works.

This disconnection released much-needed capacity for new development by reducing the hydraulic load at the treatment plant. In addition, reduced volumes of treated discharge and, importantly, reduced volumes of untreated combined sewer overflow directly into the River Clyde have also been accomplished.

In Scotland, CAR requires that SUDS are installed for new developments that discharge to the water environment, which has been the case for more than ten years now. The new Athletes’ Village drains its surface water directly to the River Clyde, also adjacent to the new development. The SUDS are required for two key objectives (water quality treatment and flood risk mitigation), and should provide or at least contribute to a third (biodiversity), and can provide more: habitat, air quality improvements, a sense of place, and all the good things that green infrastructure (GI) can deliver. So the requirement for SUDS has many direct and indirect benefits if designed well.

The Canal Spine shortly after completion and still maturing as the new residents begin to settle in their new homes.

overflow, designs must now look at how new discharges may affect flood risk. A new development of this size has the potential to generate a significant volume of water which must be attenuated by temporarily storing runoff before a controlled release.

WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff is a multi-disciplinary consultancy and one of the world’s leading professional services firms with a strong presence across many sectors in Scotland. We are grateful for the financial support they have given towards this edition of The Geographer.

After an appropriate rate of discharge to the Clyde was established, recognised methods were used to calculate what volume of runoff was necessary to capture and attenuate peak flows. Thus, the storage capacity was calculated.

Once this was determined, options were considered on how and where to place the storage. The earliest intentions were to introduce a ‘Canal’ as a primary water feature which would form a central ‘spine’ of blue but of course includes associated green infrastructure along the development. The Canal which includes a pond at one end, together with many bio-retention cells and swales, are all in place as the main part of the drainage system for the development. A hydraulic control, or throttle, to restrict flows being discharged to the Clyde (and control flood risk) now manages a slow release as larger storms temporarily fill the Canal.

WSP (now WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff) were the engineers who designed the SUDS for the site. Main considerations were initially: • bio-retention cells which can deliver good water quality treatment and definitely qualify as GI; • swales; linear depressions that form channels for surface water and provide excellent green corridors and GI connectivity; and • permeable paving, which doesn’t really count as GI but does provide good water quality treatment.

The athletes of the Commonwealth Games enjoyed their competition, and although most did not return with a medal, they would all have seen the GI installed. Now with the SUDS and GI maturing nicely, perhaps the development itself merits recognition. New residents have now settled comfortably into their new homes with a pleasant feel greatly enhanced by the GI. Glasgow’s Athletes’ Village is a wonderful example of what new developments should be achieving by installing GI in our new developments and communities, and surely it deserves a podium place.

All were arranged throughout the development, providing water quality treatment prior to discharge to the Clyde. Direct discharge to the river, however, must not increase flood risk. Although the old catchment and layout of the previous development ultimately drained to the river, via the sewage works or combined sewer

“Glasgow’s Athletes’ Village is a wonderful example of what new developments should be achieving by installing GI.“

22 AUTUMN 2016

Oslo: protecting the blue green city B C Braskerud, C Bråten, and T Å Fergus, City of Oslo Agency for Water and Wastewater Services; W Finsland, City of Oslo Planning and Building Services The impact of rain storms is being exacerbated by urbanization and climate change, leading to increased surface stormwater runoff and creating pluvial floods. In addition, there is a developing understanding of the need to keep and enhance the green and blue elements in cities (natural or semi-natural landscapes and water features) to make the cities more liveable. The City of Oslo has decided to tackle these challenges head-on, by using what is known as the Stormwater 3-Step Approach (S3SA) as the main instrument in creating a suitable Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS). There are challenges and possibilities in the use of all three steps (Lindholm et al, 2009).

Step 1: Keep smaller precipitation impacts localised to the site. Typical measures are permeable road covers, green roofs, trees, downspout disconnection, raingardens, etc. On clay soils, however, infiltration is a challenge, and measures often need to be adjusted. These can be useful in holding smaller amounts of rainwater to the site on which it fell, taking pressure off wider drainage systems.

Step 2: Delay run-off from precipitation with higher intensities for as long as possible. Typical measures are green roofs, raingardens, swales, wet or dry ponds, constructed wetlands, inundation of parks, etc. The required size and space needed for stormwater detention measures can be a challenge, but where successfully implemented these can hold up the flow of excess rainwater to the wider public drainage systems and so help alleviate the worst effects of heavy rain storms, by minimising the likelihood of water immediately flashing off open surfaces.

useful for other purposes when not needed for stormwater management. After all, heavy cloudbursts are rather rare incidents, while an inviting urban landscape is something citizens can experience every day. As a result, the municipal plan for Oslo states that open SUDS solutions are preferred and must be used rather than underground stormwater systems. Oslo wants to keep its blue and green image.

“The blue and green areas should be useful for other purposes when not needed for stormwater management.”

Incidents Locked stream Tunnel Flood paths

Flooded buildings and roads (stars) are often situated close to the flood paths, which often follow the buried streams.

Step 3: Transport overflow and excess surface runoff after heavy rainfall safely on the surface. Typical measures are green streams, secure flood paths and reopening buried streams. Defined flood paths must be able to convey water so that adjoining buildings and infrastructure are not damaged and roads can be used by emergency vehicles. This can be the most challenging as this requires creating or preserving natural ‘routes’ along which excess water can safely flow without over-burdening core drainage systems, and instead diverting rain water away from buildings and other vulnerable sites.

Oslo has mapped the city surface drainage pattern using high resolution terrain data and GIS modelling using ArcGIS. This identifies possible flood paths. Typically the drainage pattern follows the terrain above old buried streams and rivers. Oslo is reopening streams where possible. Flood paths can however be found anywhere, leading stormwater through buildings, and blocking roads and other infrastructure. Knowing the path of stormwater flows is an excellent way to mitigate inundation in new developments, to prevent the flooding of existing developments and to plan for SUDS.

Raingardens can handle the 50-year precipitation if constructed correctly.

Based on the theoretical flood paths and insurance data, Oslo has started work on more detailed mapping of the flood paths so as to plan measures along these with the aim to reduce damage (Røstum et al, 2014).

The use of the S3SA is a possible way to handle a great variety of precipitation intensities. Keeping the water on the surface increases the use and promotion of blue and green qualities in the city. The blue and green areas should be Experiments show that green roofs can reduce peak runoff even when wet.

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AUTUMN 2016

Saving the midwife toad in Lyon Olivier Montavon, Écosphère; Brian D’Arcy, independent environmental consultant

The midwife toad is a remarkable amphibian. The toads mate on land, and the strings of spawn are carried wrapped around the hind legs of the male. The male keeps them moist by visiting pools and streams, then depositing them in shallow water when they are ready to hatch.

This species spends the majority of time in terrestrial habitats; the adults visit the aquatic habitat just for depositing spawns. One of only two species of midwife toads found in Europe, Alytes obstetricans has a natural range from Iberia through France to western Germany.

Its terrestrial habitat is surprisingly varied, from stony gravels with loose, sparsely-vegetated soils along, for example, the edges of large rivers, to open woodland; and they like stone walls, log piles and even gardens where such features are present. But midwife toad habitats are typically not far from water. Preferred aquatic habitats range from slow-moving waters to stagnant permanent pools or ponds, and include old quarry pits and even old basins, fountains and irrigation tanks.

The tadpoles can grow to a larger size than the adults, and permanent pools allow for development to metamorphosis. The midwife toad is a Red List species, at risk from habitat loss and fragmentation, under pressures which include loss of breeding ponds due to drainage, or lowering of water tables due to abstraction for agriculture. Other pressures are diffuse pollution (rural and urban landscapes), predation from introduced fish, and fungal and other diseases. Central France is a stronghold of the midwife toad, where declines have not been as evident as elsewhere in its range. It is a protected species in France, where it is known as Alyte or Crapaud accoucheur.

tadpoles from the original. About 60 adults are estimated to exist on the site. The new pond was built within an area of open greenspace, so the landscape modifications did not affect the housing in that area. Equally important, for the terrestrial life of the toads, vegetation changes were sought, replacing conventional landscaping plants with natural vegetation, including oak trees as well as a variety of grasses and herbs. The use of natural vegetation has been agreed throughout the public spaces in the development which, whilst still providing a peaceful green landscape, also has habitat value for many insects and other animals. The toads also need safe refuges from the sun and from predators (cats will be a problem in any urban area), so blocks of stones held in gabion baskets have been placed strategically throughout the development. Already, some of the tadpoles have metamorphosed into toads living close to the new pond.

Instead of conventional surface water sewer systems, a broad swale has been created to receive most of the surface water runoff.

Where it has to cross the principal road through the housing area, a crapauduc (toad tunnel) has been built to allow free movement of the amphibians beneath the traffic. Numbers of road gullies have been minimised to reduce risks of losses.

For the toads and the local people, the prospects of a peaceful life in the new housing district are looking good.

A geographic crossroads The third city of France, Lyon, developed where the Rivers Rhône and Saône meet – the confluence of which forms a navigable river used since Roman times to connect with the Mediterranean. Whilst the Saône is a brown river draining the rolling hills and farmland of east-central France, the Rhône carries fine glacial sediments from the Alps, looking blue-grey in the sunlight as it surges and swirls through the city and dominates the hydrology from Lyons southwards. La Confluence was designated France’s first WWF Sustainable Neighbourhood, following works along the bank of the Saône prior to the confluence to establish hundreds of trees, as well as Saône-side water gardens, green roofs and terraces. The habitat enhancement work there should have benefits for a variety of wildlife, including amphibians such as the midwife toads.

Part of the newly created swale, with stone pile refuges close by for the toads. © Écosphère

“La Confluence was designated France’s first WWF Sustainable Neighbourhood.”

Toads in the city Within Lyon is Villeurbanne , north-east, on the Rhône side of the city. There is plenty of green infrastructure nearby at the Campus LyonTech La Doua, where stormwater management is almost imperceptibly integrated into soft landscaping. But in the heart of Villeurbanne, like most towns and cities, grey has been more evident than green. A new housing scheme was approved at Maisons Neuves quarter, and work began on site which included progressive features such as green roofs – but then had to stop when a population of midwife toads was discovered. A twoyear period of revisions to landscape plans, and construction of new features across the housing development, has just been completed.

The first action was to fence off and protect the original breeding pond. A new pond has now been created, and stocked with 1,700

The crapauduc (toad tunnel) where the swale has to pass beneath a road. © Écosphère

24 AUTUMN 2016

Brexit: what choice now?

Mike Robinson, RSGS Chief Executive

The UK’s EU referendum vote has left a great deal of confusion in its wake, and the result, whilst dramatic, is problematic because with such a tight final outcome (52:48), roughly half of us are going to feel let down whatever happens next. So what might happen next? And even then, how many years will it take to enact and then disentangle ourselves from 43 years of increased integration?

The future of the UK relationship with the EU is unpredictable because it depends on the form of agreement we can negotiate. This in turn depends on how well we negotiate, how accommodating the EU is prepared to be, and which form of agreement we choose to pursue.

Simplistically, these are our choices: 1) negotiate to stay in the EU; 2) negotiate to join the EEA; 3) negotiate a bilateral agreement; 4) refuse to trade with the EU.

(through the working time directive, paternity leave, etc) are likely to be less protected outside the EU, unless the UK chooses to adopt similar legislation.

However, migration, which was clearly a major motivation for people to vote ‘leave’, is more debatable. In the UK’s case this is especially true, as we had already opted out of the Schengen Agreement. About half of UK migration is from outside the EU anyway. But within the EU, the only way currently to ensure absolution from the free movement of people is to turn our back on the EU as a trading partner altogether, and this would have major economic consequences.

In Scotland, the situation appears even less clear, as our position within both the EU and the UK remains uncertain.

But whether we are in the EU or not, Scotland and the UK will need to trade and engage with the rest of the world. We will rely on trade agreements, international co-operation, and some degree of freedom of movement of people, goods, capital and services.

“Roughly half of us are going to feel let down whatever happens next.”

There is a possibility that some politicians may try to convince the UK populace that it can address wider concerns about migration and sovereignty, renegotiate with the EU, and demand a second referendum. Plenty of people are still hoping to find out that Brexit was simply a bad dream, and this possibility has been proposed by some MPs. But if we are leaving, which seems most likely (and, some would argue, most democratic), then what form will our relationship with the EU take?

One possibility is to try to sign up to the European Economic Area agreement (EEA) that Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein are party to. Whether they would welcome an economy as big as the UK’s is not clear, as it would dominate such a small group. It would, however, provide a framework for us to sign up to, and could create improved links with these other nations.

Switzerland has chosen not to be part of the EEA, but instead to have a bilateral agreement with the EU, in which it is more selective in the EU commitments it adopts. This is less advantageous for trade, but the Swiss prefer the flexibility it provides.

However, these trade deals – the EEA and, in large part, this form of bilateral agreement – would still entail commitment to the four basic ‘freedoms’ in which the EU believes, ie the free movement of goods, services, people and capital.

Trading with the EU, the world’s largest market, costs time and money whether you are within it or on its margins. And, we would probably have to agree to much of the regulation and protocols that EEA members do.

Some areas are more likely to be affected by Brexit than others. According to many commentators, UK defence is expected to be largely unaffected because only France and the UK have significant military capacity and there are other fora for dealing with this. Agriculture will continue to need some financial support but, as Roger Crofts argues (see page 27), not on the same basis as at present (in Norway and Switzerland, for example, 55-60% of farm incomes are state subsidies). The city, international finances and investment are expected to suffer. And the environment (through water and air quality, wildlife protection, etc) and workers’ rights

So, whether the UK tries to pursue the EEA route or a bilateral agreement, shuns the EU or tries to reverse Brexit, the only certainty right now is that we have a great deal of work to do whatever path we choose, and the danger is that the majority of us will be unhappy whatever that choice.

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Brexit means Brexit David Charter, Berlin Correspondent, The Times

Brexit means Brexit. Theresa May’s maxim for Britain’s future could not be less illuminating. What should we expect?

As a Remainer the former Home Secretary warned during the referendum campaign there was no ‘silver bullet’ to solve concerns about immigration. As Prime Minister she feels obligated by June’s result to end the era of free movement of EU citizens. The logic of this is that Britain will end up outside of the EU’s Single Market because of its requirement for all member states to adhere to its four freedoms – of goods, services, capital and people.

No-one should hold their breath for a second UK referendum.

If you think this year’s vote was divisive, just imagine how a re-run will stoke emotions among the 52%.

The government’s task now is to formulate a bespoke bilateral solution with Brussels which learns from Norway and Switzerland but addresses the British situation.

“Britain will end up outside of the EU’s Single Market because of its requirement for all member states to adhere to its four freedoms.”

Never mind that the movement of people is observed with more fundamentalist zeal than any of the other freedoms. If leaders such as Angela Merkel refused to bend the rules to keep us in the EU, they are not going to tweak them in our favour now we are heading out.

What follows from this is that Britain will not be able to emulate the ‘Norway model’ of sharing Single Market membership while being formally on the outside of the EU. Known as the European Economic Area, this was always a special arrangement designed for countries on a trajectory towards EU membership rather than away from it. This was one reason why the Swiss voted against it; this and the striking democratic deficit of the EEA which requires numerous EU laws to be swallowed whole without any meaningful chance to influence them.

Mrs May will not be allowed by her party to remain in the Single Market with its four freedoms, customs union, oversight by the European Court of Justice, wide-ranging environmental laws and GDPrelated membership fee – all factors which contributed to Brexit.

Switzerland is not in the Single Market but it is entirely landlocked

by EU countries, the factor which more than anything else explains its membership of the Schengen travel zone and acceptance of free movement of EU citizens. The Swiss voted in a 2014 referendum to be able to restrict free movement in certain circumstances, however, something the EU has refused to concede, leaving Bern facing a dilemma with important implications for Britain. My guess is that Brexit will have toughened resolve in Brussels to resist concessions to the Swiss. It leaves them facing that tried and tested solution of a second referendum as the least worst way out of the confrontation.

We are a trading nation and clearly it would be madness to revert to a regime of trading tariffs, intense border checks, quotas and other barriers with our European trade partners. But we may not have much choice.

The Germans are certainly on board for a free trade deal on goods – their car industry alone is desperate for the status quo – but the French could well draw the line at agricultural products. This would reflect the position of Norway and Switzerland which run their own farming support systems and policies – as Britain will do – and pay the price in export duties. Nor does Switzerland have full EU market access for services, which is why Swiss banks have EU subsidiaries headquartered in London, at least for the time being.

There is still an argument among member states over whether to negotiate the trade agreement with Britain concurrently with the leaving treaty or after it.

Britain must try and start the trade talks as soon as possible, because falling back on the World Trade Organisation rulebook will mean UK exporters face all the extra charges and bureaucracy of the EU customs union.

What will happen to EU legislation currently in force in Britain? If the EEA route is shunned, as it surely will be, every enacted directive will be fair game for repeal except where special deals are agreed with Brussels, for example to remain in the emissions trading scheme. Almost all will endure. My expectation is that a handful of totemic measures will be ceremoniously slung out; working time rules and rights for agency workers, for example, as well as some environmental measures like emissions from old power plants if they are deemed necessary to meet urgent national energy needs.

David Charter is the author of Europe: In or Out? which we feature on our back page.

26 AUTUMN 2016

Brexit: the reality Dr Robin Niblett CMG, Director, Chatham House

An unexpected majority of British voters have overthrown not just Britain’s relationship with its European neighbours, but the established political order in the UK and, potentially, Europe. This result was as unexpected as Donald Trump taking the Republican presidential nomination. In the US, however, voters have yet to decide whether to entrust Trump with the keys to the White House. In the UK, those who promised to the British people that leaving the EU would let them ‘take back control’ over their lives are now expected to deliver on that promise.

This will not be easy. Blaming the EU for all of Britain’s ills has been pure displacement activity. Contrary to some of the rhetoric, the EU has not hog-tied the UK in regulation and has not drained funds from the Exchequer. Being a member of the EU is not the reason that Britain has failed to live up to its self-image as a ‘proud trading nation’.

Britain’s ills – and there are many, as this vote has revealed – are self-inflicted.

“The triumphant Brexiteers now need to fold the popular expectations they have raised within the envelope of reality.”

Nor has EU membership made Britain less secure domestically or influential internationally. Being in the EU has generally complemented the UK’s military and diplomatic objectives, whether in dealing with Russia, Iran or ISIS. Britain in the EU was not in ‘managed decline’, as one pro-Leave politician described it; in fact, as those same politicians often pointed out, the UK is prospering as the world’s fifth-largest economy and has remained one of its most powerful nations.

However this plays out, the UK government will need to devote enormous government and diplomatic attention to the EU for the indefinite future – ironically, far more than it did when it was a member.

The terms of the UK-EU agreement will not only be vital for British jobs and businesses. They will also be central to the future of the United Kingdom. A rapid move to a new vote on Scottish independence is unlikely. But, once Scotland gauges the sort of deal Britain has struck with the EU, it can go back to the people to vote for an independent Scotland to remain in the EU. Even more complex will be the long-term arrangements for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, given that this will become the land border for those travelling into the UK from the EU, including potential immigrants.

I believed in May that leaving the EU would carry more risks for Britain than opportunities. I remain of this view. The British politicians who will lead the UK out of the EU need to guard, therefore, against allowing a yawning gap to emerge between their political rhetoric and the realities facing Britain outside the EU. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage now claim 23 June was Britain’s Independence Day. In the 1996 movie of the same name, victory for humanity followed the destruction of much of the planet by an invading alien force. Contrary to the movie script, leaders of the Leave campaign have the duty to ensure that calamity does not follow their own decision to advocate a future for Britain outside the EU. And we will each need to play our part to help achieve a positive outcome from this decision for Britain and its partners.

This means that the triumphant Brexiteers now need to fold the popular expectations they have raised within the envelope of reality. In the near term, they may have some breathing space. Financial markets will hopefully stabilize once they have digested this shock to their expectations. And EU governments are unlikely to want to compound the risks to their own political and economic situations by pushing for a rapid Brexit. Britain’s market and businesses remain fully integrated into the EU for the time being.

But fairly quickly, Britain’s weaknesses outside the EU will be scrutinized more carefully than they were when it was inside, including its continuing high annual budget deficit and growing debt, as well as its persistently high current account deficit. Fixing these weaknesses will require structural reforms that will take time and may end up punishing the very voters who believed that voting for Brexit would somehow change their lot in life for the better.

In order to prevent a downward economic spiral and popular disappointment, the UK will need to negotiate an exit from the EU that preserves for its economy as favourable terms of access to the EU Single Market as possible. The EU market will remain by far the UK’s most important, yet these terms will not be as favourable as they are today. Immediately thereafter, the government will need to re-negotiate bilateral trade deals with its non-EU trading partners, from the weaker position of being the one demanding the deal. And each of those deals will need to be designed not to conflict with its new trade agreement with the EU.

© Mike Robinson

This article was originally published by Chatham House on 24 June and is available at www. chathamhouse.org/expert/ comment/brexit-reality.

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Scotland’s land and environment after Brexit Professor Roger Crofts, RSGS Chairman

Whatever view individuals take of the outcome of the advisory referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, we now have to think about the implications for all areas of policy and legislation. Of particular concern to me are the implications for Scotland’s land and environment.

which recognise that Shetland is not the same as Orkney, nor the North West Highlands the same as the Southern Uplands.

So we should recognise this diversity to develop regional approaches. In so doing, all of the land and water should be covered, not just the farmland.

One of the surprising omissions from much of the literature prior to the referendum was the failure to recognise the fundamental benefits of EU action on environmental quality. The UK Government’s literature distributed to every household was silent on this matter. So what did we gain and what therefore are we likely to lose if we do nothing to replace or replicate the laws and accompanying regulations? We lose the most comprehensive wildlife and habitat protection legislation in the world under the Natura 2000 scheme, we lose the laws that have meant our air and freshwater, and our beaches, are so much less polluted than previously. And, we lose the chances of improving the way our farmland is looked after with the demise of the Common Agricultural Policy schemes under Pillar 2. Surprisingly, perhaps, most farmers are reported to have voted for Brexit with the inevitable loss of some or all of the £0.5 billion of support payments paid mainly to lowland farms in the east and north-east of Scotland.

Which brings me to the third component.

We need to cut out the competition and needless confusion between the different policy mechanisms for using the land and water resources. How can we possibly justify separate plans for commercial forestry development, biodiversity protection, wildland safeguarding, and at the same time have no spatial plans for renewable energy? Scotland has the perfect mechanism to overcome this with the statutory requirement to produce and periodically update a Land Use Strategy (LUS). Now in its second iteration, the LUS is developing into an important mechanism for ensuring that public and private interests are more effectively balanced to achieve social and environmental objectives. Ideally, new ideas can be developed and tested out at a regional level around Scotland now, rather than the tentative approach in the most recent version of the strategy. Give local and regional interests support in taking this forward.

“We need to think hard and imaginatively how we are to achieve our own solutions that benefit Scotland’s land and environment.”

So what should we do? We need to think hard and imaginatively how we are to achieve our own solutions that benefit Scotland’s land and environment. Rather than merely replicating what existed under the EU regime, we should think outside the box for even better solutions that will have longlasting benefit. We should not wait to see whether we remain in or have a different relationship with the EU, as that could take a considerable time to determine and surely forewarned is forearmed. There are three steps we should be taking.

First, we need to recognise that, although the land is a private asset, it is also a public good. So let us define what are the public goods and the public services it provides. That is relatively straightforward, especially if viewed within the framework of natural capital and sustainable development, both global needs with local deliverables. The First Minister has signed up to them both. Clean and plentiful water, biosecure production of food, responsible access to the countryside, effective sequestration and storage of carbon, reduction of other greenhouse gases, and production of timber and renewable energy are clearly all part of this mix.

But it is a mix, not as at present a series of separately developed and delivered policies.

Next, we should recognise that all-Scotland schemes make no sense, given its natural diversity and the diversity of cultural and economic approaches to using these resources. Surely, for example, we can no longer treat 85% of the land area in the blanket manner of the Less Favoured Areas approach. That is a blunt instrument which belies knowledge and common sense.

So, we need regional approaches © Mike Robinson

Once we have come to an agreement on these elements of the new approach, we can define the types of incentive mechanisms and the codes of practice needed to implement them. Let’s not, however, be thinking about subsidies, but about high levels of stewardship for the benefit of the public and in due recognition of the care by owners and managers of all types to look after our priceless land and water assets.

28 AUTUMN 2016

Developing qualities, skills, knowledge and experience through residential outdoor learning Dave Spence, Chief Executive, Scottish Outdoor Education Centres (SOEC) For many, outdoor learning is associated with helmets, harnesses and muddy boots; splashing about in white water or abseiling from dizzy heights. While adventure activities are the tools of our profession, outdoor learning means far more than engaging in challenging activities. Best practice in outdoor learning is about maximising all learning opportunities, developing young people’s confidence, team work and communication, and qualities such as resilience and a ‘can do’ positive mind-set.

Faced as we are with significant global challenges and a seemingly ever-increasing rate of change in modern life, it is critical that we equip young people with the adaptability to cope with change and embolden them in order that they have the confidence to face it. My feeling is that the next generations are up for this challenge.

This is readily apparent for those of us fortunate to see young people engaged in outdoor learning at residential centres.

underlying personspecific health and well-being issues, or the more pervasive challenge of lack of confidence in young people today.

Outdoor programmes and residential experiences are

“The residential experience… is a significant stimulus for young people to trigger their own changes.”

Every day at our residential centres, we see that young people are highly adaptable and receptive to breaking with behaviours that hold them back, whether they relate to their education or health and well-being. For example, we see many young people every year who have restricted their diets and who, after a few days of outdoor activities, start to eat a wide range of healthy food types.

In one recent class of 25 pupils, two had restricted their diet (eating only toast or crackers respectively) and another was self-elective mute in school. Within a three-day stay, the two had started eating everything, and the third was talking to her teachers and singing in the shower; teachers quipped they “couldn’t shut her up if they’d wanted to.” Of course they didn’t, because they knew these young people had been taken out of school regularly to see dieticians or psychologists for six years with no noticeable improvement.

How is it possible that these young people could so quickly overcome seemingly intractable behaviours?

At SOEC we attribute these big changes to three factors working together: • our outdoor tutors are motivated to work with young people and able to work with groups as well as individuals within the groups; • our outdoor programmes are designed to deliver the multiple outcomes sought by Curriculum for Excellence whilst remaining motivating and exciting to young people; • our ethos at our Outdoor Centres, in the grounds and on expeditions, is based on the creation of safe and nurturing, away-from-home environments.

This last factor should not be underestimated. The residential experience enables young people to be away from home often for the first time and, whilst it is challenging in itself, it is also a significant stimulus for young people to trigger their own changes.

Through residential programmes, field studies, and revision and study breaks, teachers can focus on their subject matter with a view to improvement in attainment. They might simultaneously be addressing

opportunities to develop in young people the knowledge, qualities and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in their futures. Teachers and outdoor educators working in partnership can create a powerful pedagogy and equip young people to see the opportunities in a world of rapid change. We can change their selfperception and replace it with a growth mindset. And with that, they will see opportunities in making the choices we oldies choose to avoid.

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Bertram Thomas, RSGS Livingstone Medallist 1932 Jo Woolf, RSGS Writer-in-Residence

“Arabia was, from the point of view of the European explorer, the forbidden country... The blank map itself was a provocation.”

In the scorching heat of the Arabian desert a group of about a dozen tribesmen pose for a photographer. Bearded and barefoot, they are swathed in long robes and the traditional keffiyeh headdress; each clutches a sword or a rifle. In the centre, standing a good head and shoulders above them all, is Bertram Thomas.

Pale-skinned and long-limbed, his hands lightly clasped, he gazes at the camera with an air of composure and self-command.

The photograph was taken around 1930, and it offers a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary man. Far from paying the Arabian people a visit out of passing curiosity, Thomas is living among them, respecting their customs, learning about their culture, and becoming a valued advisor of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman.

What was it that drew a mild-mannered Englishman to this harsh and inhospitable landscape over 80 years ago? Romance, mystery, adventure – the Arabian desert cast a spell that could be both divine and deadly. The writings of T E Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) had already captured the public imagination; but there was one region that even Lawrence believed it would be foolhardy for any man to venture into, and that was the Rub’ al Khali.

Stretching across the southern end of the Arabian peninsula is one of the few places on Earth that remains largely unexplored.

Known as the Rub’ al Khali or ‘Empty Quarter’, it encompasses about 250,000 square miles and is the largest sand desert in the world in terms of volume (although the Sahara covers an area 15 times greater). Waterholes are few and far between, yielding bitter-tasting water that only a Bedouin will drink with any relish; waves of sand dunes rise to over 800 feet, and scattered archaeological remains lie baking in the relentless sun.

Whatever Bertram Thomas lacked in terms of flamboyance, he more than made up for in experience. During the First World War he had served in Belgium and in Mesopotamia, and afterwards he accepted an appointment as Assistant British Representative in Transjordan. By 1924 he had risen to become the Wazir or Prime Minister of Muscat, an honoured companion of the Sultan himself, and if the Arab people still regarded him with amused curiosity, it was certainly blended with respect.

But Thomas had a secret yearning for adventure, and the Rub’ al Khali was calling to him loud and clear. At midnight on 6th October 1930, without the Sultan’s knowledge – because he would certainly have forbidden it – he boarded an oil tanker in Muscat and later transferred to a dhow which took him to Salalah on the coast of Oman. Assembling a party of trustworthy guides and camels took him the best part of two months, but on 10th December they set off: it’s likely that the local tribesmen thought he was mad.

“Twenty-five Bedouins of the desert, none of whom he had seen before, were his companions. They struck northwards over the Qara Mountains, some 3,000 feet high, through frankincense groves and thence into the great unknown Steppe... For 58 days through this wilderness he trekked by means of three relays of camels, and covered in all some 850 miles.”

In March 2017, Mark Evans will be speaking about the Empty Quarter of Arabia to RSGS audiences in Aberdeen, Dundee, Dunfermline, Glasgow and Edinburgh. © Mark Evans

On 5th February 1931 Thomas emerged safely in Doha, Qatar, thereby becoming the first person to cross the region known as “the great unsolved question of geography”.

His accomplishment is still regarded today as one of the finest feats of Arabian exploration. The journey was fraught with danger, because some of the waterholes were surrounded by quicksands, and the camel train was a constant and conspicuous moving target, ripe for attack by hostile tribes. Not only did he survive unscathed, but he managed to collect hundreds of natural history specimens, recording 21 species that were new to science; and he made some fascinating discoveries, including towering sand dunes, and ancient tracks that his companions assured him led to the lost city of Ubar.

“Thomas had a secret yearning for adventure, and the Rub’ al Khali was calling to him loud and clear.”

Afterwards, Thomas wrote a series of in-depth studies about the culture of the region, describing the ancient origins of the tribes and their different languages, most of which he spoke fluently. At that time, he undoubtedly knew more about the Rub’ al Khali than anyone else in the western world. In a land where violence was commonplace, the local men could easily have turned against him, and it speaks volumes about his character that they treated him with kindness and respect. The explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed the Rub’ al Khali in 1945, recalled that he himself was welcomed by the Bedouin people because he was of the same ‘tribe’ as Thomas.

“He was the first European to come amongst them and he won their respect by his good nature, generosity and determination. They remember him today as a good travelling companion.”

Bertram Thomas was awarded the Livingstone Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1932, “in recognition of his valuable work and his crossing of Arabia’s unexplored desert, the Rub’ al Khali.”

As RSGS’s writer-in-residence, Jo Woolf has begun to capture many of the incredible stories of the people who have been associated with RSGS over the past 132 years, reinforcing our role as a repository of some of the best stories of this period. We are working with Jo to see if we can get her compelling stories published in a book called The Great Horizon. In order to raise the funds necessary to assist with publication, we are asking members and supporters to consider ‘buying’ a copy of this fascinating book before it is fully written. If you would like to help, please contact RSGS HQ to find out more.

BOOK CLUB

30 AUTUMN 2016

Global Poverty Deprivation, Distribution, and Development Since the Cold War Dr Andy Sumner (OUP Oxford, September 2016)

Europe: In or Out? Everything You Need to Know David Charter (Biteback, March 2014) Following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, David Charter’s book has a new relevance as politicians, civil servants, journalists and the general public consider the options for what might happen next. Addressing the real issues surrounding an exit from the EU, including jobs, travel, immigration, investment, sovereignty and justice, this book investigates the consequences for the country and for the person on the street. A clear, comprehensive and compelling guide to the impact of the EU and the implications of a British exit, this objective handbook from an expert in the field is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Britain’s future.

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean The Birth of Eurasia

Barry Cunliffe (OUP Oxford, September 2015) This is the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering millennia, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD. An unashamedly ‘big history’, it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, and Chinese civilizations, and the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the Silk Roads, and the great steppe corridor from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain. It is also the story of the rise and fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, and the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbours.

substantial economic growth would warrant.

Consequently, and as domestic resources have grown, much of global poverty has become less about a lack of domestic resources and more about questions of national inequality, social policy and welfare, and patterns of economic development.

An Introduction to Green Criminology and Environmental Justice Dr Angus Nurse (SAGE Publications, 2016) Focused on environmental harm within the context of criminal justice, and taking a global perspective, this book introduces students to different theoretical perspectives in green criminology, looks at the victims of environmental crime, and covers topics such as wildlife crimes, animal abuse, the causes of environmental crime, regulation, exploitation, environmental activism, policing, prosecution and monitoring.

The Rainforests of Britain and Ireland Clifton Bain (Sandstone Press, November 2015) Along the west coasts of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, mixed forests of oak, hazel, birch, ash and many more species survive and thrive in the wet conditions that blow in from the Atlantic. Correctly described as ‘rainforests’, they have a long history of human interaction and are home to a wide variety of birds, animals, plants and fungi.

Introduced by RSGS Board member Vanessa Collingridge, this fascinating book includes maps, original artwork, and travel guidance.

Clifton Bain will be speaking to RSGS audiences in February and March 2017.

Reader Offer - 25% discount

+ free p&p

Offer ends 31 December 2016

Classic Mountain Scrambles in Scotland Andrew Dempster (Luath Press, July 2016) Andrew Dempster has been climbing and hillwalking for over 40 years, and offers a new take on both in this book, encouraging people to get outside to take part in an adventure and claiming that ‘scrambling’ will bring out the daredevil in both experienced hillwalkers and complete beginners. “Somewhere in between the ‘hands in pockets’ rambling of the gentle hillwalker and the vertical escapades of the serious rock climber lies the middleman known as the scrambler,” he says. “The scrambler revels in exposed situations on sound rock, with a rope usually nowhere to be seen.”

As well as information about the difficulty and duration of the scrambles, and escape routes, this new edition makes extensive use of the author’s own stunning colour photographs (not previously published), illustrating his 50 chosen scrambling routes and the wonderful vistas that are an essential part of the experience.

Readers of The Geographer can purchase Classic Mountain Scrambles for only £11.24 (RRP £14.99) with free UK P&P. To order, please visit www.luath.co.uk and search for ‘Classic Mountain Scrambles’ or call 0131 225 4326, and quote the code ‘RSGS2016’.

RSGS: a better way to see the world Phone 01738 455050 or visit www.rsgs.org to join the RSGS. Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU Charity SC015599

Printed by www.jtcp.co.uk on Claro Silk 115gsm paper.

100% FSC certified using vegetable-based inks in a 100% chemistry-free process.

Why are some people poor? Why does absolute poverty persist despite substantial economic growth? What types of late economic development are associated with different poverty outcomes? One might expect global poverty to be focused in the world’s poorest countries, but most of the world’s absolute poor live in growing and largely stable middle-income countries.

At the same time, poverty has not fallen as much as the