Aspiration and reality: flood policy, economic damages and the appraisal process

Research shows that flood damage potential has increased significantly in the last 15 years. At the same time, flood policy has shifted away from simplistic flood defence towards 'living with floods' and 'making space for water'. This paper explores the mis-match between the aspiration in policy ideals, the reality of rising potential economic damages and the inability of the flood risk appraisal process to match the aspiration with the reality. Unless investment appraisal procedures are changed, the increase in damages will undermine policy changes that seek a different pattern of flood risk management, away from economically dominated decision-criteria towards more sustainable objectives.     

A century of inequality in England and Wales using standardized geographical units

This paper analyses geographical trends in relative poverty in England and Wales over the last century by comparing key quantitative indicators from key dates. The comparison is made possible by interpolating all the datasets onto a single standardized geography. Results suggest rising inequality in spite of the decline in absolute poverty.     

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers.     

Glacial deposits at Wylfa Head,Anglesey, North Wales: Evidence for Late Devensian deposition in a non-marine environment

The nature and origin of glacial sediments at Wylfa Head are described, and their significance with regard to sedimentary environments during Late Devensian deglaciation of the Irish Sea Basin is discussed. Recent models of deglaciation under glaciomarine conditions are challenged. The Quaternary sequence at Wylfa consists of eroded and glaciotectonically deformed bedrock, locally derived lodgement till, calcareous silt-rich lodgement till containing northern erratics, discontinuous units of orange-brown silty sand of possible aeolian origin, and grey laminated freshwater silts filling a small kettle hole. The till units thicken to the south where the surface is drumlinised. It is concluded that the landforms and deposits result from a warm-based Irish Sea glacier, which moved towards the southwest. Spatial variation in basal water pressure resulted from localised drainage through zones of more heavily jointed bedrock. Rapid glacial erosion occurred in areas where subglacial water pressure was relatively high, while deposition of the resulting basal sediment took place where water pressures were reduced. The glacier also carried basal calcareous silty till onshore, which was deposited by lodgement processes. None of the deposits at Wylfa are interpreted as glaciomarine in origin, and there is no evidence at this site for an isostatically induced marine transgression prior to deglaciation.     

New chitinozoans from the historical type area of the Hirnantian Stage and additional key sections in the Wye Valley,Wales, UK

The type locality for several core elements of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna is a small disused quarry on the western slopes of Cwm Hirnant. There, the Hirnant Limestone Member of the Foel‐y‐Ddinas Mudstone Formation yields a new, well‐preserved chitinozoan assemblage, attributed to the Spinachitina taugourdeaui Biozone. This allows tight correlation with the Hirnantian of Baltica and Laurentia and neatly ties the chitinozoan zonation with the classical brachiopod fauna. Nearby, the chitinozoan assemblage from the Caradoc Cymerig Limestone Member at Gelli‐grîn belongs to the Spinachitina cervicornis Biozone?, and is identical to that recovered from the Burrellian in the Onny Valley, Welsh Borderland. A Silurian assemblage higher up section, discovered in the Cwm‐yr‐Aethnen Formation, is attributed to the globally recognized Eisenackitina dolioliformis Biozone. Attempts to integrate the chitinozoan and graptolite biozonation, in the central Welsh Rhayader area, were less successful. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The 'Grasses' of the Big Scrub District of North-eastern New South Wales: A sedimentary record of late Holocene grasslands in a subtropical forest landscape

This paper records sedimentary data which indicate that at least part of the Wilsons River floodplain, on the margins of the subtropical rainforest known as the 'Big Scrub', has a long and certainly pre-European history of relative treelessness. Despite a general presumption that this lowland subtropical region was completely forested prior to European settlement, recent historical research has indicated that certain areas were naturally open. While the historical information is clear, the data reported here-a fossil pollen record and one radiocarbon date- reinforces that information for one type of locality, providing an initial indication of time depth.     

Cost Shifting in Australian Local Government: an analysis of the spatial impact of pensioner rate concession rebates in New South Wales,Australia

The problem of cost shifting from higher tiers of government to local councils in Australia is widely recognised and has been investigated by several official inquiries. However, it has thus far been difficult to gather reliable estimates of the magnitude of the problem. Quite apart from the taxing definitional and data problems associated with the phenomenon, these difficulties have been compounded by the fact that very few attempts have been made to measure the impact of specific instances of cost shifting in Australian local government, especially its spatial impact. In an attempt to remedy this neglect, this paper seeks to measure the spatial effects of pensioner rate concession rebates on local councils in New South Wales.     

Origin and significance of soft-sediment deformation in the Old Red Sandstone of central South Wales,UK

Vertically oriented water-escape cusps are the most common type of soft-sediment deformation structure in sandstone-rich intervals of the fluvial Brownstones and Senni Formations (Cosheston Subgroup, Daugleddau Group) of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in the central Brecon Beacons and eastern Black Mountains, South Wales. The structures are widely distributed and occur at several stratigraphical levels. They can be divided into two styles. (1) Small-scale (height less than a single bed), isolated water-escape cusps formed when loosely packed sediment deposited rapidly in flood events liquefied in advance of subsequent flood events or pulses, causing localised fluidization due to the escape of excess pore water. Inclined cusps higher in some beds confirm the relationship of this deformation style to active flood events. (2) Horizons of larger-scale (occupying the entire bed thickness), laterally continuous water-escape cusps and fold trains can be traced for hundreds of metres to kilometres and result from widespread liquefaction in response to earthquakes. A lack of overturning indicates that their formation did not coincide with active flow conditions. Further detailed mapping is needed to clarify the continuity and extent of such structures and their relationship to faults that may have been active during sedimentation. The occurrence of triggers capable of causing liquefaction in granular materials provides a greater control on the occurrence of soft-sediment deformation than do lithological controls such as grain size or interbedding of sandstone and mudstone. The findings are broadly consistent with interpretations of soft-sediment deformation in the Cosheston Subgroup in Pembrokeshire, SW Wales.     

Scale impacts on spatial variability in reference evapotranspiration

ABSTRACT

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important components in the hydrological cycle, and a key variable in hydrological modelling and water resources management. However, understanding the impacts of spatial variability in ET and the appropriate scale at which ET data should be incorporated into hydrological models, particularly at the regional scale, is often overlooked. This is in contrast to dealing with the spatial variability in rainfall data where existing guidance is widely available. This paper assesses the impacts of scale on the estimation of reference ET (ETo) by comparing data from individual weather stations against values derived from three national datasets, at varying resolutions. These include the UK Climate Impacts Programme 50 km climatology (UKCP₅₀), the UK Met Office 5 km climatology (UKMO₅) and the regional values published in the Agricultural Climate of England and Wales (ACEW). The national datasets were compared against the individual weather station data and the UKMO₅ was shown to provide the best estimate of ETo at a given site. The potential impacts on catchment modelling were then considered by mapping variance in ETo to show how geographical location and catchment size can have a major impact, with small lowland catchments having much higher variance than those with much larger areas or in the uplands. Some important implications for catchment hydrological modelling are highlighted.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor L. Ruiz