"Look at it this way"

Daniel Raven Ellison has previously behind the making of a number of films, including: The UK in 100 Seconds  - narrated by the late Benjamin Zephaniah The UK National Parks in 100 Seconds  - narrated by Cerys Matthews The Netherlands in 100 Seconds See them here. He is now planning to release his latest film. Of the UK film, Dan said: "I don’t think anyone really has a clue what Britain actually looks like. It's just too big and complicated for us to get a proper sense of proportion. And that’s a problem when people are making decisions about how we feed ourselves or how much more affordable housing we can build. Or, crucially, how much more space for nature we can have. If we don’t have a proper sense of what the country looks like then how can we fix our problems?" His latest film is going to be his 'largest' yet: The Earth in 100 Seconds'. Here's a preview: What are we using planet Earth for?  Each second of this film reveals 1% of land and how we...

David Rogers has started a new role leading on Youth and Community Engagement for the South Downs National Park. He is offering to support schools and posted this message on LinkedIn. If you are a school, youth group or outdoor learning provider inside, or within 10km of the South Downs National Park (or farther afield) I'd love to talk to you about how we can help support learning. We can help with the DfE's Sustainability and climate change strategy ; connecting young people with nature and helping them have agency toward improving nature and climate change though a number of bespoke opportunities. Get in touch with me via learning@southdowns.gov.uk Sign up to our newsletters: - Schools https://lnkd.in/e8zar4kv - Learning Providers https://lnkd.in/eJFGZvRR - Young People https://lnkd.in/e7WGwa6X Image: South Downs from above - taken by Alan Parkinson and shared on Flickr under CC license

Thanks to Hannah Steel for the link to this useful visualisation tool. Biomeviewer displays a range of information in a visual way. It's really useful for identifying biomes in a general way, and rotating the globe to see where they are located and identifying their characteristics. There are accompanying resources in a folder, student worksheet and apparently an iOS app too. The worksheet takes students through the various features which are built into the app. You can also explore anthromes : anthropogenic biomes. These are where the majority of humanity lives. A classification proposed by E.C. Ellis, October 25, 2005 lists them. Minimum mapping scale greater than or equal to one square kilometer. Source:  https://ecotope.org/about/anthropogenic_landscapes/ There is a lot more information and some useful maps on this website too , which is the new home of the previous link. Lovely work and I now want to do something with this as well...

One of the nicest programmes on the telly is Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer. The latest series has just ended. Each programme features short snippets of music to sit alongside the beautiful close-up, slow motion and drone cinematography. There are Spotify playlists for each episode which can be found by searching. Some of them are curated by people involved in the show, and others by fans of the show.  Some really good music is included and it's always good to hear a snippet of something you like, such as Goldfrapp...

 ...but they can't do it free of charge... this is not a great idea. Story here. And in totally unrelated news... "The newly created Alliance for Wales’ Rainforests (AWR) says only about one in five of the 68 temperate rainforest sites it has surveyed are in good condition" New report urges Welsh Govt to safeguard Cymru's rainforests: https://t.co/G6S7eGI6ZA — Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole) November 26, 2024 And finally.... 

This is a very useful report from the Friends of the Lake District It's a really clear piece of research by Dr. Davina Stanford on the costs and benefits of tourism in the Lake District with some case studies from other locations on how they raise money for sustainable tourism and to pay for some of the additional requirements. One option is a Tourist tax expansion. What is the tax spent on? If you have travelled to a European city recently, you will be familiar with the idea of paying a few extra Euros on top of the price of your room. I think I may try to do something with this for our Year 8 unit exploring tourism as it's a lovely area for young people to learn about. Who Pays for the Lake District? Tourism is a vital part of the #LakeDistrict economy – but it comes at a cost. It’s time to talk about the problems and the solutions. Read our report here: https://t.co/1IYKJxZmly #WhoPays pic.twitter.com/liwxF8Pok7 — Friends of the Lake District (@FriendsofLakes) November 20...

The new Living England 2022-23 habitat map is now live! Download freely from https://t.co/rR1gT2IaPl (coming soon on Magic). It’s more reliable & user-friendly than ever - providing essential habitat data for natural capital monitoring across England. pic.twitter.com/5PmDIHjeli — NE Chief Scientist (@NEChiefSci) November 12, 2024 Visit the link, and see the details in the technical report.  

  Four new films look at the work of the Environment Agency to develop natural flood management schemes.  📢 Announcing our four NEW animated films developed with @envagency to spread the word about natural flood management (NFM) 🎉 Meet Twiggy from the film 'Wood you believe it' below and watch the rest of the films here 👇 https://t.co/SRl1IBb4kw (1/4) pic.twitter.com/bXqQnMekTi — CumbriaWildlifeTrust (@cumbriawildlife) October 28, 2024 We need to slow the flow. Storms which cause flooding in homes and businesses have increased in Cumbria in the last decade. Peatlands hold large amount of water and during periods of high rainfall they can both hold back water and also slow the flow of the water coming off the hills. Damaged peatlands cannot hold the same amounts of water, and areas that contain drains actually speed up the flow. This means that, during high rainfall events, water isn’t held back and released slowly but flows immediately into rivers, increasing the flooding ...

Always nice to hit another small milestone on one of my blogs. This one is about landscapes.

  A StoryMap on forgotten woodlands and the clues they leave in the present day. Coilltean Caillte (Gaelic for 'Forgotten Woodlands') is a partnership project that has mapped over 15,000 Scottish place-names that suggest the presence of woodland. Many of the names appear in areas of ancient woodland, but others lie in open ground. Could these be the locations of long-forgotten woodlands? Forgotten Woodlands: Can linguistic clues enhance our understanding of an area's past and inspire its future potential https://t.co/52PytVsdqS — Benjamin Hennig (@geoviews) October 28, 2024 Read more here. 

Another small milestone for another one of my blogs... closing in on 200 000 page views too. A reminder that this blog was set up to support and add additional details to those teaching about landscapes, and in particular the Distinctive Landscapes topic of the OCR 'B' specification. The book is probably a little out of date now if I'm honest, and some of the ideas that were originally 'brand new' have since become common, or been appropriated by others... but it's still worth a look. Still available for purchase.

As National Parks turn 75, a new report highlights only 6% of their land is recorded as being in good health for nature - with the Yorkshire Dales having less tree cover than York and waterways across these special places heavily polluted by sewage released from storm overflows. pic.twitter.com/efHAHoGqdj — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 9, 2024 Biodiversity: just 6% of national park land in England and Wales is being managed effectively for nature, say campaigners. https://t.co/tZ620wBL99 — Brian Groom (@GroomB) April 9, 2024 Here's one of my images of the Peak District... near Strines Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license on Flickr.

Back in the 1980s, isostatic rebound was very much part of my 'A' level teaching, with a bit of eustatic adjustment thrown in for good measure.  The idea was that as glacial periods ended, the melting of thick ice sheets released pressure on the ground, to the extent that the ground started to rebound and rise up again. This story explores research into the possible impact of a river on the world's highest mountain. Connections and geomorphology explored in an interesting story.

  I was sorry to hear this evening of the passing of Norman Ackroyd on Monday: one of our very greatest landscape artists. He was a remarkable printmaker and artist . He shared the laborious process of making his etchings in several documentaries. Listen to this programme with Robert MacFarlane. RIP the great artist Norman Ackroyd (1938-16.09.24): etcher-magician who conjured weather & light from metal & acid; his work constitutes one of the great visual records of this archipelago’s edges. We travelled together—& I made this programme with him: https://t.co/Y5licHxpcP pic.twitter.com/8bQDR95Fph — Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 18, 2024 Here's the first part of a documentary on his method featuring some of his art...

A new(ish) resource which can be accessed and used by members of the Geographical Association. I am considering adding a section of this to my teaching this year. Sycamore Gap is a significant landmark in Northumberland where three distinct features combined: a natural and dramatic dip in the physical landscape about halfway along the 80-mile run of Hadrian’s Wall, itself an ancient monument and reminder of the power of the Roman Empire, and until recently, a lone, 300-year-old Sycamore tree. The site has UNESCO designation and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Arguably, it will still be known as Sycamore Gap because of its story. The tree has stood for hundreds of years, perfectly framed by the landscape, thrilling locals and visitors alike until it was deliberately cut down, under cover of darkness, sometime between the evening of 27 September 2023 and the following morning.  The loss of the tree has caused an outcry and reaction of public grief. These materials are designed to ...

  A cross-posting from my relatively new blog: 'At the Home of Geography'.   This is a blog to share work around my work as Vice President:Education of the Royal Geographical Society. The GA's Fieldwork Festival during June has ended, but fieldwork can carry on at any time of course, and we hope that your summer travels may well involve some 'fieldtrips' AKA family holidays, or personal travels. These may be in the local area or further afield. Check out the detailed page on the RGS website which contains a wealth of resources for those planning fieldwork. One issue for teachers when consultations take place is to have ideas for fieldwork which are low cost (ideally free) and can be carried out in the local area. In terms of having ideas for fieldwork. The sharing of ideas in this area are particularly helpful. The RGS has added a useful form to their website. The form can be used to tell us about the fieldwork that you are undertaking, and help share examples of f...

Useful new resource for coasts Some new resources from Anthony at Internet Geography. These were filmed recently at Mappleton: a popular case study for coastal erosion and management. New footage featuring coastal erosion and mass movement at Mappleton on the Holderness Coast: https://t.co/BZQQxyBOAi #geographyteacher — internetgeography.net 🌍 (@InternetGeog) July 16, 2024 Some new YouTube footage is shared here.  Subscribe to Internet Geography to explore more of what Anthony has produced.

Thanks for reading. The landscape is always changing, and there's always plenty to write about...

The Coastal Erosion figures from Yorkshire are important,

There was good news for walkers this week with the opening of a new stretch of a proposed path which will run right around the coast of Britain.  This is an area that has been out of bounds for years, as it runs through the Sandringham Estate. I lived in Snettisham for twelve years, and was often frustrated that at Wolferton the path petered out and came well inland away from the coast. It was featured in the local paper, the EDP, and also on BBC News.  I look forward to following the path this coming summer to give it a go. I've been down to Peter Scott's lighthouse many times and followed the path for part of the way, but it was always incomplete between King's Lynn and Heacham. The trail is rather remote as it leaves King's Lynn... all the way to Snettisham. You'll want the wind behind you as well...  The trail website is here.

Flat places seem hardly to count as places. They’re just the gaps between landmarks. If people think about flatlands at all, it’s usually to call them boring. Nothing to look at, nothing to focus on, no hidden places to discover. To be flat is to be dull: a cut-and-dried equation. I've got a copy of 'A Flat Place' by Noreen Massud. Check out the GeoLibrary for some more. She contributed a piece to The Guardian's feature on holidays to explain why she likes to visit flat places. There's some excellent descriptions of the value of flatness and why other places leave her cold and anxious. Excellent for units exploring the distinctive landscape of this area, and the value of flatness in areas such as the Somerset Levels and elsewhere. Can I also recommend that you subscribe to Drew's Fenland on Film YouTube channel. Drew does fantastic work collating, sharing and restoring films about the Fens and places such as Ely. Here's one of his latest projects: a restor...

  In the 1980s, my geography teacher and one of my lecturers collaborated on coding a simple hillslope model which looked at runoff on a hillslope. It was made available as an early piece of software for purchase and reviewed in TG at the time. I wrote about it here. It was for sale at the time - for use on the BBC B computer. The TG description is shown here. A post from Dr. Chris Skinner led me to a modern take on this theme. A group of people led by Dai Yamazaki have been coding a model for the movement of water down and through a hillslope using Scratch and have made the code available. There's a close link with the model from the 1980s.... I had a copy. You can tinker with the code as well. If I had a little more time I'd give this a go. New paper is out. We develop a rainfall-runoff model using educational programming language Scratch, and make it playable as a game. We found through a workshop that learning through game helps to more deeply understand flood mechanism....

  Making Space for Sand is a project I was made aware of recently. The ‘Building Community Resilience on a Dynamic Coastline by Making Space for Sand’ project (also known as Making Space for Sand or MS4S) is one of 25 national projects funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCRIP).  The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The project website has an excellent section outlining the formation of Sand Dunes, particularly within the located context of Cornwall. Sand Dunes are an important part of the coastal defences in the locations where they are found. I am particularly familiar with the dunes on the North Norfolk Coast at places like Holkham.  I've previously carried out fieldwork on those dunes with both GCSE and 'A' level students, and also  Atkins has provided GIS support and created some visualisations of future landscapes.