North West Geography

Volume 15, 2015

Historical sources and meandering river systems in urban sites: the case of Manchester, UK

Rodolfo Alves da Luz,
Department of Geography, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Nigel Lawson,
School of Environment, Education and Development,
University of Manchester.
Ian Douglas,
School of Environment, Education and Development,
University of Manchester.
Cleide Rodrigues,
Department of Geography, University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract
Past geomorphological changes to meandering rivers due to urbanization derived from historical sources are used to explore three scales of channel adjustment in Greater Manchester. Human activity has often extended the first terrace narrowing the flood plain and raising flood heights, requiring later construction of flood walls and flood detention basins. Urban development near waterways often occurs over buried former meanders that potentially pose hazards during and after construction. The active post-glacial meandering channel of the Mersey Basin are not all totally controlled, marked changes in the Mersey River channel have occurred in the reach downstream of Ashton on Mersey. A comparison of the roles of pre-urban geomorphology and anthropogenic changes in Greater Manchester with those in São Paulo Brazil revealed the value of the analysis of past conditions for river management and urban construction in both older and newly industrialising cities across the continents.

Download Article (14260KB)

Sefton Coast’s vulnerability to coastal flooding using DEM data

Irene Delgado-Fernandez, Matthew McBride, Rachel Platt and Mark Cameron,
Geography Department, Edge Hill University

Abstract
A preliminary analysis of the vulnerability of the Sefton coast to coastal flooding was carried out using a high-resolution DEM and census data from 2011. Results indicate that up to 12,500 people live within areas below the significant dune erosion level. Low-lying areas are clustered in two main locations, the South Formby / Hightown and Southport. High dunes from 15 to 35 m high are common in the central part of the Sefton Coast, including Formby Point and Ainsdale. This highlights the significance of the Sefton dune field system as a potential defence mechanism against coastal erosion and flooding, and the need to consider management schemes that would allow the dunes to adapt to sea level rise and climate change.

Download Article (1530KB)


Analysis of ‘hummocky moraine’ using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry

Simon J. Cook1, Toby N. Tonkin2, Nicholas G. Midgley2 and Anya Wicikowski2,
1School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University.
2School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, Nottingham Trent University.

Abstract
This study presents results of a high-resolution topographic survey of the proglacial area of Austre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. Structure-from-Motion (SfM) was used to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) of the proglacial zone from aerial imagery. This DEM is used to explore the topography of a zone of hummocky moraine within the glacier ‘s Neoglacial limit. The origin of hummocky moraine has proven controversial, but detailed morphological studies can contribute to a better understanding of how these features form, and the extent to which they may be preserved in the palaeo-glaciological record, including within northwest Britain. In cross-profile, hummocky moraine is characterised by a sequence of asymmetrical ridges, with longer, low angle up-glacier faces, and shorter, steeper down-glacier faces. This profile is interpreted to represent a sequence of ridges stacked-up against a bedrock riegel and reverse bedslope. Whilst the origin of these features is uncertain, the enhanced compression associated with glacier flow against a bedrock riegel, possibly during a glacier surge, may have been sufficient to have generated debris-rich englacial thrusts that subsequently melted-out to form the observed hummocky moraine. The significance of this research highlights ongoing studies aimed at understanding the origin and palaeo-glaciological significance of hummocky moraine in northwest Britain.

Download Article (5798KB)

Volume 24, Number 2, 2024

Jonathan Dale, Laura Conway, Michael P Kennedy, Tom Sizmur
The influence of grazing on comparisons between pre-existing and restored saltmarshes.

Volume 24, Number 1, 2024

Rebecca Holland and Patrick Byrne,
Spatial and temporal variability of road-deposited sediment (RDS) within the Greater Manchester urban conurbation, UK.

Kimberley Peters,
Geography H2O: Compounding Water Studies.

Go to Volume 24

Volume 23, Number 1, 2023

James Watts,
“Carrying with her a most influential and intelligent audience.” Women Lecturers, the British Empire, and the Manchester Geographical Society, 1884-1920.

Rachael Jones,
The changing face of Whalley Nab, Lancashire: A naturalistic and cultural landscape.

Ian Douglas
Obituary: Nigel Lawson 1941-1922.

Steve Rigby
Book Review ‘Are mathematicians human?’ Alan Turing’s Manchester. By Jonathan Swinton

Go to Volume 23

Volume 22, Number 2, 2022

Jonathan G.A. Lageard and Eleanor A. Robinson,
An investigation of subfossil Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from Curlew Lane, Lancashire.

Volume 22, Number 1, 2022

Andrew Taylor,
Mapping the city: One man’s contribution to city centre maps.

Dr Samantha Wilkinson and Dr Catherine Wilkinson,
Not a hair out of place? Embracing messy positionality when researching the geographies of hair in Greater Manchester.

Go to Volume 22

Volume 21, Number 1, 2021

Haseeb Mahmood and Robert Sparkes,
Spatio-temporal analysis of the potential toxicological burden of pollutants in a fluvial system, the River Irwell, Manchester, through anthropogenic activities (present and historical) and natural mechanisms.

Rachael Jones,
Reconstructing the late-nineteenth century landscape and natural habitats of south west Accrington using the artwork of Thomas Frederick Worrall (1872–1957).

Osborne, A.W., Keightley, A.T., Ingleby, E.R., Longden, M.T., Rogers, A.V., Steel, D. and Davies, M.C.,
From bare peat desert to nature reserve within ten years: a review of restoration practice on Little Woolden Moss, Manchester, UK.

Go to Volume 21

Volume 20, Number 1, 2020

Thomas A.G. Smyth, Ella Thorpe and Paul Rooney,
Blowout Evolution Between 1999 and 2015 in Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve, England.

Go to Volume 20

Volume 19, Number 2, 2019

Rory Scott and Neil Entwistle,
Toward a protocol for UAV surveying in Environmental Sciences.

Philip D. Hughes, Matt D. Tomkins and Andrew G. Stimson,
Glaciation of the English Lake District during the Late-glacial: a new analysis using 10Be and Schmidt hammer exposure dating.

Volume 19, Number 1, 2019

P J Murphy,
The Vaccary Walls of Wycoller, Pennine East Lancashire – a geologist’s view.

Paul Hindle,
Book Review. Manchester – Mapping the City, T. Wyke, B. Robson & M. Dodge.

Go to Volume 19

Volume 18, Number 2, 2018

Brian Robson,
Mapping the Rise and Fall of Ancoats Hall.

William J. Fletcher and Peter A. Ryan,
Radiocarbon constraints on historical peat accumulation rates and atmospheric deposition of heavy metals at Holcroft Moss, Warrington.

Ian Douglas
Obituary: Kieth Sutton 1943-1918

Volume 18, Number 1, 2018

Michael Hardman, Rebecca St. Clair, Richard Armitage, Veronica Barry, Peter Larkham and Graeme Sherriff,
Urban agriculture: evaluating informal and formal practices.

Samantha Wilkinson and Catherine Wilkinson,
‘Working from home’: academics and Airbnb, an autoethnographic account.

Go to Volume 18

Volume 17, Number 2, 2017

K. R. Butt and P. D. Putwain,
Earthworm community development in organic matter-amended plots on reclaimed colliery spoil.

Jonathan Lageard, Lizzie Bonnar, Thomas Briggs, Simon Caporn, Emma Clarke, Chris Field, Callum Hayles, Anna Keightley, Graham Smith, Lydia McCool, Peter Ryan and Tor Yip,
Educational potential of peatlands and prehistoric bog oaks in Lancashire and adjoining region.

Brian Robson and Nick Scarle,
Bury in 1831: a newly-discovered early plan of the town.

Jennifer O’Brien,
A–Level Geography Workshop — a funding report.

Volume 17, Number 1, 2017

Richard Payne
Fieldwork is good – but why?

Kathy Burrell,
Stories from “The World in One City”: Migrant Lives in Liverpool.

Go to Volume 17

Volume 16, Number 1, 2016

Cathy Delaney and Oliver Sikora,
Evidence for Paleolake Rawtenstall around Stacksteads, Upper Irwell Valley, Rossendale, U.K.

Go to Volume 16

Volume 15, Number 2, 2015

Rodolfo Alves da Luz, Nigel Lawson, Ian Douglas and Cleide Rodrigues,
Historical sources and meandering river systems in urban sites: the case of Manchester, UK.

Volume 15, Number 1, 2015

Irene Delgado-Fernandez, Matthew McBride, Rachel Platt and Mark Cameron,
Sefton Coast’s vulnerability to coastal flooding using DEM data.

Simon J. Cook, Toby N. Tonkin, Nicholas G. Midgley and Anya Wicikowski,
Analysis of ‘hummocky moraine’ using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry

Go to Volume 15

Volume 14, Number 1, 2014

Peter Wilson and Tom Lord,
Towards a robust deglacial chronology for the northwest England sector of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet.

Go to Volume 14

Volume 13, Number 2, 2013

Brian Robsom,
John Wood’s town plans and the evolving urban hierarchy of Cumbria.

Volume 13, Number 1, 2013

Peter Wilson,
Did a glacier exist in the valley of Bleatarn Gill, central Lake District, during the Loch Lomond Stade?

Mark Toogood and Hannah Neate,
Preston Bus Station: Heritage, Regeneration, and Resistance

Go to Volume 13

Volume 12, Number 1, 2012

Claire Smith and Nigel Lawson,
Exceeding climate thresholds: Extreme weather impacts on the environment and population of Greater Manchester.

Philip D. Hughes, Roger J. Braithwaite, Cassandra R. Fenton and Christoph Schnabel,
Two Younger Dryas glacier phases in the English Lake District: geomorphological evidence and preliminary 10Be exposure ages.

Jonathan Darling, Ruth L Healey and Lauren Healey,
Seeing the City anew: Asylum Seeker perspectives of ‘belonging’ in Greater Manchester.

Go to Volume 12

Volume 11, Number 2, 2011

Peter Wilson,
Re-interpretation of the ‘relict protalus rock glacier’ at Grasmoor End, northwest Lake District.

Volume 11, Number 1, 2011

Ramirez, F. A., Armitage, R. P., Danson, F. M., and Bandugula, V.,
Characterising phenological changes in North West forests using terrestrial laser scanning: some preliminary results.

Peter Wilson,
The last glacier in Dovedale, Lake District.

Colin Richards,
Thomas Jeffery’s Map of “The County of Westmoreland” (1770): an evaluation of its contribution to understanding late eighteenth century landscape.

Richard J. Payne,
Meteors and perceptions of environmental change in the annus mirabilis AD1783-4.

Go to Volume 11

Volume 10, Number 2, 2010

Richard J. Payne,
The ‘Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures’ of Benjamin Franklin.

M Cross,
The use of a field open-sided direct shear box for the determination of the shear strength of shallow residual and colluvial soils on hillslopes in the south Pennines, Derbyshire.

Paul Hindle,
Continuing change: Manchester Geographical Society, 1998-2010.

Paul Hindle,
Book reviews.

Volume 10, Number 1, 2010

C. A. Delaney, E. J. Rhodes, R. G. Crofts, and C. D. Jones,
Evidence for former glacial lakes in the High Peak and Rossendale Plateau areas, north west England.

Go to Volume 10

Volume 9, Number 2, 2009

Gary Warnaby,
Changing Representation of the Industrial Town: an analysis of official guides in Bury from 1925.

Derek Antrobus,
Three Stories of Salford: transformation, identity and metropolitan peripheries.

Volume 9, Number 1, 2009

Chris Perkins,
Placing golf.

Ian Whyte,
The Impact of Parliamentary Enclosure on a Cumbrian Community: Watermillock, c. 1780-1840.

Go to Volume 9

Volume 8, Number 2, 2008

Charles Rawding,
Changing Land Use in North East Lancashire during the Second World War.

Volume 8, Number 1, 2008

Mervyn Busteed,
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Irish Manchester, 1825-1922.

Nigel Lawson and Sarah Lindley,
A deeper understanding of climate induced risk to urban infrastructure: case studies of past events in Greater Manchester.

Chris Perkins and Martin Dodge,
The potential of user-generated cartography: a case study of the OpenStreetMap project and Mapchester mapping party.

S. Watkins and I. Whyte,
Extreme flood events in upland catchments in cumbria since 1600: the evidence of historical records.

Andrew M. Folkard,
Temperature structure and turbulent mixing processes in Cumbrian lakes.

Go to Volume 8

Volume 7, Number 2, 2007

Richard D. Knowles and Adwoa A. Ametepe,
Bus Patronage, Bus Deregulation and Ten Year Transport Plan Targets in Gateway Cities: the case of Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Volume 7, Number 1, 2007

Kevin R. Butt and Emma J. Chamberlain,
Distribution of earthworms across the Sefton Coast sand dune ecosystem.

Peter Wilson,
Kirkby Fell rock slope failure.

Go to Volume 7

Volume 6, Number 1, 2006

Charles Rawding,
East Lancashire housing markets.

Fabienne Carraz, Kevin G. Taylor, Stefan Stainsby and Davina Robertson,
Contaminated urban road deposited sediment (RDS), Greater Manchester, UK: a spatial assessment of potential surface water impacts.

Human or Physical? People and Places of Edge Hill,
New Book.

Go to Volume 6

Volume 5, Number 1, 2005

David W. Shimwell,
Evidence for the vegetation and habitat of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the Loch Lomond stadial of north-west England.

Paul Hindle,
The tram roads of the Manchester Bolton & Bury canal

Chris Perkins and Anna Z.Thomson,
Mapping for health: cycling and walking maps of the city.

Go to Volume 5

Volume 4, Number 1, 2004

Paul Hindle,
Large scale plans of Manchester.

Go to Volume 4

Volume 3, Number 2, 2003

Richard D. Knowles and Adwoa A. Kevin R. Butt, Christopher N. Lowe and Tim Walmsley,
Monitoring earthworm communities in translocated grasslands affected by the construction of Runway 2 at Manchester Airport.

Volume 3, Number 1, 2003

Charles Rawding,
Agricultural practices and state intervention during the Second World War: a case study of South West Lancashire.

Dawn Nicholson,
Breakdown mechanisms and morphology for man-made rockslopes in North West England.

Catherine Delaney,
The last glacial stage (the Devensian) in North West England.

Go to Volume 3

Volume 2, Number 2, 2002

Ian Whyte,
Whose Lake District? Contested landscapes and changing sense of place.

Chris Perkins,
Tactile mapping quality: the Manchester experience.

Paul Hindle,
Ordnance Survey 25 inch Maps of Lancashire.

Chris Perkins,
Stockport Green A-Z, Section 1: Brinnington, Reddish and the Heatons.

Volume 2, Number 1, 2002

Richard Phillips,
Exploring an imperial region: North West England.

A. D. Thomas, A. J. Dougill, K. Berry and J. A. Byrne,
Soil crusts in the Molopo Basin, Southern Africa.

M. E. J. Cutler, J. McMorrow and M. Evans,
Remote sensing of upland peat erosion in the southern Pennines.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Thomas Donald’s map of Cumberland, 1774.

Wilfred H. Theakstone,
‘Manchester’ by Clare Hartwell.

Go to Volume 2

Volume 1, Number 2, 2001

G. L. Heritage, A. Chappell and A. D. Thomas,
A field-based approach to integrating catchment and river channel processes.

Catherine Delaney,
Esker formation and the nature of deglaciation: the Ballymahon Esker, Central Ireland.

Mervyn Busteed,
Research report on Irish Nationalist Processions in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Manchester.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Ordnance Survey 25 inch maps – Rochdale (South), 1908.

Volume 1, Number 1, 2001

Mark Banks,
Representing regional life: the place discourses of Granada Tonight.

Andrew J. Dougill and Matt Stroh,
Recreational users of Lake District bridleways: conflict or camaraderie?

Mervyn Busteed,
”I shall never return to Hibernia’s bowers“ Irish migrant identities in early Victorian Manchester.

Laura Shotbolt, Andrew D. Thomas, Simon M. Hutchinson and Andrew J. Dougill,
Reconstructing the history of heavy metal pollution in the southern Pennines from the sedimentary record of reservoirs: methods and preliminary results.

Paul Hindle,
The influence of the Gay Village on migration to central Manchester.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Ordnance Survey One Inch Maps – Rossendale 1895.

Go to Volume 1