Search

Abandoned river channels may provide rich primary sources of palaeoenvironmental and cultural information elucidating landscape evolution, climate change, vegetation history and human impact, especially since the beginning of the Holocene epoch. However, although potentially an important resource, palaeochannels are not often recorded systematically and only rarely enjoy robust statutory protection (in the UK as Sites of Special Scientific Interest). In consequence, it is challenging to mitigate and manage this important geoarchaeological resource effectively within the UK planning framework. Whilst palaeochannels have long been recognised on aerial photographs and historic maps, the advent of airborne laser scanning (Lidar) and other remote-sensing technologies has provided a hitherto unforeseen opportunity to record such landforms and related features at a catchment scale. This paper provides a case study from the Nottinghamshire reach of the Trent Valley, where a desk-based methodology that is now being extended across the entire catchment has been developed for recording, geospatially locating and defining the attributes of observed palaeochannels. After outlining the methodology, we consider how this approach to resource management can aid archaeological research and future heritage management, especially in the light of predicted climate and environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The site of Medmerry, West Sussex, UK, has been subject to a programme of managed coastal retreat through a multi-million pound scheme undertaken by the Environment Agency in 2011. As part of this scheme, the site was subject to set piece archaeological excavation and palaeoenvironmental investigation. The results of these have demonstrated a range of landscape processes, which in conjunction with the archaeological evidence have shown that this area and its inhabitants have been coping with coastal change for thousands of years. The site has now been given over to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, one of the UK’s major wildlife charities, who are forming a ‘new’ wetland nature reserve, which bears striking resemblance to the landscape that would have existed during the prehistoric period. This paper describes the approach used to investigate a deeply buried palaeoenvironmental and archaeological resource and the legacy that such an approach has created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]