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Presents a report on the conference `Paper Landscapes' at the Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, London, England, on July 18-19 1997. Information on the original planners of the conference; Identification of central issues of the conference; Details on papers presented at the conference.

• Interactive data visualisations can support school children between the ages of 10–18 in asking valid questions from data. • Curated snapshots of part of a small part of dataset can help school children understand how to frame questions around the extended dataset, along dimensions such as space and time to explore more and more of. • A guided data inquiry can help lead to a more open data inquiry. • The learning of data skills lends itself to cross-curricular learning and can begin with primary school students. • There are a number of design principles that may help in developing new applications to engage children with complex data whilst developing new data literacies. Data literacy is gaining importance as a general skill that all citizens should possess in an increasingly data-driven society. As such there is interest in how it can be taught in schools. However, the majority of teaching focuses on small, personally collected data which is easier for students to relate to. This does not give the students the breadth of experience they need for dealing with the larger, complex data that is collected at scale and used to drive the intelligent systems that people engage with during work and leisure time. Neither does it prepare them for future jobs, which increasingly require skills for critically querying and deriving insights from data. This paper addresses this gap by trialling a method for teaching from complex data, collected through a smart city project. The main contribution is to show that existing data principles from the literature can be adapted to design data literacy activities that help pupils understand complex data collected by others and form interesting questions and hypotheses about it. It also demonstrates how smart city ideas and concepts can be brought to life in the classroom. The Urban Data School study was carried out over two years in three primary and secondary schools in England, using smart city datasets. Three teachers took part, providing access to different age groups, subject areas, and class types. This resulted in four distinctive field studies, with 67 students aged between 10–14 years, each lasting a few weeks within the two year period. The studies provide evidence that when engaging with data that has not been personally collected, activities designed to give the experience of collecting the data can help in critiquing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage gardens, heathland and woodland are increasingly under threat from the non-native tree and plant diseases Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora kernoviae . However, there exist only limited literature that estimates the public non-market value that may be lost from a continued spread of Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora kernoviae into these habitats. This paper therefore uses a contingent valuation survey to assess the non-extractive public use and non-use values at risk from an uncontrolled spread of these diseases in England and Wales. Results estimate that £1.446bn of public value is at risk in England and Wales per year from an uncontrolled spread of Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora kernoviae . The greatest public value at risk, of £578 m/year, is from an uncontrolled spread of these diseases to heritage gardens, while the lowest public value at risk, of £386 m/year, is from disease spread to heathland. The findings of this paper should help policymakers make informed decisions as to the public resources to dedicate towards Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora kernoviae control in England and Wales. In this regard, the current control programme to contain these diseases appears cost-effective in light of the public value at risk estimates produced by this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding was a recurrent part of rural life in early modern England. Explanations of the historical understanding of floods have traditionally relied on religious and providential arguments made in popular printed literature. In this paper, popular printed accounts of flooding are brought together with under-exploited archival sources to provide a different description of perceptions of flooding in early modern England. Local manuscript accounts of flood events are found in the marginal notes inserted into local registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. Institutional records of commissions of sewers provide another perspective on floods, as community-staffed bureaucracies recorded and attempted to manage the damage caused by overflowing rivers and raging seas. Brought together, these local narratives provide a new and different view of the experience of flooding. Paying close attention to the ways in which flood events were narrativized, this paper explores the customary, religious, personal and productive narrative frames invoked by contemporaries. By using underappreciated and traditional archival sources in new ways, this paper provides a rereading of early modern attitudes towards geographical phenomena previously derived from print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of port development is increasingly challenging because of the competitive requirement for deeper channels and because of the need to preserve important coastal wetlands which function as both habitat and flood defence. This paper describes the management of the Stour/Orwell Estuary system, Eastern England, an estuary system which has experienced considerable development and morphological change. The estuary is internationally important for its wetland bird populations and the intertidal areas of the estuary system are protected under European legislation. It is also the location of the Port of Felixstowe. In 1998/2000 the approach channel to the Port of Felixstowe was deepened from −12.5 mCD to −14.5 mCD. This paper describes the effects of the approach channel deepening, the approach taken to identifying the potential impact to intertidal habitat resulting from the deepening, the sediment recycling implemented as mitigation to prevent increased loss of habitat and the subsequent response of the estuary system to this intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The August of 2011 saw the largest riots in the United Kingdom in decades. Half of London's boroughs, as well as neighborhoods in several other cities, were impacted through the more than 200 individual riot events that caused £200 ($300) million in property damage. Despite widespread media coverage at the time, we know little about what citizens experienced during the riots. This paper bridges that gap using daily response panel data (from the Mappiness smartphone application) to estimate the beyond-monetary costs of the riots. Based on the difference-in-differences estimation, the disturbances substantially increased unhappiness and stress in areas they affected. This negative effect was even more pronounced in areas with the biggest proportion of Black residents, and it also reached a national scale, as even neighborhoods without riots experienced a pronounced wellbeing loss. The negative effects persisted beyond the end of the disturbances, at least until the end of the summer. Citizens changed their behavior in response to the events, respondents in neighborhoods with riots started seeking information and communicating more, which manifested in higher levels of TV watching, texting, email, and social media use. The English riots form part of a larger trend in current social tensions—with a marked wellbeing loss for the majority of Brits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines aspects of the experience of eating out in 2015 and its change over time. In 2015 we repeated an earlier study of eating out in three cities in England in with similar coverage of topics and mostly with identically worded questions, and conducted follow-up in-depth interviews with some of the respondents. We focus on the changing reasons and meanings of the activity as breadth of experience in the population augments and eating main meals outside the home becomes less exceptional or special. What we call 'ordinary' events have become more prevalent, and we delineate two forms of 'ordinary' occasions; the 'impromptu' and the 'regularised'. We describe the consequences for popular understanding of the social significance of eating out in 2015, its informalisation and normalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, agricultural land managers are seeking new approaches for understanding the potential challenges posed by sediment connectivity across catchments from source to sink, and implications for delivery of ecosystem services determined by the condition of natural capital assets. Connectivity indices have been frequently applied in the calculation of risk in spatial and temporal assessment frameworks, and tools which facilitate rapid modelling and mapping of soil erosion risk using broad-scale environmental data are therefore of considerable interest. One such indicative tool is SCIMAP (Sensitive Catchment Integrated Mapping and Analysis Platform), which highlights where sediment runoff is likely to occur and be delivered to a watercourse by simulating the generation of saturation-excess overland flow. In this paper, we examine the utility of SCIMAP for exploring the changing nature of soil erosion risk as a function of land use change in the lower Rother catchment in West Sussex, southern England through the formulation of a suite of foresight scenarios informed by knowledge of historical land cover conditions and current management practice. The study area has previously been investigated at the field scale in terms of locating and quantifying sources of erosion and areas where in-stream sedimentation manifests. Output risk values from all simulations were quantified, mapped and compared to highlight areas of greatest/lowest risk. An area was identified immediately north of the main Rother channel that consistently exhibited greatest risk across each land cover scenario. We explore (i) the spatial and temporal variation in modelled risk and (ii) the utility value of SCIMAP for agricultural land-managers and policy-makers in generating robust risk estimates of soil erosion and in-stream sedimentation, and challenges with model verification in a foresight context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant loss of valuable resources and increasing burdens on landfills are often associated with a lack of proper planning in waste management and resource recovery strategy. A sustainable waste management model is thus urgently needed to improve resource efficiency and divert more waste from landfills. This paper proposes a comprehensive system model using stock-and-flow diagram to examine the current waste management performance and project the future waste generation, treatment and disposal scenarios, using England as a case study. The model comprises three integrated modules to represent household waste generation and collection; waste treatment and disposal; and energy recovery. A detailed mass and energy balance has been established and waste management performance has been evaluated using six upstream and downstream indicators. The base case scenario that assumes constant waste composition shows that waste to landfills can be reduced to less than 10% of the total amount, by 2035. However, it entails greater diversion of waste to energy-from-waste facilities, which is not sustainable and would incur higher capital investment and gate fees. Alternative case scenarios that promote recycling instead of energy recovery result in lower capital investment and gate fees. Complete elimination of the food and organic fraction from the residual waste stream will help meet the 65% recycling target by 2035. In light of the need for achieving a more circular economy in England, enhancing material recovery through reuse and recycling, reducing reliance on energy-from-waste and deploying more advanced waste valorisation technologies should be considered in future policy and planning for waste management. • A stock-and-flow model for waste management in England has been developed. • Resource recovery potential has been proposed as a more robust indicator. • Material recovery and valorisation should be promoted in lieu of energy-from-waste. • Diversion of waste to incineration incurs higher capital investment and gate fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The identification of human butchery-signatures on fauna from Lower Palaeolithic sites is well documented and readily identifiable. Such bone surface modifications have the potential to provide not only information about past hominin meat-procurement behaviour but address the wider issue of competition for resources with other carnivore species. To understand and discuss these broader issues both hominin and natural bone surface modifications must be understood and contextualised within a site-specific spatial and temporal framework. This paper presents new results from faunal analysis at two key British Lower Palaeolithic localities: Boxgrove and Swanscombe. It illustrates that different depositional environments and excavation histories have resulted in different scales and resolutions of available data and hence in varying interpretive potentials. At Swanscombe the archaeological record has been disturbed by both fluvial activity and excavation history providing a coarser-grained record of anthropogenic behaviour than previously acknowledged. Conversely, at Boxgrove, a finer-grained, higher resolution record of human behaviours has been preserved; this, combined with both an extensive and intensive excavation strategy, has allowed for a broader discussion of hominin landscape use, resource competition and meat-procurement behaviour. This paper highlights that assessing the specific depositional environment at each site is crucial to understanding Palaeolithic faunal assemblage formation and, consequently, the available data-resolution and behavioural interpretation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In an empirical extension of and theoretical commentary on Foucault's work on governmentality, this paper takes the liberal governance of women, specifically mothers, as its focus. In Britain at the turn of the twentieth century, high infant mortality rates sparked widespread concern. Working-class mothers were blamed for infant deaths and became the target of social intervention. Analysing the knowledge which shaped the understanding of infant death, the paper highlights the geography of the problem and traces the creation of a particular subjectivity: the bad mother. Using the case study of the BoRon School for Mothers in Lancashire, the paper excavates the political rationalities informing infant welfare work. Finding a biopolitical concern for the quality and quantity of the British race at the heart of the work of the Bolton School, the article demonstrates the ways in which the working-class maternal body was appropriated as a tool of population revitalisation. The study also interrogates the practices of control used in infant welfare work and suggests the entanglement of different types of power as characteristic of infant welfare as a regime of biopolitical governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Scenario planning is one of the most prominent methods applied by organisations to assist long-term decision making. This paper uses a case study method to demonstrate how scenarios can be operationalised to inform future strategies and to challenge rigid silo-based decision making approaches. The WaterProof Northwest scenarios developed by the authors in collaboration with a range of stakeholders, and described within this paper, offer a platform for considering the future of the water environment. The scenarios were developed in the context of meeting the goals of the European Water Framework Directive. This Directive has the core aim of improving the chemical and ecological status of Europe''s water bodies. The scenarios highlight that water bodies in the case study area (the region of Northwest England) are impacted directly by a wide array of driving forces which will affect the state of the water environment over the coming decades. This analysis demonstrates that organisations responsible for creating and implementing long-term plans and policies to manage water are often far removed from the forces that will influence the effectiveness of the exercises that they are engaged in. The WaterProof Northwest scenarios highlight that organisations need different decision making approaches in order to adapt to modern environmental challenges. They also raise questions over whether environmental legislation such as the Water Framework Directive should incorporate a futures perspective in recognition of the wide ranging forces influencing their implementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores the twentieth-century rise and fall of the traditional department store Bourne and Hollingsworth in London's Oxford Street as a means of re-examining the historical geographies of metropolitan consumption cultures. The research moves away from a preoccupation with urban retail's novelty and spectacle towards a consideration of the more conventional and conservative kinds of consumption that have been a vital part of the retail ecology of many major cities in the twentieth century. The paper analyses the intersections of different dimensions of the history of metropolitan consumption: with a culturalist focus on consumer identity and urban microgrographies; but also an examination of this as a family-owned, paternalistic business, and as a material space, both as a building designed and refurbished by its owners, management, architects and shopfitters, and as a particular site within the routes and flows of the West End. The final approach to Bourne and Hollingsworth as urban property, as a distinctive form of capital asset in the city, allows a new understanding of the vulnerability of this kind of retailing by the later twentieth century. The study shows that an emphasis on the significance of cultures of consumption provides at best a partial explanation for changes in the landscapes of consumption: it is argued that cities are the sites of complex intersections between cultural practices and other kinds of geography, in this case those of asset values and opportunities for property speculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines work conducted between 1915 and 1919 by a group of architects and planners based at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project, called the Civic Survey of Greater London, and the substantial collection of maps and diagrams that resulted from it are currently unknown in histories of mapping and planning, thus this paper offers a preliminary account and analysis of the work. The paper begins by assessing the development of surveying and mapping techniques in the nineteenth century with the aim of situating the Survey within broader historical trajectories. The following section of the paper examines the immediate context for the Survey, in particular the place of Patrick Geddes and his ideas. The third part of the paper focuses on the work of the Survey itself. The fourth part draws out key analytical threads in dialogue with a number of the maps of the Survey. The emphasis placed here is on exploring lines of continuity between the Civic Survey of Greater London and earlier techniques of representation and governmentality. The concluding section reflects briefly on the reasons for the Survey's subsequent relative obscurity and the importance of the project for later traditions of surveying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the technical options for warning of surface water flooding in England and Wales and presents the results of an Environment Agency funded project. Following the extensive surface water flooding experienced in summer 2007 a rainfall threshold-based Extreme Rainfall Alert (ERA) was piloted by the Met Office and Environment Agency providing initial steps towards the establishment of a warning for some types of surface water flooding. The findings of this paper are based primarily on feedback on technical options from a range of professionals involved in flood forecasting and warning and flood risk management, about the current alerts and about the potential options for developing a more targeted surface water flood warning service. Providing surface water flooding warnings presents a set of technical, forecasting and warning challenges related to the rapid onset of flooding, the localised nature of the flooding, and the linking of rainfall and flood forecasts to flood likelihood and impact on the ground. Some examples of rainfall alerting and surface water flood warning services from other countries are evaluated, as well as a small number of recently implemented local services in England and Wales. Various potential options for implementation of a service are then explored and assessed. The paper concludes that development of a surface water flood warning service for England and Wales is feasible and is likely to be useful to emergency responders and operational agencies, although developing such a service for the pluvial components of this type of flooding is likely to be feasible sooner than for other components of surface water flooding such as that caused by sewers. A targeted surface water flood warning service could be developed for professional emergency responders in the first instance rather than for the public for whom such a service without further operational testing and piloting would be premature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recently historians have complicated their understanding of networks. In particular, they have started to assess the role of networks in civic and formal arenas. This paper posits a quantitative methodology for a more nuanced and sophisticated analysis of mercantile networks within this environment. It uses visual analytics of Liverpool's business networks comprising political, trade, social and cultural institutions to assess their role in the changing social and economic climate during the period 1750-1810. This paper demonstrates the dynamic role of networks in the shaping of a metropolitan economy and the interplay between the two. In addition, it posits that, as is the case for regional clusters, there is a life cycle of networks. In this way, we are able to see how the networks sustained, nurtured and transformed social and economic activity during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environment schemes (AESs) have been implemented across EU member states in an attempt to reconcile agricultural production methods with protection of the environment and maintenance of the countryside. To determine the extent to which such policy objectives are being fulfilled, participating countries are obliged to monitor and evaluate the environmental, agricultural and socio-economic impacts of their AESs. However, few evaluations measure precise environmental outcomes and critically, there are no agreed methodologies to evaluate the benefits of particular agri-environmental measures, or to track the environmental consequences of changing agricultural practices. In response to these issues, the Agri-Environmental Footprint project developed a common methodology for assessing the environmental impact of European AES. The Agri-Environmental Footprint Index (AFI) is a farm-level, adaptable methodology that aggregates measurements of agri-environmental indicators based on Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) techniques. The method was developed specifically to allow assessment of differences in the environmental performance of farms according to participation in agri-environment schemes. The AFI methodology is constructed so that high values represent good environmental performance. This paper explores the use of the AFI methodology in combination with Farm Business Survey data collected in England for the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), to test whether its use could be extended for the routine surveillance of environmental performance of farming systems using established data sources. Overall, the aim was to measure the environmental impact of three different types of agriculture (arable, lowland livestock and upland livestock) in England and to identify differences in AFI due to participation in agri-environment schemes. However, because farm size, farmer age, level of education and region are also likely to influence the environmental performance of a holding, these factors were also considered. Application of the methodology revealed that only arable holdings participating in agri-environment schemes had a greater environmental performance, although responses differed between regions. Of the other explanatory variables explored, the key factors determining the environmental performance for lowland livestock holdings were farm size, farmer age and level of education. In contrast, the AFI value of upland livestock holdings differed only between regions. The paper demonstrates that the AFI methodology can be used readily with English FADN data and therefore has the potential to be applied more widely to similar data sources routinely collected across the EU-27 in a standardised manner. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Positioning itself with regards to debates on the role of regionalization in the industrial revolution and on consumer and retailing revolutions, this paper uses the records of John Shaw, hardware factor of Wolverhampton, to examine how commercial travel created real spatial interactions across the industrializing economy of northern England in the period 1810–15. The paper argues that by integrating production and consumption, commercial travel played a vital part in advancing and reconciling the concurrent but apparently conflicting processes of economic regionalization and economic integration that characterized the period. Empirically, the paper contributes original data indicating concrete patterns of interaction across the space economy of early nineteenth century northern England in terms of both ‘routes’ and the intensity of interactions. The empirical material also allows for discussion of customer identities, the structure of geographically dispersed commodity chains and regional variations, if any, the nature of customer relationships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Second World War had a profound impact on British Agriculture, with state intervention at an unprecedented level cementing the idea of a ‘National Farm’ in both the popular and the governmental psyche. Critical attention has recently begun to refocus on this period, adding to the somewhat celebratory meta-narratives written in the official histories. Drawing from the practice of micro-historical research and recent work in geography that seeks to understand the production of the landscape ‘from within’, this paper explores how ‘small stories’ can afford an appreciation of the ‘complications of everyday existence’ and bring greater depth, nuance and understanding to these ‘larger’ historical events and their influence on the British countryside. Utilising oral histories from farms in Devon (UK), the paper explores the micro-geographies which shaped as well as destabilised the national farm message as it was translated into the local context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using a new source of evidence we explore the mobility of mid-nineteenth century seamen. Among seamen born outside London, the tall, the literate and those who could remember the exact day, month and year when they were born, characteristics that we suggest mark them out as men with more choices in life, were more likely to migrate to London. Contrary to what might be inferred from contemporary descriptions of urban disamenities or from persistent differentials in mortality, London appears as a desirable destination for those who could choose. The conclusion must be that London was not so bad, and we should adjust our perception of the problems of urbanisation accordingly, with implications for the wider debate on the standard of living during the industrial revolution. The paper’s methodological interest is the use of height as an explanatory variable in the analysis of migration. Although correlated with other variables that are routinely used in anthropometric studies to indicate life chances, such as literacy and the ability to know and recall date of birth, height has empirical advantages over these alternatives in that it exhibits higher levels of significance. Moreover while literacy and heaping are in essence binary variables, height is a (near) continuous one, and one that allows us to test for linear and non-linear responses, as we do with interesting results in this paper. Perhaps the most fruitful use of height in historical analyses may turn out to be as an explanatory variable; at the very least such a research strategy provides anthropometric historians with further opportunities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores the emerging territorial framework of west Cornwall in relation to community expression and power. It examines such issues as increasing administrative competence, territorial order and communal action. However. although such notions as emerging territoriality, secular political development and local communal cohesion are often associated with studies of modernisation and the emergence of distinctly modern systems and relations, this paper focuses on a peripheral region during the later medieval period (c. 1350-1550) and identifies such transitions as inherent within this pre-modern society. Evolving local ecclesiastical patterns in Cornwall during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries saw numerous small chapels and sub-parochial foundations struggling for status and recognition amid an increasingly well-delineated territorial framework of parishes. By relating accounts of incidents and episodes of local ecclesiastical politics and discord to the territorial expressions of community organisation, combinations of local people are identified that were operating to control and order their local affairs. As well as questioning the implicit assumptions that some geographers and other scholars have about a medieval society that was supposedly dominated by a collage of lordly manorial and high ecclesiastical power, this paper also makes space for theories of territoriality and organisational complexity as a way of examining the developments of a period for which the written record is both sparse and partial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our understanding of an eighteenth-century renaissance in English towns is based around the emergence of cultural infrastructures and organisations which formed the cultural capital of a polite society concerned with both sociability and differentiation. Urban improvements are seen as spreading to a wide variety of towns including a number of large commercial centres. This paper explores the experience of this urban renaissance in Liverpool, focusing in particular on the ways in which cultures and counter cultures were created around the changing social and economic infrastructure of the town. The changes occurring in Liverpool were characteristic of wider debates about the relationship between commerce and culture. The town had ambitions to cultural grandeur, a wealthy corporation and a growing number of middle-ranking professionals, merchants and tradesmen. And yet many of its social and leisure facilities were lost as Liverpool grew into the leading provincial port of late eighteenth-century England. Rather than see the fate of these spaces and societies as the triumph of commerce over polite culture, or as a reflection of an alternative culture, the paper argues that their demise can only be fully understood in the context of political and ideological conflict between elite groups, especially over the slave trade. The gradual resolution of these conflicts around the turn of the nineteenth century encouraged growing investment in cultural capital in the town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment is a multidisciplinary framework usually deployed to appraise the sustainability of various product or service supply-chains. Over recent decades, its use in the agri-food sector has risen sharply, and alongside this, a wide range of methodological advances have been generated. Spatial-life cycle assessment, defined in the current document as the interpretation of life cycle assessment results within a geographical nature, has not gone unexplored entirely, yet its rise as a sub-method of life cycle assessment has been rather slow relative to other avenues of research (e.g., including the nutritional sciences within life cycle assessment). With this relative methodological stagnation as a motivating factor, our paper combines a process-based model, the Catchment Systems Model, with various life cycle impact assessments (ReCiPe, Centre for Environmental Studies and Environmental Product Declaration) to propose a simple, yet effective, approach for visualising the technically feasible efficacy of various on-farm intervention strategies. As water quality was the primary focus of this study, interventions reducing acidification and eutrophication potentials of both arable and livestock farm types in the Southeast of England were considered. The study site is an area with a marked range of agricultural practices in terms of intensity. All impacts to acidification potential and eutrophication potential are reported using a functional unit of 1 ha. Percentage changes relative to baseline farm types, i.e., those without any interventions, arising from various mitigation strategies, are mapped using geographical information systems. This approach demonstrates visually how a spatially-orientated life cycle assessment could provide regional-specific information for farmers and policymakers to guide the restoration of certain waterbodies. A combination of multiple mitigation strategies was found to generate the greatest reductions in pollutant losses to water, but in terms of individual interventions, optimising farm-based machinery (acidification potential) and fertiliser application strategies (eutrophication potential) were found to have notable benefits. [Display omitted] • A novel yet data intensive spatial-life cycle assessment framework is proposed. • Farm types with and without agri-environmental interventions are assessed. • Eutrophication and acidification potentials are calculated for each farm type. • Optimising machinery usage reduces water impacts through decreased sediment loss. • Spatial-life cycle assessment is an effective tool for visualising environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing subsidies are aimed at helping low-income individuals afford appropriate housing, but are costly to offer and, in the view of some experts and policy makers, reduce incentives for claimants to participate in the labour market. This paper investigates the labour market impacts of recent housing subsidy cuts in England that were aimed at encouraging labour market participation and increasing work effort among claimants. I utilise variation in exposure to the subsidy cuts within a difference-in-differences framework and find limited evidence at the individual-level that claimants increased employment and labour force participation in response to the subsidy cuts. Nonetheless, these findings lack robustness and aggregate-level evidence suggests that the subsidy cuts did not succeed in encouraging employment or participation among claimants. Overall, my results show that labour market responses to the subsidy cuts were likely preempted by a strong mobility response, whereby claimants moved into other parts of the rental market to maintain subsidy coverage. • Housing subsidies are aimed at helping low-income households with their rent payments. • Recent cuts to housing subsidies in England were meant to encourage labour market participation. • My findings show that cutting housing subsidies led to a large mobility response. • Results suggest that policy failed to induce labour market participation at the aggregate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstructions of ancient mobility based on strontium isotopes are only ever as reliable as estimates for baseline values of bioavailable strontium in the study area. Current biosphere mapping for Britain suggests that there are no sizeable areas hosting 87Sr/86Sr values above 0.714 south of Cumbria. As a result, archaeological humans or animals with such (for Britain) 'highly radiogenic' strontium isotope values are commonly interpreted as having moved either from Scotland or abroad. This paper presents the first dedicated strontium isotope map for South-West England based on 98 modern biosphere samples (including 68 new measurements). Numerous samples from the Cornubian granite (Dartmoor) have 87Sr/86Sr values above 0.714 (maximum 0.7287) and, based on their distribution, it is suggested that the previously elusive 'highly radiogenic' values are characteristic for areas where the soil has with high rubidium concentrations. These occur at lower elevations which are better suited for agriculture and permanent human settlement than the high moors. Previous interpretations of archaeological samples from southern Britain may need to be revised considering these new results, but they also highlight the continued need for biosphere sampling and the usefulness of geochemical maps as a routine part of strontium isotope investigations in archaeology. • Geochemical data used to identify areas of high 87Sr/86Sr biosphere values. • SW England granite margins give biosphere values greater than 87Sr/86Sr = 0.72 • Study changes interpretation of past human and faunal migration in Britain. • Updates the biosphere map of SW England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enclosure of commons and open fields was carried out by many different methods over a long period of time. Traditionally, enclosure methods have been thought to have replaced one another chronologically, unity of possession being replaced by agreements, which were in turn replaced by Acts of Parliament in the mid-eighteenth century. Recent research has however revealed the continuing importance of non-parliamentary methods in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In light of this it is necessary to examine the reasons behind the selection of a particular method of enclosure, which will be attempted in this paper. It is found that the most formal, and thus most expensive, methods were used only when necessary in order to avoid conflict or legal ambiguity, or where specific local problems required them. Less formal methods were preferred where the circumstances were appropriate. Parliamentary enclosure was used as a particularly formal type of enclosure in the most complex or contentious situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper looks at the main contours and strategies of agricultural management of landed estates of the Knights Templar on the eve of the suppression of the order in 1308 and managerial changes undertaken by royal keepers between 1308 and 1314. It appears that it was arguably the single largest estate in the entire country, and one of the most important producers of wool and dairy products. Sheer wealth, however, came at the expense of various managerial difficulties, which prevented the demesnes from being administered efficiency. When the Templar demesnes were confiscated by Edward II, their management was entrusted to his keepers. A close analysis of the available evidence suggests that while the new managers did their best to increase the immediate cash profits from the former Templar demesnes by adjusting their structures and patterns to the annually changing economic reality, they also committed a long-term waste of the estate. When the Knights Hospitallers received most ex-Templar demesnes in the 1320s and early 1330s, the former were undoubtedly in a ruinous state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks what we can know of historical individuals in pre-Reformation England. While recognizing the challenges of writing medieval biography, it points to the opportunities offered by a range of under-utilized sources for engaging both with medieval individuals and the pre-modern world more generally. Using the records of numerous property disputes and related cases litigated at the Westminster equity courts, it examines the actions and attitudes of one individual: Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough (c. 1478-1537), a Yorkshire landowner who was frequently brought before the courts for his involvement in local property disputes and ultimately implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace. It explores Constable's activities through the multiple and often contradictory versions of events presented to the king, his advisors and the law courts, assessing his motivations and character while also recognizing that the fragmentary nature of the evidence means that Constable will always be an uncertain subject. In focussing on Constable and his connections to the lives and landscapes around him, the article also highlights much about the experiences and agency of the medieval men and women who shared his world. It considers the local personalities and community politics surrounding episodes of enclosure, building on recent work by social historians, archaeologists and historical geographers in order to draw attention to the roles played by ordinary and not-so-ordinary individuals in shaping the landscape. The paper not only underlines the importance of thinking geographically about the pre-modern world, but also goes some way towards 'peopling' the medieval countryside, conceptualizing it as a landscape brought into being through the attitudes and actions of those living and working within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training through apprenticeship provided the main mechanism for occupational human capital formation in pre-industrial England. This paper demonstrates how training premiums (fees) complemented the formal legal framework surrounding apprenticeship to secure training contracts. Premiums varied in response to scarcity rents, the expected productivity of masters and apprentices, and served as compensation for the anticipated risk of default. In most trades premiums were small enough to allow access to apprenticeship training for youths from modest families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) describes changing perceptions of biological conditions due to a loss of historical knowledge. Perceptions of 'normal' environmental conditions are continually updated, leading to underestimation of the true magnitude of long-term ecological change and potential setting of unambitious management targets. There has been speculation as to the presence and impacts of SBS within conservation management since Daniel Pauly's seminal paper in 1995, which outlined the potential effects of SBS on target-setting in fisheries management. Previous case studies have suggested that SBS may not occur in management, despite empirical evidence of SBS in other systems. In this study, 44 professionals and volunteers involved in bird species management, monitoring and target-setting across England were interviewed. Interviews asked for personal perceptions of current, maximum and target abundance, long-term trends, and perceived conservation priority for six bird species. Using paired tests, this study found no significant effect of experience on perceptions of current, maximum or target abundance of all species, despite differences in national abundance and trends, and differences in participant experience. Further power analysis indicated that even if SBS was statistically detectible with a larger sample, the practical implications of the syndrome would be minimal due to small effect sizes. Finally, the effect of experience on individual perceptions of species conservation priority varied between species, with generational amnesia in the form of 'lifting baselines' suggested for only one of the six species. This study suggests that shifting baseline syndrome may not be as significant a threat in conservation management as first thought. • Shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) describes changing perceptions of biological conditions. • SBS has potential impacts on the ambitiousness of conservation target-setting. • No significant effect of experience on perceptions of species abundance or trends. • Power analysis indicates limited detectability of SBS in the sample. • Multiple factors influence managers' choice of conservation targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1947 epidemic of poliomyelitis was the largest and geographically most widespread outbreak of the disease ever recorded in England and Wales. As a transitional event in the history of poliomyelitis in the British Isles, the 1947 epidemic signalled the sudden onset of a sustained period of heightened epidemicity that continued until the introduction and mass administration of safe and effective poliovirus vaccines in the late 1950s. This paper explores the apparent shift in the spatial dynamics of poliovirus that underpinned the geographical spread of the 1947 epidemic in England and Wales. Drawing on a robust method of spatial epidemiological analysis (swash-backwash model), we demonstrate that the epidemic wave was associated with a pronounced acceleration in the rate of spatial propagation as compared to the preceding years. The velocity of spatial expansion and retreat and the duration of infectivity are shown to have varied by category of geographical area and by county of England and Wales. The weight of available evidence suggests that the so-called 'hygiene model' of the epidemic emergence of poliomyelitis, developed in the context of Western countries and generally assumed for England and Wales, does not adequately account for the events of 1947. Rather, we suggest that the features of the epidemic are consistent with the introduction and spread of one or more new strains of poliovirus in England and Wales in the summer of 1947. Possible connections to the epidemic occurrence of poliomyelitis in other European countries at about this time are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent decades have seen the emergence and increasing prominence of a range of public and private sector providers of agricultural information and advice, owing to state transition away from direct provision of agricultural advisory services. In this paper, we evaluate the establishment of trust in agri-environmental agricultural advisory services in England. Qualitative field research was undertaken with farmers, advisors and promoters engaged in four contrasting agri-environmental advisory initiatives. Findings suggest that longevity and expertise in service provision are more important than the public, private or charitable status of specific advisory service in engendering trust. Consistent funding allocated to well-known agencies or their affiliates is thus more likely influence farmer behaviour in the short term than ‘contract’ advisory projects awarded to novice service providers. Study participants also put their trust in services that were perceived as ‘impartial’ or actively ‘pro-agriculture’. However, we suggest this ‘pro-farmer’ orientation can negatively impact on environmental outcomes: advisors may be incentivised to provide information on the easiest access to agri-environmental grants, rather than the actions with the most environmental benefit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper uses demographic data drawn from Wrigley et al.'s (1997) family reconstitutions of 26 English parishes to adjust Allen's (2001) real wages to the changing demography of early modem England. Using parity progression ratios (a fertility measure) and age specific mortality for children and parents, model families are predicted in two reference periods 1650-1700 and 1750-1800. These models yield two levels of interesting results. At the individual family level, we can measure how different families' real wages changed over the family life cycle as additional children were born. At the aggregate level, we can predict thousands of families using Monte Carlo simulation, creating a realistic distribution of median family real wages in the economy. There are two main findings. First, pregnancy and lactation do not create cyclical effects in the family's income. Instead, most families' welfare ratios decline steadily across the family life cycle until children begin to leave the household, increasing the welfare ratios. Second, Allen's real wages understate or match the median of the predicted demography-adjusted distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What were income trends before the Industrial Revolution? Clark (2007b) argued both theoretically and empirically that pre-industrial income fluctuated, but was not trending upwards, a position Persson (2008) labeled "the Malthus Delusion." Clark (2010a), in particular, estimated that pre-industrial English income was as high on average as in 1800. In contrast, Broadberry et al. (2011) estimate that income tripled between 1270 and 1800. One test of early income estimates is the share employed in farming. This paper, focusing on the poll tax returns of 1379-1381, shows that only 56-59% of the English population was in farming or fishing. This small share implies incomes in 1381 equivalent to those of 1800. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new econometric model for analysing population growth at the village and town level. It develops and applies a theory of the equilibrium distribution of population over space. The theory emphasises geographical fundamentals, such as rivers as transport corridors, and soil types that govern agricultural specialisation; also institutional factors such as town government, market charters and the concentration of land ownership. Nineteenth century Oxfordshire is used as a case study, but the method can also be applied at a multi-county and national level. The results show that the development of railways in nineteenth-century Oxfordshire accelerated a long-term shake-out in the market system, whereby rural markets disappeared and urban markets grew. This shake-out had significant implications for population growth at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voluntary sector is value driven, issue focused and considered economically efficient due to volunteer engagement and low administrative overheads in meeting conservation objectives. Independence and flexibility make it an intermediary between stakeholders and government and it is proving an effective vehicle for public engagement. NGOs are emerging as a key player in environmental action, making them a partial replacement for ‘big government action’ and may be heralding a ‘Big Green Society’. The sector ranges in scale from small, local conservation charities to nationally important organisations. This article focuses on functionality because resource issues relate to funding, competences of personnel, continuity of mission and access to expertise, and all are affected during times of austerity. NGOs were largely task-oriented, yet they rapidly developed a campaigning role encapsulating an ever deeper role in both planning and policy formulation. Subsequently, they have developed community inclusion at the core of their function. While the portents remain good, potential problems relate to economic resources, task allocation, impacts on labour markets, interactions with the statutory sector, operational independence and to relations with local democracy. Outlined in this paper are historic functions, operation and development of the sector and perceived issues for the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we present a broad conceptualisation of major change in farm level trajectories. We argue that as a result of path dependency, major changes in farming practice primarily occur in response to ‘trigger events’, after which farm managers intensify their consideration of the options open to them, and may set a new course of action. In undertaking new actions, the farm system enters a period of instability, while new practices become established. Over time these new practices, if successfully achieving anticipated aims, lead to a further period of path dependency. Recognising and capitalising upon this pattern of events is important for the development of policies oriented towards incentivising major change in farming practices, and may explain why similar projects and/or policies influence some ‘types’ of farmers differently, and at different times. To illustrate our arguments, examples of this process are described in relation to empirical examples of major on-farm change processes, drawn from qualitative interviews with organic and conventional farmers in two English case study areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Prompted by the curious fact that both progressive environmentalists and Conservative Party politicians have recently drawn on popular understandings of austerity associated with Britain's wartime domestic gardening campaign, this article broadens the range of histories associated with Dig for Victory. It suggests firstly that far from simply encouraging self-sufficiency, the government conceptualised Dig for Victory as requiring the extension of order and control into the domestic sphere. Second, it shows how the ideal figure of a national citizen digging for victory elided differentiated gender and class experiences of gardening, and finally the article demonstrates that statistics of food production were more about fostering trust than picturing the realities of vegetable growing. By so doing the paper illuminates the particular ways in which present-day articulations of Dig for Victory's history are partial and selective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the imaginative geography of Elizabeth Bowen's 1929 novel The Last September. Drawing on Said's analysis of imaginative geographies as registers of territorial identity, I consider the ways in which Bowen's text maps Anglo-Irish territorial identity in early twentieth-century Ireland. Reading the text as an authoritative, albeit subjective, record of Anglo-Irish experience in Ireland, I identify four interconnected spaces which constitute the imaginative geography of the novel: the open, empty and isolated country; a wider landscape of resistance and control; a distant but necessary England; and an historical landscape of colonial decline. In conclusion, I outline how the concept of imaginative geographies provides a useful lens through which the often fragmented and conflicted nature of territorial identities, both during and after the colonial period, can be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Palaeodietary studies typically focus on the analysis of bone collagen due to the limited availability of plant remains. Isotopic analysis of plant remains, however, allow for a more extensive consideration of the contribution of plants to the human diet and can potentially provide information about the environment in which the crops were grown. This paper reports the results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses performed on charred barley and wheat grains recovered from pits within Danebury Iron Age hillfort. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Iron Age site in Britain from which charred grains have been isotopically analysed. Our results suggest that cereals found at the hillfort were grown in several different environmental contexts. The isotope data demonstrate that the herbivores were not consuming a diet primarily based on grains as the δ15N values of the grains are very similar to those of the herbivores. Palaeodietary investigations typically assume that humans eating plant protein only would have the same δ15N value as the local herbivores. This assumption is clearly invalid at Danebury, where the humans and animals appear to have consumed either different parts of the same plants or different plants. Researchers typically interpret high differences between human and animal δ15N values as indicative of diets high in animal protein, however where major plant resources have δ15N values similar to those of the herbivores our ability to distinguish between plant and animal sources of protein in the diet is limited. Our research has demonstrated that whenever possible it is desirable to measure the isotopic signatures of potential major plant resources in order to understand past subsistence strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a project aimed at investigating the deterioration of organic remains at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr. Analyses of pH, Electrical Conductivity and Redox Potential are reported from borehole transects across the unexcavated part of the site. A comparison of field and laboratory measurements is made, leading to the characterisation of different preservation zones and identification of ‘vulnerable’ sediments at the site. These data are augmented by geochemical analyses of contemporary borehole sequences and adjacent historic monoliths. Analysis of surface water and groundwater has also been undertaken to assist in the interpretation of the site hydrology and geochemistry. The relationship between ‘natural’ geology and preservation potential, and the evidence for a ‘halo’ preservation effect in virgin sediments adjacent to previous archaeology trenches is investigated. The results indicate a restricted ‘halo’ effect from adjacent backfilled archaeological excavations and the importance of the underlying glacial sediments in determining hydrology and preservation status. The disconnection of circum-neutral groundwater from the Mesolithic peats appears to be a crucial factor in their acidification. Most organic horizons appear to have suffered almost complete chemical oxidation of sulphide to sulphate. The hydrological isolation of Star Carr is shown by the large disparities in water chemistry in different local groundwater sources and strongly suggests an internal source for the elevated sulphur levels at the site. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The 11,000-year old lake edge archaeological site of Star Carr in the Vale of Pickering of North Yorkshire is one of the most famous Mesolithic sites in Europe, and one of the earliest, dated to the period of climatic warming that immediately followed the final termination of the last ice age. One of the main reasons for this international importance is the richness of its organic artefacts, faunal assemblage and environmental data. However, recent investigations have demonstrated that these organic remains have severely deteriorated over the last 60 years due to the decay and acidification of the surrounding peat. This paper presents research into the effects on the bone (histological analysis using light and polarising microscopy, and Transmission Electron Microscopy, bulk collagen analysis, and amino acid analysis), antler (visual and metrical analysis, loss on ignition and Scanning Electron Microscopy) and wood (visual analysis, decay assessment tests and Scanning Electron Microscopy). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Macroscopic examination, histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) are applied to the analysis of burned bones from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Elsham in Lincolnshire, UK. These methods were undertaken to gain a greater understanding of pyre conditions from an archaeological context and the effects of burning on bone microstructure. Sixteen samples were employed for thin-section analysis while eight samples were used with FTIR. The results suggest that these methods correspond well with macroscopic examination, though anomalies did occur. The techniques employed in this paper have demonstrated that the temperatures reached on the funerary pyres at Elsham ranged from 600 °C to over 900 °C under oxidizing conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In order to investigate how the population diversity at major Romano-British urban centres compared to small towns and military outposts, we conducted multi-isotope (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium) analyses of bones (42 individuals) and teeth (26 individuals) of human skeletons from Cataractonium/Roman Catterick in North Yorkshire (U.K.). The results suggest a markedly less diverse population at Catterick than at the larger towns. Significant differences are observed between burials from the town and fort area and the suburb of Bainesse to the south, and it is suggested that these reflect a shift to more localised recruitment for the Roman army in the Late Roman period. Isotope data for the ‘Bainesse Eunuch’, an unusual 4th century burial that has been interpreted as the remains of a ‘transvestite’ priest of Cybele, are not ultimately conclusive but consistent with origins in Southern Britain or areas with a similar climate abroad. This paper also presents strontium isotope data for modern vegetation samples from 17 sites in the Catterick/northern Vale of York area which contribute to a continuing effort to map the biosphere 87Sr/86Sr variation in Britain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent excavations at Driffield Terrace in York (Northern England) revealed an extremely unusual Romano-British cemetery of probably all-male composition, more than half of the individuals decapitated and with high incidence of other peri- and antemortem trauma. This paper presents the results of multi- (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium) isotopic analyses of bone and dentine collagen (n =68) and tooth enamel (n =18) which were conducted to obtain further information on the identity of these individuals and, more generally, in order to investigate the relationship between burial rite and geographical origin in a Roman provincial capital. The results show that the childhood origins of the “Headless Romans” were significantly more diverse than those of humans from other cemeteries in Roman York, but they demonstrate also that similar, unusual burial rites do not necessarily indicate a common geographical origin. Of particular interest were two individuals whose diet contained a significant proportion of C4 plant (probably millet)-based protein. These are the first such isotope values observed in Britain from any archaeological time-period. Millet was not cultivated in the British Isles in antiquity and the results therefore demonstrate the value of palaeodietary data for assisting in isotopic mobility studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates patterns of scraper retouch at the Lower Palaeolithic site of High Lodge, England. The unifacial scrapers from High Lodge are intensively retouched tools with regular and complex shapes that have been routinely interpreted as evidence of intentional design. The primary aim is to determine whether the different scraper types identified in the assemblage represent discrete and discontinuous implement categories made according to fixed designs, or rather, points or stages along one or more reduction continuums. To achieve this, we apply a range of quantitative measures of artifact reduction to all complete single, double, convergent, and transverse scrapers from the site (n =165). Our results indicate that morphological and typological diversity in the High Lodge scraper assemblage can be parsimoniously explained as a result of both the extent to which implements were resharpened during use and subtle variability in the nature of blank forms selected for retouch. Accordingly, we critique the notion that high levels of morphological complexity in retouched Lower Palaeolithic tool types necessarily reflect the imposition of preconceived forms on stones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines adult age-specific mortality patterns of one of the most devastating epidemics in recorded history, the Black Death of A.D. 1347–1351. The goal was to determine whether the epidemic affected all ages equally or if it targeted certain age groups. Analyses were done using a sample of 337 individuals excavated from the East Smithfield cemetery in London, which contains only individuals who died during the Black Death in London in 1349–1350. The age patterns from East Smithfield were compared to a sample of 207 individuals who died from non-epidemic causes of mortality. Ages were estimated using the method of transition analysis, and age-specific mortality was evaluated using a hazards model. The results indicate that the risk of mortality during the Black Death increased with adult age, and therefore that age had an effect on risk of death during the epidemic. The age patterns in the Black Death cemetery were similar to those from the non-epidemic mortality sample. The results from this study are consistent with previous findings suggesting that despite the devastating nature of the Black Death, the 14th-century disease had general patterns of selectivity that were similar to those associated with normal medieval mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 1995–1996 two isolated hominin lower incisors were found at the middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove in England, with Lower Palaeolithic archaeology. Boxgrove 2 is a permanent lower right central incisor and Boxgrove 3 a permanent lower left lateral incisor. They were found separately, but close to one another and appear to belong to the same individual. The Boxgrove 1 tibia discovered in 1993 came from a different stratigraphic context and is thus believed to represent a different individual. This paper describes the morphology of the incisors, which is similar to other middle Pleistocene hominin specimens and, as with the tibia, suggests that they could be assigned to Homo heidelbergensis (recognising that the taxonomic status of this species is still a matter of debate). The incisors show substantial attrition associated with secondary dentine deposition in the pulp chamber and clearly represent an adult. They also show extensive patterns of non-masticatory scratches on the labial surfaces of both crown and root, including some marks which may have been made postmortem. The roots were exposed in life on their labial sides by a large dehiscence, extending almost to the root apex. This is demonstrated by deposits of calculus, polishing, and scratching on the exposed surfaces. The dehiscence may have been caused by repeated trauma to the gingivae or remodelling of the tooth-supporting tissues in response to large forces applied to the front of the dentition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the results of palaeoenvironmental investigations in an area proposed to contain the site of Bosworth Battlefield, near Dadlington, Leicestershire. Polydore Vergil''s sixteenth century account is the only source, albeit secondary, that is referenced in histories and logistical interpretations of the battle. Antiquarians and historians repeatedly reference this account, citing its description of a ‘marsh’ which is believed to have been the central site of the mêlée. Two sites in the floodplain of the former River Tweed have been identified as containing organic deposits characteristic of wetland environments. High-resolution lithostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental data from each site are used to critically evaluate if the deposits represent the marsh and thus define the battlefield as described by Vergil. These new multiproxy data consolidate the local chronology of vegetation, hydrology, and sedimentological dynamics at the site from the Neolithic to the Medieval period. Whilst a precise interpretation of ground conditions at the time of the battle in 1485 cannot be made, due to truncation of the record as a result of modern ploughing and floodplain processes, the results provide a wider landscape context and illustrate the presence of local wetlands in this area that existed into the Medieval period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Tidal Flats are important examples of extensive areas of natural environment that remain relatively unaffected by man. Monitoring of tidal flats is required for a variety of purposes. Remote sensing has become an established technique for the measurement of topography over tidal flats. A further requirement is to measure topographic changes in order to measure sediment budgets. To date there have been few attempts to make quantitative estimates of morphological change over tidal flat areas. This paper illustrates the use of remote sensing to measure quantitative and qualitative changes in the tidal flats of Morecambe Bay during the relatively long period 1991–2007. An understanding of the patterns of sediment transport within the Bay is of considerable interest for coastal management and defence purposes. Tidal asymmetry is considered to be the dominant cause of morphological change in the Bay, with the higher currents associated with the flood tide being the main agency moulding the channel system. Quantitative changes were measured by comparing a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the intertidal zone formed using the waterline technique applied to satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from 1991–1994, to a second DEM constructed from airborne laser altimetry data acquired in 2005. Qualitative changes were studied using additional SAR images acquired since 2003. A significant movement of sediment from below Mean Sea Level (MSL) to above MSL was detected by comparing the two Digital Elevation Models, though the proportion of this change that could be ascribed to seasonal effects was not clear. Between 1991 and 2004 there was a migration of the Ulverston channel of the river Leven north-east by about 5km, followed by the development of a straighter channel to the west, leaving the previous channel decoupled from the river. This is thought to be due to independent tidal and fluvial forcing mechanisms acting on the channel. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of remote sensing for measurement of long-term morphological change in tidal flat areas. An alternative use of waterlines as partial bathymetry for assimilation into a morphodynamic model of the coastal zone is also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]