Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)

Geoconservation and Heritage Science - Dr Rob Inkpen

Staff. Baily, Dewdney, Gibson, Koor, Teeuw, Whitworth

Conservation of Cultural Heritage

The weathering of rocks used in buildings and gravestones provides a wealth of information about environmental change over the past few centuries. We are examining how different types of rock decay can be linked to factors such as industrial pollution, weather patterns and climate change. We are using a number of techniques including LiDAR and VIS/NIR spectroscopy to understand and quantify the fundamental decay processes and controls associated with heritage materials. We are modelling and predicting the usefulness of different conservation treatments under changing environmental conditions.

Geoconservation of Rocky Coasts

Using the coast of Malta as our laboratory, we are using a range of surveying techniques to measure the nature and rates of erosion on rocky coasts and modelling them in context of different environmental parameters. In time, this will enable a better understanding of the temporal and spatial variability of erosion risks to rocky coasts.

Landscape Evolution

The general geomorphology projects dovetail with existing work in SEES on the development of plate tectonics on the early Earth by considering the relationship between biological evolution and landscape evolution.