British Society for Geomorphology

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British Society for Geomorphology
BSG logo.png
AbbreviationBSG
Formation1958
TypeLearned Society
Headquarters Kensington, London, UK
President
Professor Mike Kirkby
Website http://www.geomorphology.org.uk

The British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), incorporating the British Geomorphological Research Group (BGRG), is the professional organisation for British geomorphologists and provides a community and services for those involved in teaching or research in geomorphology, both in the UK and overseas. The society’s journal, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms is published by Wiley-Blackwell and online access is available free to members. The society is affiliated with the Royal Geographical Society as an affiliated research group [1] and with the Geological Society of London as a specialist group. [2]

Mission

The mission of the British Society for Geomorphology is to support scientific excellence in geomorphology through:

Annual General Meeting and Conference

The Annual Conference of the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG) is an international Open Conference. This Annual Meeting stimulates debate on new developments and advances in Geomorphology, and is a forum for emerging approaches to solve key challenges throughout pure and applied Geomorphology.

The Annual Conference for 2019 will be held at the University of Sheffield, 9–11 September.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms is the flagship international journal of the BSG, edited by Stuart Lane (Managing Editor) and five Associate Editors. The Journal publishes original research papers, Earth Surface Exchanges (shorter articles, commentaries, reviews and discussion papers) for rapid publication, technical communications and book reviews across all branches of geomorphology. In July 2017, the revised impact factor for the journal rose to 3.722 (articles published in 2017).

History

The BSG can trace its beginnings back to a meeting in Sheffield in 1958 where British geomorphologists gathered together to organise a Landform Survey of Britain. By 1959 this group appears to have been referring to itself as the British Universities Geomorphological Research Group. This short-lived group agreed, at its second annual meeting, to disband itself and voted unanimously (all 19 of them) to constitute the British Geomorphological Research Group (BGRG). The first BGRG AGM was held on 1 October 1960.

Morphological mapping schemes, emphasising slope, were the subject for discussion at early meetings of the BGRG. Time-consuming to undertake, such schemes produced information about form but not about the processes or the origin of land forms. These schemes evolved in the 1970s to produce geomorphological maps of the UK. Several articles published in the Geographical Magazine in 1975 and 1976 explained the landform maps produced for all parts of Britain. In 1985 the BGRG celebrated its first twenty five years by hosting the first International Geomorphology Conference in Manchester which led to the formation of the International Association of Geomorphology.

In 2000, 40 years of the BGRG were celebrated by returning to Sheffield. Of those 19 geomorphologists who, by their action, can be regarded as the founders of the BGRG, which now has an international membership of around 700, nine attended this 40th Anniversary Meeting. One of them, Tony Orme, presented the Frost Lecture.

In 2006 the BGRG changed its name to British Society for Geomorphology (BSG). The new Constitution stated that the object of the Society shall be the advancement of the science of geomorphology, in research, in all levels of education, and in its practical application.

List of chairs

Chairs of the group include:

Related Research Articles

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Geomorphology Scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them

Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near the Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform and terrain history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology, climatology and geotechnical engineering. This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field.

Peneplain Low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion

In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion. This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage of peneplain is meant to imply the representation of a near-final stage of fluvial erosion during times of extended tectonic stability. Peneplains are sometimes associated with the cycle of erosion theory of William Morris Davis, but Davis and other workers have also used the term in a purely descriptive manner without any theory or particular genesis attached.

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Morphotectonics

Morphotectonics, or tectonic geomorphology, is a branch of geomorphology that studies how landforms are formed or affected by tectonic activity. Morphotectonists seek to understand the deep Earth mechanisms behind the creation of tectonic landforms by processes such as crust uplift, subsidence, faulting, or folding.

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

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Emeritus Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie is a geographer at the University of Oxford specialising in desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, and climatic change in the tropics. He is also known for his teaching and best-selling textbooks on human impacts on the environment. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of forty-one books and more than two hundred papers published in learned journals. He combines research and some teaching with administrative roles.

Dr. Gordon Thomas Warwick (1918–1983) was a geomorphologist and speleologist, based for his entire working career at Birmingham University. Following upon his death in 1983, a medal was instituted in his honour by the British Geomorphological Research Group, of which he was a founder member.

<i>Earth Surface Processes and Landforms</i> Academic journal

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the British Society for Geomorphology. It covers geomorphology and more in general all aspects of Earth sciences dealing with the Earth surface. The journal was established in 1976 as Earth Surface Processes, obtaining its current name in 1981. The journal primarily publishes original research papers. It also publishes Earth Surface Exchanges which include commentaries on issues of particular geomorphological interest, discussions of published papers, shorter journal articles suitable for rapid publication, and commissioned reviews on key aspects of geomorphological science. Foci include the physical geography of rivers, valleys, glaciers, mountains, hills, slopes, coasts, deserts, and estuary environments, along with research into Holocene, Pleistocene, or Quaternary science. The editor-in-chief is Stuart Lane.

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Professor David Leslie Linton was a British geographer and geomorphologist, was professor of geography at Sheffield and Birmingham, best remembered for his work on the landscape development of south-east England with S. W. Wooldridge, and on the development of tors.

Marjorie Sweeting British geomorphologist

Marjorie Mary Sweeting, was a British geomorphologist specializing in karst phenomena. Sweeting had gained extensive knowledge on various topographies and landscapes, by travelling around the world to places such as Greece, Australia, Czechoslovakia, United States, Canada, South Africa, Belize, and most notably China. She published Karst Landforms, and Karst in China: its Geomorphology and Environment after many years of work there starting in 1977. The latter is the first comprehensive Western account of China's karst, one of the first western published works on the karst found within China, even in a male dominated field.

Planetary science Science of planets and planetary systems

Planetary science is the scientific study of planets, celestial bodies and planetary systems and the processes of their formation. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, which originally grew from astronomy and earth science, and now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary geology, cosmochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, and exoplanetology. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with the effects of the Sun on the bodies of the Solar System, and astrobiology.

Professor Bernard John Smith was an English geomorphologist and physical geographer. He was born in the English village of Beer in Dorset where he attended the local school until the family's relocation to London.

Hydrogeomorphology

Hydrogeomorphology has been defined as “an interdisciplinary science that focuses on the interaction and linkage of hydrologic processes with landforms or earth materials and the interaction of geomorphic processes with surface and subsurface water in temporal and spatial dimensions.” The term 'hydro-geomorphology’ designates the study of landforms caused by the action of water. By this definition hydro-geomorphology is inseparable part of geomorphology moreover fluvial geomorphology, because water is one of the most important agents in forming and shaping of landforms. From the groundwater point of view integration of geological, structural and hydrological data with hydro-geomorphologic data is very much useful in finding out the groundwater potential zones with fruitful results. The science relating to the geographical, geological, and hydrological aspects of water bodies and to changes to these aspects in response to low variations and to natural and human caused events, such as heavy rainfall or channel straightening is the hydro-geomorphology.

Julius Büdel was a German geomorphologist noted for his work on the influence of climate in shaping landscapes and landforms. In his work Büdel stressed the importance of inherited landforms in present-day landscapes and argued that many landforms are the result of a combination of processes, and not of a single process. Büdel estimated that 95% of mid-latitude landforms are relict. Büdel studied both cold-climate processes in Svalbard and "tropical" weathering processes in India to understand the origin of the relief of Central Europe, which he argued was a palimpsest of landforms formed at different times and under different climates. For Central Europe Büdel concluded that in Late Cretaceous to Early Pliocene times etchplains formed. Then in Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene times a transition period occurred in landscape forming processes. Finally in the Late Pleistocene periglaciation and deep permafrost made Central Europe a place of "excessive valley cutting". Holocene developments would not have affected much of the landscape other than adding a deep soil cover.

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Eiju Yatsu

Eiju Yatsu was a Japanese geomorphologist who taught in Japan, US and Canada. He is best known for his contributions to weathering and 'rock control' in geomorphology.

Climatic geomorphology

Climatic geomorphology is the study of the role of climate in shaping landforms and the earth-surface processes. An approach used in climatic geomorphology is to study relict landforms to infer ancient climates. Being often concerned about past climates climatic geomorphology considered sometimes to be an aspect of historical geology. Since landscape features in one region might have evolved under climates different from those of the present, studying climatically disparate regions might help understand present-day landscapes. For example, Julius Büdel studied both cold-climate processes in Svalbard and weathering processes in tropical India to understand the origin of the relief of Central Europe, which he argued was a palimpsest of landforms formed at different times and under different climates.

Heather Viles is a Professor of Biogeomorphology and Heritage Conservation in the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University, Senior Fellow at Worcester College, and Honorary Professor at the Institute of Sustainable Heritage, University College London. She is a Fellow of the British Society for Geomorphology.

References