Geological Hazards: How Safe is Britain?

Speaker – Martin Culshaw

The talk will be given twice on the same day, once at 3pm and once at 6pm – please note that if you would like to attend the talks, the 3pm matinees generally have more availability. The talks will be exactly the same in the afternoon and evening.

Programme – 3pm talk
14.30 Tea & Coffee
15.00 Lecture begins
16.00 Event ends

Programme – 6pm talk
17.30 Tea & Coffee
18.00 Lecture begins
19.00 Short drinks reception
20.00 Event ends

Abstract

When the public becomes aware of geological hazards, it is usually because a catastrophic event such as an earthquake, a volcanic eruption or a tsunami has occurred elsewhere in the world. While Britain does experience these 'geohazards' very occasionally, their effect is usually small. Yet, geological hazards in Britain cause losses in terms of damage to buildings, structures and infrastructure of between £0.5bn and £1bn every year. In addition, people occasionally lose their life or are injured. The lecture will discuss the geological hazards that affect Britain. Perhaps surprisingly, the most important of these, in terms of financial loss, is the swelling and shrinking of certain clay formations. Other relatively common natural geological hazards include landslides, dissolution of more soluble rocks and weak, compressible soils. People have also created a range of 'anthropogenic geohazards' caused by the extraction of minerals from the ground, the disposal of waste in pits and quarries, construction both in, and on, the ground and the contamination of the ground by chemical residues from industrial processes. The lecture will explain the difference between ‘hazard’ and ‘risk’ and the impact of geological hazards on us will be outlined and suggestions made as to how geological hazards can be mitigated and the risks reduced.

Biography

Martin Culshaw is an independent researcher and consultant. Till April 2008 he was Director of Environment and Hazards at the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Survey's Chief Engineering Geologist. He was a member of the BGS’s Executive Committee and responsible for managing an applied geological research programme worth approximately £15 m. Previously, he managed the Survey’s Physical Hazards Programme, the Urban Geoscience and Geological Hazards Programme, the Coastal and Engineering Geology Group and the Engineering Geology and Geophysics Group. He has been involved in engineering geological research, environmental and engineering geological mapping, geohazard assessment, site investigation and the application of geology to land use planning for over thirty five years. During this time he has spent a number of years overseas in Asia, Africa, Europe and Central America.

He is Visiting Honorary Professor in Engineering Geology in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Research Associate at the BGS. He has published over one hundred and forty papers, books and articles and over a hundred and ten technical reports for the BGS and the UK and overseas government departments. He edited nine conference proceedings, as well as organising numerous meetings and conferences and serving on three journal editorial boards. He is currently an Assistant Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology. He received the Engineering Group of the Geological Society’s Award for 1989 and was the Geological Society’s Glossop Lecturer in 2004, receiving the Glossop Medal and received the E B Burwell Jr Award from the Geological Society of America in 2006. In 2010 he will be awarded the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment's Hans Cloos Medal. He has been an external examiner at the universities of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Pretoria and Sheffield and a research project assessor at the University of Lisbon.

He has served on various committees and steering groups for the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment, the Geological Society, the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Construction Industry Research and Information Association. He was a trustee and member of Council of the Geological Society from 2005 to 2009 and a Vice President from 2007 to 2009.