Professor Will Mayes W.Mayes@hull.ac.uk
Environmental Science
Professor Will Mayes W.Mayes@hull.ac.uk
Environmental Science
Historical wastes disposed in coastal zones are increasingly vulnerable to remobilisation via erosion and seawater inundation including ~2000 Ha of unprotected mining wastes dumped along the Northumbrian River Basin District Coast. Storm Babet, 18-21 Oct 2023, was highly unusual in that prolonged easterly winds caused extraordinarily high waves averaging >4m for six consecutive high tides. This led to mine wastes on the NE coastline being affected by extensive seawater flooding and erosion. This project aims to use Seaham Beach, a coastal waste site on the Co. Durham coast, as a case study location to explore the impact of damaging storms on coastal waste sites in terms of geomorphological behaviour, and potential pollution fluxes into adjacent ecosystems from the remobilised material.
There is now an urgent need to sample and analyse this freshly exposed waste, alongside further measurements of geomorphic change, to determine (1) the pollution potential and geochemistry of the newly exposed waste, (2) the absolute flux of contaminant metals to the North Sea that occurred during Storm Babet, and (3) the short- to medium- term impacts of the storm event on adjacent beach environments. Given the rapidly changing geomorphic and geochemical nature of these beach-deposited wastes (e.g. as newly exposed wastes oxidise), there is a pressing need to undertake this research now, while the most significant changes to the waste, and impacts from its mobilisation, are most evident. This information will help inform local and national stakeholders on the potential behaviour of similar unprotected coastal wastes and their possible impacts on nearshore marine communities.
More generally the data will assess how sediment erosion, in response to more intense storm events due to climate change, may lead to increasing waste mobilisation; this information is vital for re-evaluation of shoreline management plans, including consideration of improved sea defences.
Type of Project | Small Grant |
---|---|
Project Acronym | Babet |
Status | Project Live |
Funder(s) | Natural Environment Research Council |
Value | £19,603.00 |
Project Dates | Jan 31, 2024 - Sep 30, 2025 |
Greenhouse Gas removal in the Iron and Steel Industry Sep 1, 2017 - Jun 30, 2022
This is a GGR Topic-specific proposal
Up to 200 billion tonnes of slag may be produced over the next century as a by-product of the iron and steel industry, which could theoretically sequester up to 90 to 155 billion tonnes of CO2 through enhanced...
Read More about Greenhouse Gas removal in the Iron and Steel Industry.
Resource recovery and remediation of alkaline wastes Aug 31, 2014 - Mar 31, 2019
This project addresses environmental problems and potential benefits posed by alkaline waste materials. These are generated in large quantities by many industrial processes around the world. The project will provide fundamental scientific understandi...
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Impact of an extreme rainfall event on solute and sediment dynamics in a mineralised river system Mar 1, 2016 - Nov 30, 2016
The proposed research relates to quantifying the changes in spatial and temporal metal dynamics in an upland mineralised catchment, following the flash flooding from intense rainfall (FFIR) event of 5 - 6 December 2015. The research, which will focus...
Read More about Impact of an extreme rainfall event on solute and sediment dynamics in a mineralised river system.
Interreg - Sullied Sediments Jan 1, 2017 - Dec 31, 2020
Our inland waterway ecosystems provide a circulatory system for both our urban and rural communities: a transport system bringing goods and removing waste; while in parallel also providing ‘oxygen’ promoting health of the wildlife and humans, whether...
Read More about Interreg - Sullied Sediments.
Citizen-led pre-concentration and analysis of water pollution at the point-of-need Jun 4, 2018 - Jul 27, 2018
ACTF summer studentship (eight weeks, £200 stipend per week).
Ensuring everyone across the globe has access to clean water and sanitation is one of UN Sustainable Development Goals. The contamination of water by toxic metals (such as As, Pb, Cu, C...
Read More about Citizen-led pre-concentration and analysis of water pollution at the point-of-need.
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