Articles about 'Tom Spencer'

This longstanding partnership between Cambridge, Arup and the Ove Arup Foundation has made our world safer and more sustainable and changed the way professionals are taught.

With a changing climate and rising sea levels putting cities at risk of flooding, it’s crucial for planners to increase their cities’ resilience. A new tool has been developed to help them – and it started with the throwing of a thousand virtual hexagons over Hull.

The coast is an intrinsic part of British identity – and perhaps nowhere is it more at risk than in the East of England. Cambridge researchers are working with communities and organisations across the region to manage the coast for the future, by working with nature rather than against it.

Aerial photographs of Britain from the 1940s to 2009 – dubbed the ‘historical Google Earth’ – have been made freely available online.

Professor Tom Spencer from Cambridge’s Department of Geography and Professor Gerd Masselink from the University of Plymouth say evidence suggests there should be far stricter controls on coastal developments.

Researchers have modelled how wetlands might respond to rising sea levels, and found that as much as four-fifths of wetlands worldwide could be lost by the end of the century if sea levels continue to rise. 

The recent ‘unprecedented’ flooding in north-west England might be more common than currently believed, a group of scientists has warned. 

For researchers at the University at Cambridge, recent storm damage is providing vital data that could help improve future flood warnings and emergency planning

On the 60th Anniversary of the ‘big flood’ that devastated the coastline of eastern England, new research shows that integrating ‘natural’ sea defences such as salt marshes with sea walls is a more sustainable and effective method of flood prevention.