Rebecca Costa’s The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction explores why societies struggle to solve complex problems even when the evidence is clear and the stakes are high. The title refers to the wooden rattle carried by medieval night watchmen, shaken to warn the town of approaching danger — a metaphor for the early warning signs that societies often ignore until it is too late. Costa argues that complexity can exceed our cognitive limits, leading to paralys

As Thorpeness contends with storms causing sudden erosion of the coastline and the loss of homes to the sea, it can be helpful to be reminded of the long view. Coastal change reshapes not just shorelines but entire communities — their economies, their social fabric, their sense of who they are. The story of Walberswick, just a few miles down our coast, shows us how profound that reshaping can be. Walberswick, at the mouth of the Blyth estuary, offers a clear example. Its seve

There are places where the land seems to hesitate, as though unsure whether to continue or to give itself up to the sea. The Suffolk coast is one of them. It is a coastline that lives with its own impermanence — a place where the horizon is both a comfort and a warning. Juliet Blaxland sensitively captured this tension in The Easternmost House and The Easternmost Sky, books that have become quiet companions to many who live along this shifting edge. Her reflections offer mor

How Communities Around the World Are Using Evidence to Regain a Sense of Control When the sea begins to creep closer each winter, when familiar dunes flatten after a single storm, when cliffs retreat by metres instead of centimetres, it’s easy to feel that nothing can be done. Across the world, coastal communities have been finding a quiet, practical way to steady themselves: they start gathering evidence about what’s happening. This does not to replace experts and the agenci

Could Humanitarian Innovations Offer Solutions to Communities Threatened by Coastal Erosion? Where This Began The starting point was work using drone-based systems to understand glacial retreat in the Alps and rockfall risk on Scottish Highland roads. Watching how relatively simple aerial surveys could reveal patterns in ice movement or identify unstable rock faces raised a question: if these methods could track environmental change in mountains, what else might they document

In December 2023, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the US published a report ‘ From the Ground Up: Demining Farmland and Improving Access to Fertilizer to Restore Ukraine’s Agricultural Production ’. The report highlighted the urgent need for ‘the safe and expeditious demining of Ukraine’s farmland and increasing farmers’ access to fertilizer’ recognising that this is essential not just to Ukraine’s recovery, but to food security worldwide. The report con

Prior to February 2022, Ukraine was known as the "breadbasket" of Europe, growing enough food to feed 400 million people through exports,...

What is the impact of the war in Ukraine on soil health and agricultural productivity? The war in Ukraine has had a significant impact on...

The Conference on Clean Air for Ukraine and the report on “The Environmental Consequences of Russia’s War in Ukraine: Working together...

Geospatial analysis has always been a critical tool for understanding our environment and making informed decisions. However, the sheer...

Geospatial analysis has played a crucial role in understanding the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine. Few areas of the Earth...

War and conflict have devastating effects on the environment, as is evident from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The presence of exploded and unexploded munitions, chemical spills, and heavy weapons has caused critical environmental damage to Ukrainian farmland, threatening global food security. Ukraine is the world's biggest exporter of sunflower oil (accounting for about 50% before the war. It was the third largest exporter of corn, barley and rape seed accounting for abou

In February, a series of the storms on the East Coast of Britain changed the shoreline revealing large fragments of wrecks. What story might they tell? High resolutions images taken with a smart phone, 360 imaging taken with a compact camera and drone based photogrammetry have enabled the site and the woodwork to be shared with local historians and leading specialists from around the world. This has been done in high resolution 2D as an 'orthomosaic image' created from indiv

Half of Aldeburgh has already been lost to the sea, and more may be lost to storms, floods and changing fortunes. The Moot hall, once in the centre of the town, now overlooks the sea. But the sea also gave Aldeburgh its raison d'être, its prosperity and its identity. Aldeburgh’s fortunes have always been shaped by its river and coastline. The estuary provided a place for early settlements from Romans to Vikings. The sea not only was the source of its early wealth, but also it

Aldeburgh’s Martello tower is now one of the most exposed to England’s changing shoreline. This blog explores its history as well as the measures put in place to protect it from the erosion of the coast. It also provides a link through to an immersive experience of the site and the building. Navigating this immersive site, it is possible to explore the site as it was captured over the last 150 years, see fresh perspectives from the sea and air, and understand the consultation

How can we learn from the past to gain inspiration for tackling the challenges of today? History and heritage are closely linked to a sense of place. How can you bring that sense of play alive? Google have been creating a platform to do that with their VR Polytour. What might it look like in practice and how might it capture the story of one coastal settlement that re-imagined itself. This is its story.... 'Thorpeness was a small fishing hamlet on the East Coast of England. T