Site Visits and Field Trips – Environmental Consultancy MSc

Sophie Metcalf, a postgraduate student studying an MSc in Environmental Consultancy, writes about her field trips and site visits involved in her course.

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As part of the MSc programme here, students are required to undertake a personal research dissertation. Due to the nature of the subject, projects often includes site visits to the area of interest for observation and sampling. Recently I undertook my preliminary site visit as part of my research dissertation, which gave me the opportunity to get out of the city and into the beautiful countryside of North East England. The North Pennines are classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the mid-march sunshine most definitely brought out the best of this beautiful landscape!

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The North Pennines

My project is focused on geochemical investigations of abandoned metal mine sites in the North Pennines, so my first field visit involved undertaking a reconnaissance of the sites I will be looking at. All the sites have heavy metal contamination from the historic land use as metal mines. The project is funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund and is part of the larger OREsome project being undertaken across the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is an amazing opportunity to work in such a beautiful area of the country and on some sites that have been un-researched and untouched until now. This project will build on work already undertaken by staff within the Geoscience department to quantify the metal contamination entering water courses in the North Pennines, which eventually reaches the River Tyne and Newcastle.

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Site investigation

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Dr Neil Gray, Degree Programme Director of Geoscience Programmes

It is sometimes easy to forget that such a vibrant city such as Newcastle, is located to closely to some of the most stunning countryside in the country. I am greatly looking forward to undertaking more site visits to this beautiful part of the world, to undertake sample collection.

Field visits

Li Yuan, a postgraduate student studying an MSc in Structural Engineering, writes about some of the field trips she has been involved with so far.

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During the second semester of my MSc in Structural Engineering, we have had several study field visits in the month of March. The first was the study tour to Durham city. The city is a very attractive tourist attraction in the North East, with the River Wear looping around the Romanesque Durham Cathedral and Norman Durham Castle. The aim of the trip was to inspect the bridges along the River Wear in the heart of the city.

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The first bridge we visited was the Framwellgate Bridge. As the oldest bridge in the city, Framwellgate Bridge is over loomed by Durham Cathedral. The bridge was constructed in 1127 by Bishop Flambard as a well-protected entry point into the city. For centuries, the three-span stone arch bridge carries the traffic flow into the city, it was doubled in width in 1859. Thanks to the rocky foundations, the bridge arches are sound and stable and is still servicing to the traffic above it. The ancient construction may seem simple and not fancy as the model bridges, however, the stone arches are the most durable and long lasting bridge construction in comparison to the model bridge designs.

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Our second study trip was to Edinburgh city. As the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh is a steeped in history, from its world famous clifftop castle to the Royal Mile, every brick in the city has its own story to tell. However, this trip we focused on the modern side of the city’s architecture. We visited the Dynamic Earth, located on the exact spot where James Hutton (the father of modern geology) lived and worked in the 18th century. The centre comprises of a fabric roof and its support structure that was constructed on the exhibition gallery under it. A hemispherical dome illustrated the membrane structure and its support structure working principle.