#7 Celebrating 50th anniversary of ESPL Journal

I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to speak at the Cuchlaine King Symposium, part of the British Society for Geomorphology’s annual meeting — a special event celebrating the 50th volume of the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (ESPL).

🔙 A Look Back: 1976 and the Birth of ESPL

In 1976, when ESPL was first published, the scientific community was undergoing a major shift. A landmark study showed that even small changes in the Earth’s orbit — known as solar forcing — could trigger major climate shifts. Around the same time, researchers began to realize that human activities, especially burning fossil fuels, could cause rapid global warming.

One of the earliest climate models, published in 1975, predicted that doubling carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would raise global temperatures by about 2°C.Today, we know that prediction was impressively accurate.

🏞️ What Does This Mean for Geomorphology?

Geomorphology — the science of how landscapes change — has also evolved.Over the past 50 years, researchers have studied how human activity affects rivers, coastlines, soil erosion, and more.

While we’ve made great progress in understanding local changes, we’ve been slower to tackle the global picture — especially how climate change affects Earth surface processes over long timescales.

Why? Because it’s hard:

• It’s tough to get consistent data across large areas.

• It’s difficult to separate natural changes from human-driven ones.

• The models we use must handle complex systems full of feedback loops.

🚀 A New Era of Big Data and Modeling

Thanks to satellite technology, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence, we now have access to massive datasets that cover the entire planet. We’re developing new tools to analyze this data and make predictions about how landscapes will evolve — not just in the next few years, but over decades.

That’s the focus of my presentation at the symposium: “Numerical predictions of how Earth surface processes and landforms might evolve over the next half century.”

🧪 What I’ll Be Sharing

I’ll be presenting our work on a community modeling framework called CoastalME, developed under the OSGeo initiative. This tool allows us to simulate long-term changes in coastal landscapes — like how shorelines shift, how sediment moves, and how human interventions might affect these processes.

We’re applying this model in several exciting projects:

1️⃣ UK Gravel Barriers Project

We’re studying gravel beaches and barriers — natural features that protect many UK coastlines. These are sensitive to both climate and human activity. Using CoastalME, we can explore how they might respond to future sea level rise, storms, and management strategies.

2️⃣ ESA Digital Twin of the Earth

We’re contributing to the European Space Agency’s ambitious project to create a Digital Twin of the Earth — a virtual model that integrates satellite data, climate projections, and environmental monitoring. Our coastal modeling work helps simulate how shorelines might evolve, providing valuable insights for planning and hazard mitigation.

3️⃣ Big Data and AI

We’re using historical coastal monitoring data and modern remote sensing to reconstruct long-term changes — and applying machine learning to identify trends and make predictions. This helps us separate natural variability from human-driven change, which is crucial for making informed decisions.

🌟 Why It Matters

This work isn’t just academic. It’s about helping communities, governments, and planners prepare for the future — whether that means designing better flood defenses, choosing where to build, or protecting ecosystems.

📣 Get Involved

If you care about the future of our coastlines and landscapes — whether you’re a student, researcher, policymaker, or just someone who loves the sea — get involved:

• 🔗 Follow updates from the symposium

• 🌐 Explore resources at coastalgeohazardspodcast.com

• 📢 Share this post with someone passionate about climate, science, or sustainability

• 💬 Reach out with questions, ideas, or collaboration opportunities

Together, we can better understand the changes happening around us — and help shape a more resilient, informed, and sustainable future.