Overall, 73% of the research by FCE’s 91 eligible staff were deemed “world-leading” (4*) or “internationally excellent” (3*), compared to the sector-wide average of 71%. The FCE submissions were assessed under two Units of Assessment (UoA), namely (i) civil engineering (including construction engineering and management) and building technology, as well as (ii) planning and surveying (land and other). The long-awaited results of the Research Assessment Exercise 2020 are out! The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased that its submissions to the panel of Built Environment have been favorably assessed by the University Grants Committee (UGC) according to their research outputs, impact, and environment. I can personally attest that this stream table model has the versatility to entrance both a PhD and a preschooler for more than two hours…and the preschooler wanted to go back the next day! Below I’ve added some shots of the Em4 in action.FCE Shines in Research Assessment Exercise 2020 There’s even a groundwater feed and extraction system! This model is pretty much as cool as I can imagine – at least short of the big research flumes mentioned above. You can tilt the table laterally – simulating differential uplift/subsidence across the basin. With beads colored by size, you can see (and measure) the sorting and selective transport of sediments. In addition to the 2-m long Em2 model that I have, LRRD also makes an extremely cool and versatile 4-m long model Em4. Steve’s use of low density plastic beads instead of quartz sand solves that problem pretty nicely, though there’s definitely still some braiding going on. This has even been an area of active and high profile research in the fluvial geomorphology community. Principally, most stream tables don’t do a very good job of reproducing the meandering behavior of lowland streams. But another part of it was that every time I had a chance to play with a home-built stream table I was frustrated by what it couldn’t do. Partly it was because I’d seen and read about big research flumes, like those at the St. Personally, I’d always been somewhat underwhelmed by teaching- and demonstration-grade stream tables before seeing the Emriver ones. Steve Gough, Anne Jefferson and a research assistant in front of LRRD, May 2011 I’m sure we will come up with even more uses for it once we get started. I think my colleagues are planning to use it in sedimentology, geomorphology and hydrology classes, and one colleague may take it with him when he does outreach activities. I think it will be a perfect way to demonstrate ideas of hyporheic flow, seepage erosion, and break through curves in tracer tests. I’m also playing with ideas for using the Emriver model in my hydrogeology class in the spring. I’ll be teaching Fluvial Processes fall semester, so I’m sure that my students and I will get plenty of chances to explore all of the nifty ways in which we can demonstrate and experiment with fluvial geomorphology. I’ve been on sabbatical this semester and away from campus, so I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but it is enticing me to return.
#Emriver em4 geomodel simulator
I’ve got a shiny new Emriver Em2 river processes simulator (i.e., stream table), thanks to departmental equipment funds and enthusiastic colleagues.