{"id":987,"date":"2026-08-13T18:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.shu.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=987"},"modified":"2026-08-13T18:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:07:57","slug":"case-study-water-flooding-weather-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.shu.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2026\/08\/13\/case-study-water-flooding-weather-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"CASE STUDY: Water, flooding & weather investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

University Researcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What made you choose water and flooding as your investigation topic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: <\/strong>Over the last few years, and I mean, sort of like an average of probably one every five years, there were flooding issues. And so there was this real concern that came up. So we looked at whether the school already collected some really basic data on climate and weather. And so we headed down that route of climate data and climate generally and weather generally. The Academy kindly funded the installation of a weather centre that’s now on the roof and giving constant data onto the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you structure the activities?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: <\/strong>In class, what we did was a very basic overview of water management and flood risk management from their point of view. We started at a level and then we kept coming down until they understand. When we were doing that, the students started to realise that really horrible things like trigonometry, for example, working out the area of things, is like, why are we doing this? And then here we are looking at three-dimensional calculations and surface calculations and all of these other things. Some of them were just like, now I get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What surprised you most?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: <\/strong>One of the funniest things I did was I showed a picture – if you take a picture of the Earth, but over Hawaii, looking over the Pacific, you can’t see any landmasses. All you can see is the odd island if you squint, but it just looks like water. And I showed a number of planets and said, what planet is this? And they all went, a lot of them went, oh, that’s Mars. And then I showed that Earth picture and they all went, oh, is it Neptune? No, it’s not Neptune, is it? And it was just so wonderful, you know, them realising different points of view, different perceptions that we are in a water world and that water is so important. The realisation on them that, wow, I never looked at the world like that. And that was all wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you taken from this experience?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: <\/strong>It was incredibly positive in terms of experiencing the general engagement with science. Whereas all the students were just so engaged at that age, it’s just such a wonderful experience to feel that. I would have probably volunteered at the Energy Hub in the city centre anyway, but it did mean that I could bring in a lot more material and ideas about what I taught with the students. Experiencing that was really useful when talking to people about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researcher: <\/strong>There’s a discussion about whether I will follow those students up a year and we’ll change the topic. We’ll upgrade the topic to something else that’s water-based maybe. For next year I’m hoping to show them my research in hydroponics and aquaponics, which is what I do. That’s my PhD research. So we could expand into that. It’s water again, but it’s about what we’re doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University Researcher What made you choose water and flooding as your investigation topic? Researcher: Over the last few years, and I mean, sort of like an average of probably one every five years, there were flooding issues. And so there was this real concern that came up. So we looked at whether the school already … <\/p>\n

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