Tag: Industrial Heritage

Geodiversity, Biodiversity and human health and wellbeing

In researching the geology of Kilvey Hill, several issues quickly come to light.

The first is how little geology is actually being taught or even followed as a hobby any more. This is quite remarkable given the massive part Swansea’s geology has played in the history of the town. Swansea’s underlying coal resources were a massive factor in the development and growth of the eighteenth-century town. Without coal, there would have been no copper smelting, and Swansea would probably have remained the ‘Brighton of Wales’ (Boorman 1986). All the more remarkable when you consider that geology was an immensely popular subject for study in Swansea from the 1830s, and a century later, a large part of the University College of Swansea (Owen 1973; 1974). The geology of Kilvey became a training ground for William Logan when he taught himself about Swansea coal and rocks in the 1830s. Some of this will be a central theme in my guided walks for UNESCO Geodiversity Day in October.

The rocks of Kilvey contain a mass of plant and animal traces from the past. Understanding these past ecosystems and biodiversity allowed us to understand and exploit the coal reserves of under Swansea and the wider South Wales Coalfield. These rocks overlie the Tormynydd Coal Vein on the seaward side of the hill above Port Tennant.

Although people are now fully aware of the importance of biodiversity to our lives, less is appreciated about the non-living side of the equation — the Geodiversity of the underlying rocks and soils. Geodiversity is the foundation of the ecological life on the hill. The underlying soils, waste tips, streams, and geological features all influence the recovery of life after the cataclysmic pollution that killed everything on the hill in the nineteenth century.

The links between Geodiversity, Biodiversity, and Climate. Human activity has fundamentally altered the relationship between all three elements. (from an original in Tukiainen et al. 2023).

Biodiversity, Geodiversity and Climate are all interlinked to give us the environment we live within, or are responsible for (Tukiainen, Toivanen, and Maliniemi 2023). Kilvey’s ecosystem was destroyed by industry, coal mines destroyed the water table, and the recovery process has been long and uncertain, but in some places spectacular. It remains a tragedy that some of the recovered green areas of the hill will shortly be destroyed again by the local Council.

Boorman, David. 1986. The Brighton of Wales: Swansea as a Fashionable Seaside Resort, c.1780-1830 (Swansea Little Theatre Company)

Owen, T.R. 1973. Geology Explained in South Wales (David & Charles)

—— (ed.). 1974. The Upper Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales (University of Wales Press)

Tukiainen, Helena, Maija Toivanen, and Tuija Maliniemi. 2023. ‘Geodiversity and Biodiversity’, in Visages of Geodiversity and Geoheritage, Special Publications, 530 (Geological Society of London), pp. 31–47

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Lower Swansea Valley Heritage: Applying new techniques

I’ve got some funding to run a small Heritage BIM project. I’m running a photogrammetry project on a few small and less well-known industrial remains in the Swansea Valley. The proposal is to explore how effective and cost-effective cheap photogrammetry can be in surveying and analysing small structures and supplement statements of significance. With reference to CIDOC and ISO 19650.

I’ve got some funding to run a small Heritage BIM project. I’m running a photogrammetry project on a few small and less well-known industrial remains in the Swansea Valley. The proposal is to explore how effective and economical cheap photogrammetry can be in surveying and analysing small structures and supplement statements of significance. With reference to CIDOC and ISO 19650.

I worked on several Heritage BIM projects whilst an analyst on the Restoration and Repair of the Palace of Westminster. The technologies are evolving fast, and the extortionate costs of older photogrammetry are now being superseded by new technologies and approaches. I remember the original photogrammetry of the Palace was eye-wateringly costly, but once captured, hardly anyone knew how to effectively leverage the data into applied and valuable information. The result was old data that quickly went out of date and used before it could benefit the programme.

This will be an opportunity to explore revised workflows, effective use of low-cost technology, and output into usable heritage information for a few neglected monuments. It also provides an opportunity to revise old and outdated information, review the significance of the monuments in light of more recent viewpoints on heritage and interpretation, and maybe look at ontology and some standardisation and interoperability issues in HBIM. All with a view to convert data into valuable knowledge effectively and for a reasonable cost.

I’m looking forward to getting back into HBIM and a heritage project!

Above: A prime candidate: a significant structure from eighteenth-century coal mining history. It is mainly unprotected and needs modern interpretation.

Now working on the final shortlist of appropriate monuments and structures for the project. Down to a shortlist of three. The final selection will depend on the extent of the current knowledge and interpretation of the selected structure. A poorly documented structure will score higher.

If you want to know more, take a look at this Heritage building information modeling (HBIM) for heritage conservation: Framework of challenges, gaps, and existing limitations of HBIM and Photogrammetric Applications for Cultural Heritage.