UNESCO Chair in the Development of a Sustainable Geoenvironment, Cardiff University (2009)
Purpose/Objectives of the Chair
Environmental problems are costing the earth finite resources and are adversely affecting all of its inhabitants – they tend to migrate through a variety of transport media often unlimited by location of occurrence. Such problems do not respect national boundaries – they are world issues that pose complex challenges to the international community. Contaminated and degraded terrestrial systems are just the tip of the iceberg. Agro-industrial waste is a major source of land degradation across the planet. Adverse environmental conditions are increasingly determining poor health and poor quality of life for many people – worsening poverty for many communities.
The UNESCO Chair in The Development of a Sustainable Geoenvironment works to contribute to stalling and where possible reversing the contamination and degradation of terrestrial systems and the associated surface and groundwater systems. It provides a platform (through forums and networking) to exchange knowledge and experience to arrive at pragmatic solutions to geoenvironmental problems. The Chair focuses on vulnerable groundwater resources in rural India and West Africa.
Chairholder Professor Hywel Thomas
Address: Geoenvironmental Research Centre, Cardiff School of Engineering, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Newport Rd, Cardiff, CF23 3AA, UK
Email: thomashr[at]cardiff.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)29 2087 4279
Fax: +44 (0)29 2087 4279
Hywel Thomas is Professor of Civil Engineering, Director of the Cardiff School of Engineering, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Engagement and a Founder Director of the Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) at the School of Engineering, Cardiff University. His research interests in the Geoenvironmental Engineering field range from the basic to commercial development. In terms of technical details his work ranges from land regeneration to coupled multiphysics/geo-chemistry problems in soils to sustainability issues in general.
Professor Thomas is regularly invited to give plenary and keynote presentations at various conferences worldwide. He has supervised over 70 research assistants and students, produced in collaboration with co-workers some 360 publications and delivered over 80 lectures to institutions or learned societies in 20 countries.
In terms of the ‘sustainable urban environment’ agenda, his research centre was a partner in the recent EPSRC SUE PUrE project (Pollutants in the Urban Environment). The GRC was also a partner in the EC project RESCUE (Regeneration of European sites in Cities and Urban Environments).
He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, a Fellow of the Transport Research Foundation, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering elected to the last “for outstanding and internationally renowned achievements in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental engineering”.
Select Publications
- Thomas H R, Koj A M, Eisa M and Ajani O, 2008, “Pollution solution: Clean-up of contaminated sites in developing countries”, In “Engineering Change: Towards a sustainable future in the developing world”, Royal Academy of Engineering publication, London, Edited by Guthrie, P., Juma C. and H Sillem, pp 89-94
- H.R. Thomas and S.C. Seetharam, 2008, “On the Inclusion of Some Biological Impacts and Influences in Coupled Transport Phenomena in Unsaturated Soil”, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, India, pp 2172-2180
- Thomas H R and Seetharam S C, 2007, “Multicomponent chemical and gas transfer in unsaturated soil – integrated impact assessment”, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, Balkema. Numerical Models in Geomechanics – NUMOG X, pp 283-287.
- Cleall PJ, Seetharam S C and Thomas H R, 2007, “On the inclusion of some aspects of chemical behaviour of an unsaturated soil in thermo/hydro/mechanical models: Part 1, Model development” American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol 133, No 3, pp 338-347.
- Cleall P J, Seetharam S C and Thomas H R, 2007, “On the inclusion of some aspects of chemical behaviour of an unsaturated soil in thermo/hydro/mechanical models: Part II, Application: transport of soluble salts in a compacted betonite”, ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol 133, No 3, pp 348-356
Select Activity
AWARD: Student Engineers from the Cardiff School of Engineering teamed up with counterparts at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to win a 2009 Mondialogo Engineering award in November 2009. The project “usage of waste materials to produce bricks” aims to produce affordable bricks that are environmentally friendly and healthier for the local people leading to an improvement of the living conditions in rural areas of India. Read more about the award and view picture of the awards ceremony here.
