Nicole Macdonald
Biographic Data
| ID | 880821 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicole Macdonald |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicole |
| FAMILY NAME | Macdonald |
| SIGNATURE | MACDONALD N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0350-7096 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Understanding weather futures based on the past
We present a weather history for Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, an island chain off the northwest coast of Scotland. It combines a new 164-year composite rainfall record representative of the settlement of Stornoway (1857–2019), alongside descriptive accounts of weather harvested from the school logbooks from the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway (1873–1974). The school logbooks record the experiences of the school, school children and wider comm…
A novel Bayesian multilevel regression approach to the reconstruction of an eastern Mediterranean temperature record for the last 10,000 years
Climate reconstructions derived from proxy records for individual sites often fail to incorporate existing regional information, which may help to determine uncertainties and express variability within specific reconstructions or commonalities between datasets. Such an understanding is crucial when examining past human-environment interactions. Taking the eastern Mediterranean as our case study, we present here a new air temperature model for the…
Extreme weather, school logbooks and social vulnerability
This paper demonstrates the value of school logbooks, an unusual and hitherto underused archival source, to the field of the historical geographies of weather and climate. It examines logbooks for schools across the Outer Hebrides, or Western Isles, off the west coast of mainland Scotland, ranging from the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century. The weather had numerous and varied impacts on everyday life on the islands and was…
The development of early reservoirs to supply water to arterial canals in England and Wales
Reservoirs change and control how water moves through the landscape. This article explores a key period in the development of reservoir technology at the turn of the nineteenth century which involved the construction of large reservoirs, such as Rudyard in north Staffordshire, which pre-date similar-size reservoirs for potable water. The creation of larger reservoirs in this period played an important role in the implementation of a resilient sta…
Changing climate both increases and decreases European river floods
A dreadful phenomenon described and improved’
Earthquakes are of interest to geologists and physical geographers, yet rarely attract historical geographers’ attention. This paper uses contrasting representations of the Buildwas, Shropshire, ‘earthquake’ of 1773 to reconstruct the course of the event and its immediate aftermath. The contemporary mapping of the scene records the changes in the physical landscape, with the hillside slippage blocking the River Severn, a vital inland navigation r…
Natural Flood Management
Globally, flood frequency has increased over the last three decades. Natural Flood Management ( NFM ) is considered a progressive holistic flood management approach, using “natural” hydrological processes to slow and store water, delivering multiple benefits including water quality, biodiversity and amenity improvements. Although there are existing evaluations of NFM , they remain insufficient for drawing conclusions as to its effectiveness at ca…
Performative Afterlife
Introduction
Dealing with the deluge of historical weather data
People have long been interested in the history of weather, particularly extremes, and chronologies of past events drawing on information from written records have been compiled and published throughout history. In recent years, concern over current and future weather and climate has triggered a new level of interest in past weather events and their impacts. This interest, alongside the development of digital humanities research methods, has resu…
Toward integrated historical climate research
[Article in WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:164–174. The Nottingham based project exploring Documentary reconstructions of extreme weather events in the UK, past, present and future, is funded through the AHRC, Grant number: AH/K005782/1. 'The Snows of Yesteryear: Narrating Extreme Weather' Project, based at the University of Wales, was funded by the AHRC, award number AH/K502765/1
Toward integrated historical climate research
Climate change has become a key environmental narrative of the 21st century. However, emphasis on the science of climate change has overshadowed studies focusing on human interpretations of climate history, of adaptation and resilience, and of explorations of the institutions and cultural coping strategies that may have helped people adapt to climate changes in the past. Moreover, although the idea of climate change has been subject to considerab…
Interactions between apparently ‘primary’ weather-driven hazards and their cost
A statistical analysis of the largest weather-driven hazards in the UK contradicts the typical view that each predominates in distinct events that do not interact with those of other hazard types (i.e., are ‘primary’); this potentially has implications for any multi-hazard environments globally where some types of severe event are still thought to occur independently. By a first co-investigation of long (1884–2008) meteorological time-series and …
Understanding flood regime changes in Europe
There is growing concern that flooding is becoming more frequent and severe in Europe. A better understanding of flood regime changes and their drivers is therefore needed. The paper reviews the current knowledge on flood regime changes in European rivers that has been obtained through two approaches. The first approach is the detection of change based on observed flood events. Current methods are reviewed together with their challenges and oppor…
Mountains
Fundamentals of fluvial geomorphology ‐ by Ro Charlton
Neil MacDonald on Epigraphic Records
Getting it wrong first time
This paper addresses recent debates on the need for greater collaboration across the physical and human geography divide. We discuss some of the problems of producing work that can be considered genuinely interdisciplinary. The paper reflects on a project examining the use of sustainable drainage systems in Glasgow and how we unwittingly produced a piece of social science research looking at a physical science topic. We suggest that more than sim…
Making space for unruly water
Historical and pooled flood frequency analysis for the River Tay at Perth, Scotland
Improved estimates of UK flood risk during a period of increased climatic variability place challenges on existing methods that rely on short instrumental records. This paper examines the value of using historical data (both documentary and epigraphic) to augment existing gauged records for the River Tay at Perth as part of a multi‐method approach to assessing flood risk. Single station and pooled methods are compared with flood risk estimates ba…
Perspectives d'enquête à partir des catégories du repas palawan
Making space for unruly water
Toward integrated historical climate research
Climate change has become a key environmental narrative of the 21st century. However, emphasis on the science of climate change has overshadowed studies focusing on human interpretations of climate history, of adaptation and resilience, and of explorations of the institutions and cultural coping strategies that may have helped people adapt to climate changes in the past. Moreover, although the idea of climate change has been subject to considerab…
Getting it wrong first time
This paper addresses recent debates on the need for greater collaboration across the physical and human geography divide. We discuss some of the problems of producing work that can be considered genuinely interdisciplinary. The paper reflects on a project examining the use of sustainable drainage systems in Glasgow and how we unwittingly produced a piece of social science research looking at a physical science topic. We suggest that more than sim…
Natural Flood Management
Globally, flood frequency has increased over the last three decades. Natural Flood Management ( NFM ) is considered a progressive holistic flood management approach, using “natural” hydrological processes to slow and store water, delivering multiple benefits including water quality, biodiversity and amenity improvements. Although there are existing evaluations of NFM , they remain insufficient for drawing conclusions as to its effectiveness at ca…
Extreme weather, school logbooks and social vulnerability
This paper demonstrates the value of school logbooks, an unusual and hitherto underused archival source, to the field of the historical geographies of weather and climate. It examines logbooks for schools across the Outer Hebrides, or Western Isles, off the west coast of mainland Scotland, ranging from the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century. The weather had numerous and varied impacts on everyday life on the islands and was…
Historical and pooled flood frequency analysis for the River Tay at Perth, Scotland
Improved estimates of UK flood risk during a period of increased climatic variability place challenges on existing methods that rely on short instrumental records. This paper examines the value of using historical data (both documentary and epigraphic) to augment existing gauged records for the River Tay at Perth as part of a multi‐method approach to assessing flood risk. Single station and pooled methods are compared with flood risk estimates ba…
A novel Bayesian multilevel regression approach to the reconstruction of an eastern Mediterranean temperature record for the last 10,000 years
Climate reconstructions derived from proxy records for individual sites often fail to incorporate existing regional information, which may help to determine uncertainties and express variability within specific reconstructions or commonalities between datasets. Such an understanding is crucial when examining past human-environment interactions. Taking the eastern Mediterranean as our case study, we present here a new air temperature model for the…
A dreadful phenomenon described and improved’
Earthquakes are of interest to geologists and physical geographers, yet rarely attract historical geographers’ attention. This paper uses contrasting representations of the Buildwas, Shropshire, ‘earthquake’ of 1773 to reconstruct the course of the event and its immediate aftermath. The contemporary mapping of the scene records the changes in the physical landscape, with the hillside slippage blocking the River Severn, a vital inland navigation r…
Performative Afterlife
Dealing with the deluge of historical weather data
People have long been interested in the history of weather, particularly extremes, and chronologies of past events drawing on information from written records have been compiled and published throughout history. In recent years, concern over current and future weather and climate has triggered a new level of interest in past weather events and their impacts. This interest, alongside the development of digital humanities research methods, has resu…
Understanding flood regime changes in Europe
There is growing concern that flooding is becoming more frequent and severe in Europe. A better understanding of flood regime changes and their drivers is therefore needed. The paper reviews the current knowledge on flood regime changes in European rivers that has been obtained through two approaches. The first approach is the detection of change based on observed flood events. Current methods are reviewed together with their challenges and oppor…
Neil MacDonald on Epigraphic Records
Perspectives d'enquête à partir des catégories du repas palawan
Perspectives d'enquête à partir des catégories du repas palawan
Making space for unruly water
Historical and pooled flood frequency analysis for the River Tay at Perth, Scotland
Improved estimates of UK flood risk during a period of increased climatic variability place challenges on existing methods that rely on short instrumental records. This paper examines the value of using historical data (both documentary and epigraphic) to augment existing gauged records for the River Tay at Perth as part of a multi‐method approach to assessing flood risk. Single station and pooled methods are compared with flood risk estimates ba…
Neil MacDonald on Epigraphic Records
Getting it wrong first time
This paper addresses recent debates on the need for greater collaboration across the physical and human geography divide. We discuss some of the problems of producing work that can be considered genuinely interdisciplinary. The paper reflects on a project examining the use of sustainable drainage systems in Glasgow and how we unwittingly produced a piece of social science research looking at a physical science topic. We suggest that more than sim…
Mountains
Fundamentals of fluvial geomorphology ‐ by Ro Charlton
Understanding flood regime changes in Europe
There is growing concern that flooding is becoming more frequent and severe in Europe. A better understanding of flood regime changes and their drivers is therefore needed. The paper reviews the current knowledge on flood regime changes in European rivers that has been obtained through two approaches. The first approach is the detection of change based on observed flood events. Current methods are reviewed together with their challenges and oppor…
Interactions between apparently ‘primary’ weather-driven hazards and their cost
A statistical analysis of the largest weather-driven hazards in the UK contradicts the typical view that each predominates in distinct events that do not interact with those of other hazard types (i.e., are ‘primary’); this potentially has implications for any multi-hazard environments globally where some types of severe event are still thought to occur independently. By a first co-investigation of long (1884–2008) meteorological time-series and …
Toward integrated historical climate research
[Article in WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:164–174. The Nottingham based project exploring Documentary reconstructions of extreme weather events in the UK, past, present and future, is funded through the AHRC, Grant number: AH/K005782/1. 'The Snows of Yesteryear: Narrating Extreme Weather' Project, based at the University of Wales, was funded by the AHRC, award number AH/K502765/1
Toward integrated historical climate research
Climate change has become a key environmental narrative of the 21st century. However, emphasis on the science of climate change has overshadowed studies focusing on human interpretations of climate history, of adaptation and resilience, and of explorations of the institutions and cultural coping strategies that may have helped people adapt to climate changes in the past. Moreover, although the idea of climate change has been subject to considerab…
Dealing with the deluge of historical weather data
People have long been interested in the history of weather, particularly extremes, and chronologies of past events drawing on information from written records have been compiled and published throughout history. In recent years, concern over current and future weather and climate has triggered a new level of interest in past weather events and their impacts. This interest, alongside the development of digital humanities research methods, has resu…
Performative Afterlife
Introduction
Changing climate both increases and decreases European river floods
A dreadful phenomenon described and improved’
Earthquakes are of interest to geologists and physical geographers, yet rarely attract historical geographers’ attention. This paper uses contrasting representations of the Buildwas, Shropshire, ‘earthquake’ of 1773 to reconstruct the course of the event and its immediate aftermath. The contemporary mapping of the scene records the changes in the physical landscape, with the hillside slippage blocking the River Severn, a vital inland navigation r…
Natural Flood Management
Globally, flood frequency has increased over the last three decades. Natural Flood Management ( NFM ) is considered a progressive holistic flood management approach, using “natural” hydrological processes to slow and store water, delivering multiple benefits including water quality, biodiversity and amenity improvements. Although there are existing evaluations of NFM , they remain insufficient for drawing conclusions as to its effectiveness at ca…
The development of early reservoirs to supply water to arterial canals in England and Wales
Reservoirs change and control how water moves through the landscape. This article explores a key period in the development of reservoir technology at the turn of the nineteenth century which involved the construction of large reservoirs, such as Rudyard in north Staffordshire, which pre-date similar-size reservoirs for potable water. The creation of larger reservoirs in this period played an important role in the implementation of a resilient sta…
Extreme weather, school logbooks and social vulnerability
This paper demonstrates the value of school logbooks, an unusual and hitherto underused archival source, to the field of the historical geographies of weather and climate. It examines logbooks for schools across the Outer Hebrides, or Western Isles, off the west coast of mainland Scotland, ranging from the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century. The weather had numerous and varied impacts on everyday life on the islands and was…
Understanding weather futures based on the past
We present a weather history for Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, an island chain off the northwest coast of Scotland. It combines a new 164-year composite rainfall record representative of the settlement of Stornoway (1857–2019), alongside descriptive accounts of weather harvested from the school logbooks from the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway (1873–1974). The school logbooks record the experiences of the school, school children and wider comm…
A novel Bayesian multilevel regression approach to the reconstruction of an eastern Mediterranean temperature record for the last 10,000 years
Climate reconstructions derived from proxy records for individual sites often fail to incorporate existing regional information, which may help to determine uncertainties and express variability within specific reconstructions or commonalities between datasets. Such an understanding is crucial when examining past human-environment interactions. Taking the eastern Mediterranean as our case study, we present here a new air temperature model for the…
Geography (14 works) · Environmental Science (9 works) · Geology (8 works) · Climate change (7 works) · Flood Risk Assessment and Management (7 works) · Climate variability and models (6 works) · Meteorology (6 works) · Tree-ring climate responses (6 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works)