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Digimap Case Study:
The Engineering Geology and Geological Hazards of Ironbridge Gorge

Authors

Giles David

Title

The Engineering Geology and Geological Hazards of Ironbridge Gorge

Date

March 2008

Application Area

Applied Geology

Application to other subject areas

Geography, History, Environmental Science

Project type

Undergraduate Tutorial Programme

Summary

A week by week series of tutorial exercises to examine the geological setting, historical development, contamination and geological hazards associated with Ironbridge Gorge, Telford.

Datasets Used

• Historic map series: County Series & National Grid of Ironbridge Gorge area
• Edition: 1st Edition, First Revision, 2nd Revision, 3rd Revision, First Impression, First Metric
• Scale: 1:10,560 & 1:10,000
• Names of other data used:
  • Historic Digimap, Geology Digimap (Solid, Drift, Thematic), Land-Line.Plus
  • DoE Industry Profiles
  • RAYNER, C., RAYNER, M. & ROSENBAUM, M.S. (2007). A Geological Trail through the landslides of Ironbridge Gorge. Proceedings of the Shropshire Geological Society, 12, 39-52
  • Papers from The Lyell Collection
  • BRITICE: Map and GIS database of glacial landforms and features related to the last British Ice Sheet
• Source: Digimap, Department of Environment, Shropshire Geological Society. The Geological Society of London, Sheffield University

Aims and Objectives

The project aims to develop a guided tutorial programme to introduce students to desk study, historical, geological and topographic maps together with other data sources to examine the applied geological development of a complex area.

Methodology and Results

Each week students are provided with a variety of themed data sets together with a worksheet exercise to consider various applied geological aspects of the Ironbridge Gorge area.

They start by considering the geological setting (solid, drift, structure, mineralization) using the Geology Digimap collections supplemented with other papers, memoirs and geological maps.

Next they consider the historical development of the Gorge with specific reference to contaminated land and geological hazard issues (mining, subsidence, landslide etc) that can be gleaned from the Historic Digimap collection, considering landuse/site change over a timeline series of the maps.

This historical development of the industries discovered on the historical maps is then linked to the Department of Environment Industry Profiles to consider the contaminated land legacy left behind by these various industries.

The programme continues to look at the mining in detail and also considers the land stability issues in the Gorge. This work culminates in considering ground behaviour models and how thematic mapping can be used to visualise these models.

The programme will finish with a short field course to interrelate the data sourced from the map collections to the remaining evidence to be found in the Gorge.

Results/Outcomes

Students will have a greater appreciation of the data sets available to them for desk study exercises as well as developing the skills to access and interpret these data sets.

Additional Information

Typical student worksheets can be accessed on the project web page.

References and/or acknowledgements

This work was inspired by the Geological Society Engineering Group field visit to Ironbridge Gorge in July 2007. The meeting was led by Neal Rushton, Telford and Wrekin Council. More Details.

Project website

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~gilesd/Pages/ironbridge_tutorial.htm