Landslides are a major source of fatalities and damage related with strong earthquakes, particularly in mountain areas. Forecasting the distribution and impact of landslides induced by earthquakes is one of the greatest challenges in the earth sciences. The behavior of slopes during seismic excitation is exceptionally complex, being dependent upon geological, geomorphological, geotechnical and seismological factors. This project aims to identify the main characteristics of landslide occurrence during strong earthquakes in Chile, improving the understanding of their mechanics, spatial distribution and controlling factors, obtaining quantifiable inputs for the development of a methodology for earthquake-induced landslide hazard assessment. This will be achieved through compiling and analyzing inventories for two Chilean earthquakes (Aysén 2007 and Maule 2010) to be compared with foreign landslide inventories; running a laboratory testing scheme in UK for better understanding of the mechanical causes of seismic slope failure; and applying those results on the development of a method for assessing the seismic stability of slopes in Chile. The new methodology will be verified in the Santiago region, which presents the highest population of the country and where an active fault has been recently discovered (San Ramón Fault). The outputs will include scientific publications, advanced human resource training as well as a new technique of hazard assessment applicable to urban/territorial planning and natural disaster prevention strategies in the country.

Landslides are a major source of fatalities and damage related with strong earthquakes, particularly in mountain areas. Forecasting the distribution and impact of landslides induced by earthquakes is one of the greatest challenges in the earth sciences. The behavior of slopes during seismic excitation is exceptionally complex, being dependent upon geological, geomorphological, geotechnical and seismological factors. This project aims to identify the main characteristics of landslide occurrence during strong earthquakes in Chile, improving the understanding of their mechanics, spatial distribution and controlling factors, obtaining quantifiable inputs for the development of a methodology for earthquake-induced landslide hazard assessment. This will be achieved through compiling and analyzing inventories for two Chilean earthquakes (Aysén 2007 and Maule 2010) to be compared with foreign landslide inventories; running a laboratory testing scheme in UK for better understanding of the mechanical causes of seismic slope failure; and applying those results on the development of a method for assessing the seismic stability of slopes in Chile. The new methodology will be verified in the Santiago region, which presents the highest population of the country and where an active fault has been recently discovered (San Ramón Fault). The outputs will include scientific publications, advanced human resource training as well as a new technique of hazard assessment applicable to urban/territorial planning and natural disaster prevention strategies in the country.

Rural electrification is fundamental for the social and economic development and well-being of developing countries, as it supports the development of vital critical infrastructures (e.g. communication and transportation) and it provides energy to critical services to peoples' quality of everyday life, such as home appliances, health and water supply. The lack or limited and highly unreliable access to electricity still remains one of the key challenges that rural and remote communities face in these countries. In order though for the electrification to go beyond lightning, it is critical to develop energy networks that are sustainable, cost-effective, and scalable, as well as resilient, particularly in areas that are frequently exposed to natural hazards, such as floods, monsoons, etc. In this context, the ambition of this project is to develop a novel holistic techno-economic framework for supporting and enabling the decision, policy and regulatory making towards the design of transformative energy networks in developing countries. This holistic framework will be supported by the development of an options portfolio for sustainable electrification, including a mixture of infrastructure solutions (e.g. building new or upgrading existing infrastructure) and emerging low-carbon distributed energy resources that will focus on the development of sustainable microgrids (both grid-connected and off-grid). Further, integrated system simulation models will be developed to analyse the vulnerability and quantify the risk and resilience profile of these energy solutions to natural hazards and extreme weather. This is is highly timely given the latest evidence of the impact of such events worldwide and also highly critical if the rural communities are to withstand and quickly recover from such catastrophic events. Following these analyses, stochastic optimization planning techniques will be developed to support the optimal design of these energy networks, considering transformative energy technologies, to maximize the impact on the well-being of local communities. Building on this last point, the research team has developed a well-structured user-engagement strategy, bridging to wider socio-economic aspects of communities facing electrification challenges. The aims of this strategy are to get an in-depth understanding of the electricity needs of rural communities in the partner countries (China and Malaysia), enable their active role in the project and provide briefing and training sessions on the use of the new energy technologies to be applied in these communities. The UK and overseas research teams will jointly work with the local industrial partners to facilitate this active involvement of remote villages, communities and their local authorities. This project will aim to complement and further strengthen the current electrification plans of the partner countries, i.e. Malaysia and China. The research team will work closely with Sarawak Energy and other authorities in Malaysia to review and improve its Rural Power Supply Scheme that was formulated in 2015, as well as evaluate and improve the design, operability and maintenance planning of existing microgrids in Zhoushan islands, China, which also serve as excellent testbeds for validating the simulation models developed by the project. Within this context, this project will also aim to develop recommendations for changes and improvements in standards, regulatory and policy-making frameworks. We will aim to make the key findings and recommendations of this work of generic applicability and validity to accommodate its international development importance. This would also be of UK national importance, where building sustainable energy networks for reducing its carbon footprint, while being resilient to extreme weather (e.g., the storms of 1987, 2007 and 2015 which resulted in major power outages) is key for safeguarding the social and economic well-being of the country.

Understanding when, where, and how windblown dust is emitted from deserts is important because dust can be detrimental to human health, can pollute downwind environmental systems, and, when airborne, can influence climate. Desert dust can also be rich in iron and other nutrients so when it falls into oceans downwind of its desert source, it can stimulate the productivity of marine biota in the surface waters. The impact of this is especially important in certain sensitive coastal areas where the mixing of cold water occurs close to the shore, such as at the Atacama and Namib Desert coastlines. These coastal waters can be particularly receptive to the nutrients that deposited dust might be providing. The UK Team have undertaken research on windblown dust in southern African deserts for many years. Our approach has been to use satellite observations to identify the sources of dust in different areas of the desert landscape, and then install state-of-the-art monitoring and survey equipment in these 'hot-spots' of dust emission to measure the wind and surface characteristics that control how and when dust is eroded by the wind. Our data have allowed improvements to be made in models of windblown dust emission into the atmosphere, and have also shown the significance of deposited dust in the fertilisation of the South Atlantic Ocean. The Atacama Desert is similar in many interesting respects to the Namib Desert in southern Africa. Both deserts are located on continental west coasts, fringed by cold ocean currents to the west and steep topography to the east. They have similar types of landscapes with a mix of dry river valleys, stony plains, and salty dry lakes. In the Namib, such surfaces have been shown to be prone to wind erosion and the generation of dust storms. However, whilst we know that winds generate dust in the Atacama Desert, we know very little about when and where such storms occur, or whether the dust contains iron which might affect the nutrient levels in the adjacent ocean waters. Our aim is to start a new collaboration of scientists from Chile, the UK, and Namibia to begin to answer these questions and determine the impacts of and controls on windblown dust in the Atacama Desert. We wish to achieve an understanding of the relevant processes in the Atacama which is as good as that which we have gained in the Namib. This research will bring together researchers from the UK and Namibia who have expertise in identifying sites of dust erosion (termed emission 'hot-spots') in Namibia, and a Chilean researcher who has expertise on the Atacama wind erosion system. Together this new team will establish, for the first time and at high resolution, where dust in the region comes from (using satellite images to identify 'hot-spots'), and how frequently dust storms occur. The team will then undertake fieldwork to explore the surface ground conditions at these 'hot-spots' and, at specific sites, install instruments to directly measure the amount of dust that is being eroded. Based on the outputs from this project, the team will develop a long-term collaborative relationship that will explore the effects of dust in the Atacama region in more detail through additional grant proposals. This will include investigating the influence of climate cycles on the efficiency of wind erosion, how important dust in this region is for ocean productivity, and the significance of human impact, such as mining, on generating windblown dust.

The Traces of Nitrate project created a large body of research: a substantial photographic record and critical historical analysis of the sites of nitrate and copper mining in the northern territories of Chile and spaces of the exchange of mined commodities in London and Liverpool. The project team produced, organized or contributed to 33 conferences, lectures and events, 15 exhibitions, 15 publications (including one monograph), and has received 11 reviews (see: http://tracesofnitrate.org) The follow-on phase of the Traces of Nitrate project will draw upon both its photographic documentation and historical analysis of mining to engage new audiences through exhibitions and related public events dispersed across two continents. The dissemination of research relating to the significance of nitrate, a dynamic substance that once used as fertilizer or explosive can speed or shatter life, will be extended and, most importantly, situated within emergent and urgent contemporary debates about the extraction and depletion of non-renewable resources. The political ecology of mining, the legacies of polluted and de-industrialised landscapes and the role of photographic practice in the representation of these issues are key concerns of the follow-on phase. The image and analysis of industrial ruins of nitrate mining in the Atacama Desert and the contamination of Chilean landscape with the detritus of copper mining will be mobilised to instigate discussion of hierarchies of human agency and material resources as well as the dependencies of people and planet.