Visit strengthens geography links with Brazil
Professor Janet Hooke visited Brazil in May at the invitation of Dr Paulo Cesar Rocha of the Department of Geography at UNESP, the State University of Sao Paulo, Presidente Prudente campus. The visit was funded by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) to facilitate cooperation in fluvial geomorphology - i.e. research into the processes and landforms of rivers, their dynamics and interactions with flow and flood variations. Janet had been contacted as a world expert on meandering rivers. The cooperation has already brought a research student to Liverpool for 6 months, from April to September.
On this visit Janet gave several workshops in fluvial dynamics to research students at UNESP and gave a major invited lecture at the Nupelia Institute at Maringa University in Parana State, as well as discussing research opportunities with several staff. The visit involved three field trips, one of which was to the Parana River, a very large braided river, heavily influenced by HEP dams now. That trip was led by Prof Jose Stevaux of Maringa, University, a world authority on tropical rives. The other fieldtrips were to highly meandering rivers that have many cut-offs and ox-bow lakes in their floodplains. The field trips were training courses for the postgraduates and involved discussion of bank erosion, bar sedimentation and channel changes. Travel between the field sites on the rivers was by speed boat, the latter field trips in cooperation with the HEP company who are funding some research and undertaking much ecological rehabilitation. The visit was very successful and it is hoped will form the basis for a more formal cooperation between UNESP and University of Liverpool.