Water is central to life. Geomorphologists know that running water also plays a key role in sculpting the land surface. This chapter covers physical hydrology – the science concerned with the occurrence, distribution, and movement of water – and the movement and storage of water-borne sediment within the various Earth systems. In this chapter, we focus on streams and how they transport sediment, from source to sink. The material presented here forms an important background for Chapter 16, which focuses on landforms developed by running water.

Introduction

This chapter contributes to the collection's thematic focus on youth, transitions, social justice and social action by considering how understandings and experiences of injustice surfaced for, and were responded to by, working- class young people in a small post- industrial town in Scotland. Evidence suggests that contemporary generations of youth are experiencing poorer living standards and prospects than previous generations, raising the possibility that Millennials will become the first generation to be worse off than their parents (Simpson and Bui, 2021). There is concern that the social contract between generations is fracturing. The worsening situation for young people since the global financial crisis of 2008 has sparked rising interest in issues of intergenerational injustice, reflected in growing research, policy and media coverage (for example, Bessant et al, 2017; Alexander Shaw, 2018; Wildman et al, 2022). Much is now known about the challenges facing contemporary generations of youth, but young people's own understandings and navigations of intergenerational injustice and inequalities are less well understood. Moreover, much of the current focus on intergenerational justice has centred on the fracturing of primarily middle- class routes into adulthood, documenting rising graduate un(der) employment and declining homeownership. There has been a relative lack of engagement with working- class young people about their experiences and perceptions of intergenerational justice. Additionally, it has been argued that youth research and policy is problematically metrocentric (Farrugia, 2014), leading to urban- based experiences being taken for granted as standard, resulting in space ‘often [disappearing] from the analysis of young people's lives’ (Cuervo and Wyn, 2012, p 1).

Introduction

In the community of Belfast (Mpumalanga province, South Africa), Thakalani, a youth leader, identifies a prevalent issue among the youth population: their struggle to meet material needs, which he attributes to a lack of employment opportunities within the Kruger National Park (KNP). It was a hot day, and the shade of a tree in Belfast provided a comfortable place for our conversation. It also offered a glimpse into the lives of youth in Belfast as they passed by. Thakalani, in talking about local youth, tells me (first author) the following,

This chapter draws from the experiences of the unemployed youth in the Belfast community and the experiences of young people with employment in conservation as environmental monitors in the UNEP GEF- 6 Environmental Monitors Programme (EM) in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The KNP provides a local perspective on how conservation work affects youth involvement in conservation efforts in the Greater KNP area. Located in the north- east corner of South Africa, the KNP is a tourist destination, home to over a thousand biodiversity species and is a neighbour to over two million inhabitants (Stefan and Bernstein, 2017; Hayward, 2020).

Climate and landforms are intimately tied together. Indeed, much of geomorphology is concerned with how landforms, climate, and other surficial processes (like erosion) interact. Landforms are often studied to understand past climates, and vice versa. Thus, a complete understanding of landform genesis requires knowledge of past climates, generally termed paleoclimate.

Climate can be viewed as the prevailing weather/atmospheric conditions for a site, but over long timescales. If a geomorphologist was interested in how sand dunes in a modern desert migrate, they might look at climate over the last few decades. However, a geomorphologist interested in the origin and evolution of the entire desert would need to examine climate over tens of thousands, or even millions, of years. Thus, climate is a somewhat slippery concept, especially when one considers that climate is always changing.

Water, in all its forms, is the most important agent responsible for shaping the landscape. Some water is at the surface in rivers and lakes (surface water), but much of it eventually penetrates underground. Groundwater, present in the pore spaces of soil, regolith, and bedrock, plays a fundamental role in our lives, and (a focus of this chapter) in the dissolution of bedrock, which is perhaps the most important geomorphic effect of groundwater. Because all rocks are at least partially soluble, parts (or all) of them will dissolve and go into solution when exposed to water and its associated acids – the essence of dissolution (Fig. 12.1).

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of research that aimed to understand challenges facing young people from Black and Brown communities in making the transition to higher education and aligns with key themes of youth, transitions and social justice through the exploration of university campuses as spaces of social action.

In this chapter, we draw on research data gathered during a conference for racially minoritized young people from local secondary schools and sixth form colleges, held at a university campus in Bristol. The research aimed to problematize the deficit narrative of young people from Black and Brown communities and understand barriers and challenges that prevent them from progressing into further and higher education. Data highlights barriers faced by young people as they transition across learning spaces. The lack of role models due to a lack of diversity of staff (Thomas, 2022) and curriculum delivery and design are contributing factors to poor levels of inclusive practices across secondary and higher education institutions (ARUP, 2020). Snyder and Omoto (2008) and Bell (1997) highlight ways in which privilege and power are distributed in society and foreground the conscious appreciation of difference as being inextricably tied to social justice. This chapter explores racism from overt bigotry to racial microaggressions (Sue et al, 2007) as well as the subsequent social impacts on young people, and provides recommendations for initiating change at a systemic and institutional level (Tatum, 1997). This chapter provides a review of literature and an outline of methodology and methods before presenting recommendations for positive action for educators and institutions to overcome barriers and support young people from Black and Brown communities to transition to higher education (Sleeter, 2008).

Glaciers are perennial bodies of ice and snow whose movement is driven by gravity. They vary greatly in size and morphology; most glaciers cover small areas of a mountain slope, while the largest glaciers cover entire continents! Glaciers interact with the lithosphere as they erode their beds, depressing the land below them as they grow, and allowing the lithosphere to rebound as they shrink. Along the way, glaciers are effective agents of rock weathering, erosion, transport, and deposition, and important sources of water.

Glaciers add to the natural beauty of mountain and continental landscapes, both in currently glaciated landscapes and in relict landscapes formed during past ice ages. Nonetheless, their ice and water can also pose deadly hazards.

Glacial systems include the glacier and its adjacent lakes, streams, and landscapes – a system that is also closely linked to the atmosphere.

Ice sheets have dramatically shaped the landscape across the northern regions of North America and Europe. Ice sheets are so vast that they are sometimes referred to as continental glaciers. Their deposits have directly influenced human history by rerouting river systems and by providing nutrient-rich parent materials for soils. Abundant lakes and rivers, many of which were newly formed by the ice, became early transportation arteries and supplied aquatic resources to early cultures. Indirectly, glacial sediments were transported by wind to form thick and extensive blankets of loess – home to many of the world’s best soils. Ice sheets reduced the overall relief of the landscape, as valleys were widened and filled, providing for ease of transportation, growth of agriculture, and the rise of civilizations.

Mountains are among the most prominent and inspiring landforms on Earth. Earth’s internal (tectonic, or endogenic) and external (surface, or exogenic) processes have conspired to produce a wealth of mountainous landscapes that span almost every region of our planet. No strict definition of a mountain exists, other than they rise abruptly and prominently above the surrounding land, usually in the form of peaks and ridges. Thus, mountains have considerable local relief. Some mountains may rise only a few hundred meters above sea level (asl), such as the highest mountain in the United Kingdom, Ben Nevis (1,099 m asl [above sea level]). Nonetheless, it is one of the most formidable mountains in the Scottish Highlands (Fig. 6.1A). Other mountains are far more prominent. Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth at 8,849 m asl (Fig. 6.1B), is undoubtedly the most famous of all mountains.

The term periglacial describes areas subject to repeated freezing and thawing and the processes associated with the growth of ice within soil and rock. Although originally referring to processes and climates adjacent to glaciers, “periglacial” now applies more broadly to cold-climate processes where frost action predominates. Earth’s cold, periglacial landscapes span both polar regions and many high elevation and mountainous areas. These landscapes are unlike any others, with ice-formed landforms such as pingos (Fig. 20.0) ice-wedge polygons, sorted circles, and rock glaciers found only in these cold landscapes.

From the Blue Ridge overlook in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA, one can see the broad Shenandoah Valley, split by Massanutten Mountain, with more ridges and valleys in the distance (Fig. 9.1). This view of the Appalachian ridges and valleys provides a classic example of an eroded fold and thrust belt, where parallel ridges of hard, resistant rocks are separated by valleys underlain by comparatively softer rocks. Fold and thrust belt topography develops on folded bedrock structures called anticlines and synclines (Fig. 9.2). But this type of geologic structure is not without a long back-story. Most of the folded rocks underlying these mountains were originally deposited as flat-lying sediments, hundreds of millions of years ago. The folding occurred much later, driven by compressive forces associated with continental collision. Millions of years of subsequent erosion on these rocks were then required to give us the landscapes we see today.