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Copyright

Stuart N. Lane;

Published On

2025-02-25

Page Range

pp. 145–152

Language

  • English

Print Length

8 pages

8. The environmental impacts of fieldwork

making an environmental impact statement

Chapter of: The Field Guide to Mixing Social and Biophysical Methods in Environmental Research(pp. 145–152)
All too often we overlook the environmental impacts of the research that we do, somewhat unfortunate when environmental damage is motivating what we do. Here I introduce a basic framework for evaluating the environmental impacts of fieldwork based upon 4 Rs; Replace; Refine; Reduce and Reflect. These are not designed to stop environmental fieldwork from happening but as with the 3R approach in animal research are designed to allow us to minimize those impacts to those which cannot be avoided. I argue that crucial in this process is reflection because minimizing the impacts of environmental research will require trade-offs, and these are not simply concerned with the environment but also wider questions regarding the sustainability of our research activities more generally.

Contributors

Stuart Lane

(author)
Professor of Geomorphology at University of Lausanne
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6077-6076

Stuart N. Lane is Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Lausanne. He is a geographer and civil engineer by training who has held posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Durham in the U.K. and Lausanne in Switzerland. His work has sought to bring a geographical perspective to contemporary environmental concerns such as flooding and pollution. The primary focus of his current work is the environments created by disappearing glaciers in terms of ice, water, sediment and ecosystems and the consequences of these changes for environmental management. An important thread through his most recent research criticizes the current alignment of geography as a discipline with the ever more neo-liberal academy; and then argues for the rediscovery of a more scientific geographical science better able to cope with the crises the world is experiencing today.