Last chance to help with Vale sea level research project

Robyn Surcombe, pictured above at the Vale Douzaine with one of her research booklets, is in her final year studying physical geography at the University of Edinburgh. She has a particular interest in how community engagement plays a role in climate change and environmental hazards and has been asking parishioners about their own experiences of flooding, the places they consider important, and whether they think the States is doing enough to mitigate risks.

Copies of a questionnaire-type booklet to capture islanders' real experiences of flooding are still available at the Vale Douzaine Room and these ask people to record and indicate on a map where flooding has occurred over the years.

If anyone still has a form or wants to complete one they are asked to do so before next Friday, the 4th, when they will be collected from the Douzaine offices and sent on to Miss Surcombe so she can complete her final-year dissertation, which will be shared with the douzaine.

Baseline
She hopes her work will provide a useful baseline that might highlight where further research would be worthwhile and hopes to collect around 100 completed booklets, and has received more than 70 so far, hence the final appeal for islanders' views.

"The responses have been really interesting," she said. "Some people have said they’ve never really thought about this, and others think that the stormy, high-tide conditions we’re experiencing now are worse than they used to be. But then some people say they’ve lived here all their life and have never seen the sea level rise."

This is why getting a range of views from parishioners is particularly important for her research and the reason for this final appeal for help.

• Copies of the questionnaire booklet are available from the Vale Douzaine between 10am and 1pm and must be returned by Friday 4 September.