Ozymandias in the Anthropocene: The city as an emerging landform

Abstract

The extent of urban areas is rapidly expanding across the globe, both horizontally and vertically. While natural and social scientists have examined the impacts of this urbanisation on earth system and social processes, to date researchers have largely overlooked how in turn earth system processes can act on this urban fabric to produce hybrid landforms. Unique pseudokarst landforms are found within the urban fabric, including urban stalactites and urban sinkholes. Additionally, both the chronic and acute degradation of urban buildings can form rubble and dust that, if left in situ, will be shaped by fluvial and aeolian processes. For many of these urban geomorphological processes, the neglect or abandonment of parts of the urban network will facilitate or accelerate their influence. If there are economic, climatic or social reasons for abandonment or neglect, these processes are likely to reshape parts of the urban fabric into unique landforms at a range of scales. We contend that researchers need to explicitly consider the urban fabric as an Anthropocene landform and that by doing so important insights can be gained into urban hazards and geomorphological processes. Shelley's Ozymandias, in which the eponymous king failed to account for the effects of earth system processes acting on "mighty" urban structures over time, serves as an important reminder of the impermanence of our urban works and the need to recognise and understand the processes acting on them.

What is Area to physical and environmental geography?

“…There are some excellent recent papers that highlight contributions in these spaces, for example, the exploration of emerging hybrid urban landforms (Dixon et al, 2017), the provocative characterisation of the coastal management of dunes as “dune gardening” (Cooper & Jackson, 2021), and discussion around the role of public participation in river management (Buletti Mitchell & Ejderyan, 2021). The latter study touches on ideas explored by Lane (2019) in relation to critical physical geography and the integrative study of human–environment interactions, an area around which we would welcome further submissions.…”

Solidifying Grounds: The Intricate Art of Foundation Building

“…The problem is that these calcareous minerals are easily eroded by water and pollutants, thus leading to the formation of sinkholes – the sudden collapse and subsidence of the ground surface. Urban sinkholes can be caused by such a trivial thing as a water pipe leakage, and the extent of current anthropogenic changes to local geologies and hydrologies mean that they are quickly becoming ‘an emerging anthropocene hazard’ (Dixon et al., 2018). After the deadly collapse of Denfert Street, in 1774, due to a sinkhole in the limestone strata, the authorities realised that entire districts had been built upon ground that was full of holes.…”

Equality, diversity, inclusion: ensuring a resilient future for geomorphology

“…For example, in our BSG‐sponsored colour booklet to promote geomorphology to a wider public (Tooth and Viles, 2014), we tended to emphasize remote, near‐pristine landscapes rather than the urban, more heavily modified, landscapes that may be more familiar to some underrepresented communities. We did mention human landscape modification in a putative Anthropocene, a theme that we and other geomorphologists have explored more widely (Brown et al ., 2013, 2017; Dixon et al ., 2018) but are we really communicating effectively to marginalized, underrepresented communities who may have more experience with channelized rivers and engineered slopes than with more natural landforms? Returning to the critical physical geography theme, should we be paying more attention to the ‘crappy landscapes’ (Urban, 2018), where landscapes meet people and the full complexities of human–environment interactions are played out? Perceptions, anxieties and experiences .…”