The proposed research aims to assess the uses and consequences of communication technologies in the recovery and rehabilitation of populations affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda), which made landfall in the Philippines on November 8th 2013 was one of the strongest storms ever recorded with over 6000 casualties and more than 12 million people affected. In particular, we propose to investigate the uses of digital technologies and innovations such as mobile phones, SMS, crisis mapping and social media both by directly affected populations and humanitarian organisations. Communications technologies are increasingly recognized as vital in the prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation of disasters. It is even claimed that digital innovations such as social media are transforming humanitarianism by enabling 'people-centred humanitarian action' which empowers disaster-affected communities to coordinate and respond to their own problems. This optimism has given rise to a discourse on 'humanitarian technology' referring to the uses and applications of technology by disaster-prone communities in the response, recovery and rebuilding (World Disasters Report, 2013). Yet, despite the enthusiasm regarding the role of digital technologies as tools for humanitarian relief there is little evidence to assess their impact. What seems to be particularly missing from accounts on 'humanitarian technology' is the perspective of the affected populations themselves. Our ethnographic study aims to weigh the optimism surrounding 'humanitarian technology' against actual benefits to users. Our approach places the voice of affected people at the heart of the analysis. We will specifically examine the impact of communication technologies in the following critical areas: 1) information dissemination; 2) collective problem-solving; 3) redistribution of resources; 4) accountability and transparency of humanitarian efforts and, 5) voice and empowerment of affected populations. This is an 18-month ethnographic study that will take place in two disaster-affected locations (Tacloban, Leyte and Bantayan, Cebu) where we will conduct qualitative interviews, participant observation and online ethnography. We will conduct additional interviews with representatives from humanitarian organisations, government agencies and digital platforms to assess their uses of technological innovation in the disaster recovery efforts. Comparing the perspective of disaster-affected people and humanitarian organizations will allow us to understand both actual and potential uses of technology. The proposed research will be one of the first mixed method studies to combine an in-depth study of affected populations with a study of digital practitioners and humanitarian workers. The project will engage directly with humanitarian organizations, government and civil society agencies as well as the telecommunications and digital technology industry with which we have established partnerships. Our research aims to inform the academic, policy and public debates on the role of communication technologies in a humanitarian context.

Marine minerals - defined as minerals occurring on, or immediately below, the sea bed are now commonly extracted from continental shelf waters and are currently being explored in the oceans down to depths of several thousand metres. The quality, accessibility, volumes and proximity to market of marine minerals form core components of the attractiveness of marine resources. As pressures on land-based resources continue to grow, future demand for marine minerals is set to diversify, escalate and extend farther out into the deep ocean. The growth in the use of marine minerals is a result of their attractiveness to developers, national resource managers and regulators. It is arguable that there are advantages to extracting minerals from the continental shelf when compared to traditional terrestrial resource development. The first 'large-scale offshore extraction project in the Philippines was announced to commence operations in January 2021. Stakeholders/members of society have expressed strong concerns about the potential impact of the mining operations on ecological systems and linked livelihoods. The offshore mining project plans to mine (dredge) over three million metric tons per year of magnetite (iron ore). The government's objective is that the mineral will be a source of raw material for the country's integrated ironmaking and steelmaking facility in the near future. Offshore mining activities in the Philippines are expected to increase in the next several years, as the country holds rights to significant offshore mineral resources within its EEZ offshore area of 2.2 million square kilometers. Offshore the Philippines there are mineral resources that are potential ores of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, chromite, iron, manganese, cobalt, copper and aggregates. The titano-vanadium-magnetite resources alone, acceptably considered ores or iron, are estimated to be approximately one billion tons of raw mineral material. Given this backdrop, this proposal is timely in directly addressing programme objectives to fund new research that generates a whole system view of sustainable mineral production in the Philippines. Extracting resources from the seabed are known to impact seabed habitats, the adjacent water column (for example plumes) which affect the provision and flows of ecosystem services (benefits to humans). These include (and are not limited to) the permanent and irreversible loss of ecologically important habitats which provide contribution to food supply (e.g. nursery habitats for juvenile commercial fish); smothering and sediment plumes and pollution. In addition, extraction activities in some parts of the world, have been known to support some economic activity but also impact disproportionally and negatively on vulnerable and marginalized communities. It is therefore imperative that all offshore resource extraction activities are assured to be environmentally, socially, technically, legally, and economically sustainable. The proposed UK-Philippines collaborative research project "A framework for the Sustainable Development of Marine Mineral Resources in the Philippines" will promote socio-economic development and personal and community welfare through constructive sharing of experience and expertise and innovation in managing offshore mineral resources - including mineral exploration, resource assessment and management, governance, policymaking, regulation and planning, use of innovative technologies from exploration to monitoring, and researching environmental impact assessments, environmental risks, mitigation and monitoring performance. The project will research, share and develop knowledge, experience, technologies and best practices from exploration, resource management, regulation, environmental impact assessments, permitting and extraction across all marine mineral resource activities.

We have assembled a team of interdisciplinary Philippine and UK researchers and industrial partners to build an innovative research programme to test sustainable tailings management, remediation and rehabilitation. Our ambitions are to produce tailings with less water consumption and greater stability and show how they can be monitored and adaptively managed in real time; and to enable the processing of modern and legacy tailings to recover more metals, whilst decontaminating them, encouraging rehabilitation and long-term stabilisation and re-use of the associated ecosystem services. The potential outcomes, impacts and benefits of this integrated research will be reduced community and environmental impacts from tailings, greater compliance with international standards, improved social license to operate for mining companies, reduced long term liabilities and risks from legacy sites, and potential sources of revenue by secondary extraction of additional metals and land re-use. The world is moving to a low carbon economy that requires a greater amount and variety of metals from mining. The Philippines is the fifth most mineral-rich country in the world and therefore stands to benefit from this increased demand. However, mines can negatively impact on the environment and surrounding communities. Mining and mineral processing consume and contaminate water; have a large CO2 footprint; and compete with local communities for land and ecosystem services. They also produce waste - uneconomic volumes of rock, and wet slurries of finely-ground minerals left over from processing, known as tailings in large quantities. Recent disasters caused by the failure of tailings storage facilities (TSF) have brought extra scrutiny to the management of operational and legacy TSF. In the Philippines, with rugged topography, high rainfall including typhoons, and regular seismic events, TSF remain at risk of failure, and continue to discharge contaminated water downstream. These issues not only affect operational mines - legacy tailings at abandoned or closed mine sites are persistent environmental hazards. Only with innovation will new sustainable standards for TSF management be achieved. Through our proposed large project, we will deliver the fundamental science to underpin such innovation, integrating interdisciplinary expertise and novel ideas in the fields of geophysical tomographic monitoring, environmentally-benign solvents, in situ reprocessing, engineered nanomaterials, geomicrobiology, phytoremediation, soil development and materials characterisation. Our Partnership and Project Development grant objectives are to: 1. Identify the optimum field sites in which to perform the project work and secure access and permissions. This will include reviews of Philippines metallophytes (metal-tolerant and sometimes metal accumulating plants); Philippine ores, mine waste materials and tailings; and modelling the parameters needed for in situ geophysical monitoring of tailings and how leaching fluids will flow. 2. Refine the project involving stakeholders through: Examining the different technologies involved and their interactions and develop methodologies; Exploring the facilities and capabilities available at partners and identifying opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building; Developing a management plan; Completing our team. 3. Carry out engagement with a range of non-mining stakeholders to understand their needs and to strategically communicate our project aims and impact. 4. Network with other PPD projects. 5. Examine novel approaches and technologies for remote collaboration.

River morphology results from sediment transport and sedimentation, which are both a consequence of water flow. Episodic variation in natural (e.g. typhoons, earthquakes, volcanoes) and anthropogenic (e.g. gravel mining, river bank protection) sediment supply drives changes in riverbed levels and sedimentology. These changes determine channel capacity and flow routing, and thus associated flood risk to people and property. The same factors determine variations in lateral bank erosion rates; elevated rates result in the loss of developed floodplain and the failure of critical infrastructure such as road bridges. Despite the significance of variation in riverbed levels and channel position for flood risk, geomorphological processes are commonly overlooked in flood risk mapping. In the Philippines, rivers are particularly dynamic; risks arising from sedimentation and erosion need to be assessed and incorporated into flood risk management to mitigate the impact of flooding on welfare and the economy. This project aims to: (i) develop a national-scale catchment characteristics database, and associated river geometry relations, to assess the susceptibility of different catchments to morphological change impacts on flood hazard; and (ii) assess flood hazards arising from morphological change associated with variations in sediment supply and the influence of lateral constraints on channel morphological adjustment. To achieve the first aim we will use national scale topographic models and repeat satellite imagery to assess fluvial and landscape characteristics to identify indicators of enhanced channel mobility and sediment transport, with outputs available from a river centreline Geographic Information System with data points every 1 km along the Philippines river network. This national scale dataset will be used by project partners to assess and plan infrastructure developments. To achieve the second aim we will generate repeat, high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of the Pinacanauan de Ilagan River and the Bacarra Rivers, from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and bathymetric surveys. We will difference these DEMs to map patterns of erosion and deposition during a wet season, and calculate a sediment budget for each river. The DEMs and sediment budget will then be used to parameterise and assess hydro- and morpho-dynamic models that will be used to investigate changes in flood risk due to morphological change. This framework will be used, by project partners, to guide river and flood management in the Pinacanauan de Ilagan and the Bacarra catchments. The framework will also be transferable to other rivers in the Philippines, and farther afield in SE Asia and beyond. This proposal forges a partnership between the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, the University of Glasgow, four Filipino project partners, and project partner Prof Brierley (University of Auckland). Specifically, the Philippine project partners are: the Mines and Geosciences Bureau; the Department of Public Works and Highways; and two Local Government Units in the study catchments, namely City of Ilagan and Municipality of Vintar. The project brings together UP Diliman's expertise in geomatics with the University of Glasgow's expertise in fluvial geomorphology and numerical modelling, to undertake research that will shed light on the morphodynamics of tropical rivers and produce tools that will be used for sustainable fluvial flood management in the Philippines.

We will work with researchers and mining companies in the Philippines to discover new ways to manage metal mine wastes, to clean up pollution, and to make soils to support plant growth and allow the land to be reused. More and more metals are needed for the low carbon technologies to minimise the effects of climate change. The Philippines is the fifth most mineral-rich country in the world and will benefit from this increased demand, but sustainable mining technologies are needed to prevent negative impacts on the environment and surrounding communities. Traditional mining and mineral processing technologies consume large quantities of fresh water, produce CO2, can contaminate water, and compete with local communities for resources. They also produce large amounts of mine waste - uneconomic rock, and wet slurries of finely-ground minerals left over from mineral processing, known as tailings. These are deposited behind constructed dams as tailings storage facilities. It is estimated that in the Philippines about 33 million tonnes of tailings are produced annually - about six times the weight of the Great Pyramid. Tailings storage facilities at both operational and closed mines pose environmental hazards; failure could cause contaminated materials to be released affecting people and ecosystems. The risk of failure is increased in the Philippines, due to the rugged topography, high rainfall, and frequent earthquakes. Our research project will investigate new sustainable technologies to minimise the environmental hazards of mine tailings. We will apply our research to both nickel and copper-gold mines which make up 99% of the value of metallic minerals mined in the Philippines. Our project brings together three science areas that are vital for innovation: (1) we will show how tailings storage facilities can be monitored in real time to allow reactive management to environmental changes; to achieve this we will use emerging technology in geophysical tomography and remote sensing to monitor and understand tailings behaviour in 4D (2) we will investigate novel environmentally-benign solvents as a new method to dissolve metals from modern and abandoned tailings and test their application at mine sites; this will allow more metals to be recovered with economic value and also benefit tailings management by decontaminating hazardous components (3) we will study how plants and microbes colonise mine wastes, how this is affected by the use of solvents, and identify the best ways to promote biological growth. This will not only rehabilitate the land and allow it to be reused for agriculture or wildlife, it also minimises environmental hazards by improving the stability of the tailings and decreasing their toxicity. Whilst these approaches have been applied separately in other settings, this will be the first time that they have been used in combination to address the pressing issue of tailings remediation. By integrating these novel approaches we will find synergies that will deliver a step-change in innovation and enable us to achieve our ambition of sustainable tailings management. The outcomes, impacts and benefits of this research will be to decrease impacts from tailings to local communities and the environment, improved social license to operate for mining companies, reduced long term liabilities and risks from abandoned sites, and potential sources of revenue by recovery of additional metals and land re-use.