Alex Lipp

Alex Lipp

@alexlipp.github.io

Lecturer in Earth Sciences @es-ucl.bsky.social | Interested in rivers, mud, mountains, pollution, carbon cycling, quantitative methods, open science | alexlipp.github.io | www.sewagemap.co.uk | he/him | 🌍 🌱 🏔 🧗‍♂️ 🏕 🏃‍♂️

744 followers1.2K following127 posts

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/sig... Interested in using data-science to understand the health of our rivers 💧 🧮 ? I have a ⭐ fully-funded ⭐ PhD project in the TREES Doctoral Landscape Award featuring a 6 month internship with @theriverstrust.bsky.social data-science team! Please share!

trees-dla.ac.ukSignals in the Stream: Data-Driven Diagnosis of River Water Quality | TREES DLAUK river water quality is a pressing political, public and environmental concern: only 15% of English rivers meet 'good' status under the Water Framework Directive, and water companies and the governm...
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

I often think this with respect to sewage spills from water co’s. If Thames *is* renationalised, the pollution doesn’t instantly stop and it’s no longer “sufficient abstract evil shareholder” to blame it’s literally the government. Do you really want to touch that 3rd rail?

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social

It is worth remembering that one of the reasons public utilities were privatised originally was to depoliticise them and help politicians avoid blame for poor service. Nationalisation may be popular in the short-term, but there are longer-term risks of assuming responsibility for service quality.

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Thanks to @mysociety.org for this great focus on SewageMap and what we’re doing to make sewage spill data more transparent! (And how the public can apply pressure for even more data!!)

mySociety@mysociety.org

"Just at a fundamental level it feels wrong for sewage to be going into rivers”: we spoke to @alexlipp.github.io about the importance of open data, and how sewagemap.co.uk uses our WriteToThem service to get people to convince their MPs of that too! www.mysociety.org/2026/04/16/h...

mysociety.orgHow data might help solve the sewage problem (with a little help from WriteToThem)Have you visited sewagemap.co.uk? If you care about your local rivers, lakes and seas, you might want to take a look at this very graphic display of where sewage is being discharged across England. I...
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

A proposal that would improve the university sector, bring in external investment and help normalise EU relations… so obviously the gov and UUK are dead against it

Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social

NEW: Britain in standoff with Brussels over demand to cut university tuition fees for European students, with row threatening to scupper Keir Starmer’s planned EU reset. @kiranstacey.bsky.social reports 👇 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.comRow over tuition fees cut for European students threatens Starmer’s EU resetBritish negotiators ‘blindsided’ by Brussels’ demand for a reduction that could cost universities £140m a year
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

what is telling about UUK response is it focuses only on financial costs. EU students in U.K. dropped from 27% to 5% overnight after Brexit. There is clear latent demand that is not being met! As we have learned, student numbers is no limit, so why not diversify where students are coming from!

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

The student-loan system now actively subsidises the rest of the state, fails to adequately support HE, *and* has punitive life-long repayment terms for students 🫠

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Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

OTOH the environment agency *is* massively under-resourced so not totally their fault, *but* this defence is totally inappropriate… You’re an arm of the State, it’s right and good to be subject to criticism and you need to respond to it better than “uwu don’t be so mean” 🙄

Alex Lipp reposted

Brandon Bishop
@brandontbishop.bsky.social

Many people believe that the way to attract people to the geosciences is via logical, utilitarian returns on an undergraduate degree. But left unexplored is the power of the field's inherent irrational, cosmic horror to command attention. It's 2nd only to astronomy in that, & much more immediate.

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Another research institute opting for “short lived AI start-up chic” in their (no doubt vastly expensive) rebranding I see

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)@ukceh.bsky.social

Our Planet. Decoded. UKCEH makes sense of environmental complexity to power decisions that shape a better future. We don’t just examine our planet, we decode it – working out how to build a better tomorrow. 🎞️ youtu.be/s9fBwN5-kxM #UKCEH #EnvironmentalScience 🧪

youtu.beIntroducing UKCEH. Our Planet. Decoded.YouTube video by UKCEH
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Neat idea from psephology that might be useful for geological ternary plots too. Similar to the 4 component solid solution of garnet.

David Firth@firthstat.bsky.social

At next week's RSS conference I'll be presenting a poster (a first for me...it's about time!) "Tetraplot displays of UK General Election results" shows how to graph GE 2024 vote shares across 4 parties in a useful way. Full PDF poster at: github.com/DavidFirth/t...

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Given that universities/gov are savaged in the media even for increasing fees with inflation, is there anything meaningfully lost from advocating for a one-off step change back to an inflation adjusted £9k (~£13k)?

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

On news that the government is likely to keep tuition fees rising with inflation here's my post from a few months ago on why that won't be enough to save the sector by itself. samf.substack.com/p/on-the-bri...

samf.substack.comOn the BrinkUniversities are in serious financial trouble - what can be done about it?
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Focus on "universities" raising fees misses the point that the real injustice is the interest rates & repayment thresholds on student debt which I suspect plays greater role in determining how much is paid over a lifetime than the initial "up-front" fees...

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Shocked to hear that Stream, which has given Esri huge sums of bill payer money to create an extremely basic API, has won an award from…. Esri! Trebles all round…

Water Magazine@watermagazine.bsky.social

Stream wins global Esri award for geospatial innovation... www.watermagazine.co.uk/2025/08/05/s... #waterindustry

watermagazine.co.ukStream wins global Esri award for geospatial innovation - Water MagazineStream, a UK water open data initiative, has won an Esri ‘Special Achievement in GIS Award’ for its work helping water companies share data.

Alex Lipp reposted

Stephen Bush
@stephenkb.bsky.social

Shamelessly replugging this from two years ago. We would never look at the proportion of, say, schools, that don't turn out literate pupils and go 'oh well, probably those kids were better off out of it'. We shouldn't view the short tail of bad courses and/or outcomes any differently:

ft.comEveryone needs educating in the fight over university degreesPolitical confusion over the purpose of these institutions means the obvious fixes are being neglected
Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

The state should just predict what the 30 per cent of degrees that have no graduate premium are, despite the fact this 30 per cent is scattered across a pretty wide distribution of institutions, and then magically reassign that bottom 30 per cent to better jobs elsewhere.

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Putting together a NERC proposal and somewhat baffled by what NERC mean when they want a Summary to be suitable for "opinion-formers". Who are these people and how am I meant to write for them?!

Alex Lipp reposted

pbown.bsky.social
@pbown.bsky.social

We are offering a full-time permanent academic post at Lecturer level (Grade 8) in UCL Earth Sciences. Research areas include the climate crisis, hydrogeology, sustainable resources, the energy transition, natural hazards, and planetary science. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

ucl.ac.ukUCL – University College LondonUCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Total ignorance here that Universities *already offer* vocational training. The whole point of the 92 reforms was to give these vocational courses at polytechnics the same level of accreditation as academic degrees...

James Ball@jamesrball.com

Certain Blue Labour backbenchers seem happy to publicly attack higher education, saying Britain needs vocational roles instead. But what did they choose for themselves? Elite higher education, of course. www.theneweuropean.co.uk/james-ball-i...

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Really excellent news, and should never have been doubt. The original protest on Dartmoor was a hugely moving event and has sparked a new wave of R2R movement ⛰️ 🏕️ 🌱

Right to Roam@righttoroam.bsky.social

WE WON! The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature. But we're just getting started. It was never just about Dartmoor. We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

www.theguardian.com/business/202... I really question how useful this type of reporting is in practice. The question to ask is "Is This A Big Number?" and I just don't think we have enough years worth of data (3 years tops) to work out if 4m is, or is not, a big number...

theguardian.comNearly 4m hours of raw sewage dumped in England’s waters last yearDuration of spills by water companies up on previous year, in data described by environment secretary as ‘disgraceful’
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Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

Stop-Start data (i.e., *when* spills happened) is much more informative as it identifies potential links to rainfall, capacity etc... but only Thames Water actually readily share this data (see screenshot from sewagemap.co.uk). So, water co's don't help themselves! More open-data please!!!

Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

www.theguardian.com/business/202... I really question how useful this type of reporting is in practice. The question to ask is "Is This A Big Number?" and I just don't think we have enough years worth of data (3 years tops) to work out if 4m is, or is not, a big number...

theguardian.comNearly 4m hours of raw sewage dumped in England’s waters last yearDuration of spills by water companies up on previous year, in data described by environment secretary as ‘disgraceful’
Alex Lipp
@alexlipp.github.io

...of course from one perspective if x > 0 (i.e., there is *any* sewage spills) that means x is large, but that is not very helpful in practice. Unfortunately the data which *would* be helpful (i.e., the specific stop-start data from monitors) is not (generally) published by the EA or water co's!

Alex Lipp reposted

Colm Murphy
@colmpm.bsky.social

Does the UK state have a vendetta against universities?

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social

'UK research council leaders are bracing for cuts to quality-related (QR) research funding of up to £100 million a year ahead of next week’s Spring Statement – a move likely to lead to a fresh round of redundancies at UK universities.' 1/3

timeshighereducation.comJob fears grow as Research England models £100 million QR cutLoss of almost 8 per cent of mainstream quality-related funding feared amid concerns that Spring Statement will deepen sector funding crisis

Alex Lipp reposted

Dr. Rebecca Barnes (she/her)
@waterbarnes.bsky.social

"The intersection of science and politics is both inescapable and of vital importance. Scientists possess unique expertise that is crucial for informed policymaking and societal progress. Embracing political engagement allows scientist" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.comElon Musk is a proven danger to good science, but the Royal Society won’t say so. That’s why I resigned | Kit YatesIt is vital to act, and I urge colleagues to do so. How can we stand by and laud this man while he undermines scientific integrity? asks academic and author Kit Yates