Prof. Michael Meadows

Head of Department
Room 4.06.1
Tel: 021- 6502873
email: michael.meadows_at_uct.ac.za

BSc (Hons) (Sussex), PhD (Cambridge)

Academic Profile

Mike Meadows has been at the University of Cape Town since 1983. Originally hailing from Liverpool, England, Mike has a first degree from the University of Sussex and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

He was promoted to Professor in 2003 and has been Head of Department since 2001. He plays a wide range of administrative roles in the department, faculty and University. Responsibilities external to the University include:

Fellow: Society of South African Geographers
Past President of The Society of South African Geographers
Editor of The South African Geographical Journal 1993-2006
National Committee Member for South Africa, International Geographical Union 1992-2006
Member of Steering Committee of the IGU Commission on Land Degradation
Member of Steering Committee: IGCP 500
Vice-President: Southern African Society for Quaternary Research
Member of Science Implementation Team International Year of Planet Earth 2006
Secretary: Commonwealth Geographical Bureau: 2000-2004
Editorial Boards Catena, Geo-oko-dynamik, Progress in Physical Geography, Land Degradation and Development, Geographical Research

Current Teaching:

ERT 100F Introduction to Earth and Environmental Science
EGS 2012S: Environmental Processes
EGS314S - Environmental Change
EGS 4027Z Quaternary Palaeoecology

Research Interests

Mike Meadows is an NRF B-rated scientist and has a broad range of research activities under the umbrella Physical Geography. He is currently working with collaborators at the University of Oxford (Professor David Thomas and Dr Brian Chase) on a Leverhulme funded project investigating the potential of dassie (Hyrax) midden remains as a Quaternary palaeoecological archive in southern Africa. He has explored issues around environmental change and human activity in places as far afield as Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and there is an active group of Honours, Masters and PhD students working under his supervision. In summary, his research interests are:

Quaternary environmental change and vegetation history
Soil erosion, land degradation and desertification.

Publications

Meadows, ME., 2006. Global change and southern Africa. Geographical Research 44 (2) 135-145.
Meadows, ME, Rahlao, S and Dietrich, K., 2006. Land use dynamics, soil erosion and conservation in the Tygerberg Hills, Cape Town, South Africa. Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie Supplementband 142: 75-86.
Kiunsi, R and Meadows, ME., 2006. A new and comprehensive land degradation assessment method: a case study of application to the Monduli District, Tanzania. Land Degradation and Development 17: 1-17.
Nash, D & Meadows, ME., 2006. Late Quaternary environmental and vegetation changes in the Ncamasere Valley, Okavango panhandle, Botswana. Quaternary Science Reviews 25: 1302-1322.
Carr, AS, Thomas, DGS, Bateman, MD, Meadows, ME & Chase, BM., 2006. Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments of the winter-rainfall zone of southern Africa: palynological and sedimentological evidence from the Agulhas Plain. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 239: 147-165.
Meadows, ME & Chase, BM., 2006 Late Pleistocene pollen records of Africa. In: Bradshaw, I et al. (eds.) Encyclopaedia of Quaternary Science. London: John Wiley (in press).
Foster, IDL, Boardman, J, Keay-Bright, J & Meadows, ME., 2005. Land degradation and sediment dynamics in the South African Karoo. In: Walling, D.E. and Horowitz, A. (eds) Sediment Budgets. Proc IAHS Symposium, Foz do Iguaçu, 3rd-9th April 2005, pp207-213.
Meadows, ME (ed.), 2004. Land Degradation and Development: Geographical Perspectives. Special Issue of Land Degradation and Development 15 (3): 201-349.
Meadows, ME., 2004. Land degradation and development: geographical perspectives. Land Degradation and Development 15: 201.
Meadows, ME and Chase, B., 2004. The Last Glacial Maximum in the Winter Rainfall Zone of South Africa: towards a revised synthesis. Polen 14: 224.
Meadows, ME., 2004. Biogeography. In: Sala, M (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems. EOLSS Publishers, Oxford.
Meadows, ME & Ramutsindela, M., 2004. Conservation, preservation and heritage. In: Matthews, JA & Herbert, DT (eds) Common Heritage, Shared Future: Perspectives on the Unity of Geography. Routledge, London, 305- 317.
Meadows, ME. 2003. Soil erosion in the Swartland, Western Cape Province, South Africa: implications of past and present policy and practice. Environmental Science and Policy 6: 17-28.
Meadows, ME & Hoffman, MT. 2003. Land degradation in South Africa: a national review and implications of climate change. Geographical Journal 169: 1-10.
Meadows, ME., 2003 John Acocks and the expanding Karoo hypothesis. South African Journal of Botany 69: 1-6.
Meadows, ME., 2003 African environments: past, present and future. Geo-öko-dynamik 24: 123-135.
Hoffman, M.T. and Meadows, M.E. 2003. Measurement and perceptions of desertification in South Africa. Annals of Arid Zone 42: 333-345.
Kuiper, S and Meadows, ME., 2002 Sustainability of livestock farming in southern Namibia's communal areas? Land Degradation and Development 13: 1-15.
Meadows, ME, Rogers, J, Lee-Thorp, JA, Bateman MD and Dingle, RV., 2002. Holocene chronology of a continental shelf mudbelt off southwestern Africa. The Holocene 12: 59-67.
Barrable, A, Meadows, ME & Hewitson, B., 2002. Environmental reconstruction and climate modelling from the late Quaternary in the Winter Rainfall Region of the Western Cape, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 98: 611-616.
Meadows ME & MT Hoffman, 2002. The nature, extent and causes of land degradation in South Africa: legacy of the past, lessons for the future? Area 34: 428-437.
Meadows, ME & Hill, TR., 2002. Issues in biogeography: diversity in theory and practice. The South African Geographical Journal 84: 116-124.
Meadows, ME., 2001. Biogeography: Does Theory Meet Practice? Progress in Physical Geography 25: 132-142.
Meadows, ME., 2001. The role of Quaternary environmental change in the evolution of landscapes: case studies from southern Africa. Catena 42: 39-57.
Meadows, ME., 2001. The biotic component of land degradation: action and reaction. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 145: 18-25.
Meadows, ME & Baxter, AJ., 2001. Holocene vegetation history and palaeoenvironments at Klaarfontein spring, Western Cape, South Africa. The Holocene 11: 699-706.
Roberts, N., Meadows, M.E. and Dodson, J.R., 2001. The history of mediterranean-type environments: climate, culture and landscape. The Holocene 11:.631-634.
Meadows, ME., 2001. Mediterranean environments. In: Goudie, A (Ed.) Encyclopaedia of Global Change. New York: Oxford University Press Vol. 2, 64-70.
Meadows, ME and Hoffman, MT., 2001. Land degradation and desertification in South Africa. In: Palacio-Prieto, JL and Luna-Gonzalez, L (eds.) Selected Topics in Geomorphology. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and International Geographical Union, Michoacan, Mexico, pp34-46.
Roberts, N., Meadows, ME and Dodson, JR (eds), 2001. Special issue of The Holocene: The history of mediterranean-type environments in the eastern hemisphere The Holocene 11 (6).
Parkington, JEP, Cartwright, C, Cowling, RM, Meadows, ME & Baxter, A., 2000. Palaeovegetation at the last glacial maximum in the western Cape, South Africa: wood charcoal and pollen evidence from Elands Bay Cave. South African Journal of Science 96: 543-546.
Gray, CED, Meadows, ME, Lee-Thorp, JA & Rogers, J. , 2000. Characterising the Namaqualand mudbelt of southern Africa: chronology, palynology and palaeoenvironments. South African Geographical Journal 82: 136-141.
Meadows, ME., 2000. The ecological resource base: biodiversity and conservation. In: Fox R and Rowntree, K (Eds) The Geography of a Changing South Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp361-389.
Meadows, ME (advisory editor)., 2000. In: Thomas, DSG and Gouide, AS (Eds) Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Physical Geography, 3rd edition. Oxford: Blackwell 610 pp.