Project site visit to Dohuk-Domiz refugee camp

We have completed all the ethics and risk assessments for the project, and we are now organising our first short trip to the research sites to gather the information needed on which to base further visits and the Masters by Research programme.

The aim of our visit is to brief our local project partners on the specifics of the project and what we hope to achieve, as well as to conduct an initial visit to project field sites in Iraq. This will involve meetings with the UNHCR WASH representative overseeing the camps and the Board of Relief and Humanities Affairs (BRHA). We will have to obtain camp maps to begin the construction of the GIS database, conduct a site assessment for the pilot SuDS project at Domiz Camp and also conduct a site assessment for the main SuDS project at Chamishko Camp.

There will be 2 people on this initial trip: Dr Andrew Adam-Bradford, the project Manager, has extensive expertise in stabilisation agriculture and the greening of refugee camps. He advises NGOs, Governments and UN organisations on water and stabilisation agriculture in camps. He will be accompanied by Simon Watkins (MRes/ PhD student), a Landscape Architect whose Masters thesis (2016) was “Re-imagining refugee camps as regenerative and productive landscapes” which he undertook in the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and Coventry University.

On their return, they will put together a report of their findings which will be hosted here and also on a new webpage, devoted to the project and hosted by CAWR.

Main photo: Stagnant water and an open drain in a refugee camp Iraq