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The History Department's Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture (CSCC) employed its research expertise in religious history to improve the understanding and sustainability of historic churches and cathedrals. These together form England's largest single 'estate' of built heritage with over 11 million visitors each year. From 2008 the Centre developed an extensive programme of national partnerships, which have led to significant and wide-reaching impact:
(i) creating new aids to help visitors engage with sacred sites
(ii) encouraging tourism and enhancing access to these national and international heritage sites for people from all cultural and faith backgrounds
(iii) delivering professional development activities for clergy, lay leaders, church architects, diocesan staff, heritage staff and volunteers
From 2008, University of Leeds research on Christianity and sexuality has changed both the form and the content of church discussions of sexuality, mainly but not only within the global Anglican Communion. The relevant Leeds-based research is Ward's work on sexuality and global Anglicanism (2002-); an international study of Anglican/Episcopal churches (2008-2010); and Muers' work on theology, sexuality and gender (2007-). Specifically, Leeds research shaped the design and evaluation of the Anglican Communion's "Continuing Indaba" (2008-) process. Leeds research has also informed the content of that debate, and in promoting understanding of under- recognised perspectives in wider debates on sexuality.
Rapid runoff from rural parts of river catchments can pollute downstream water bodies by transmitting sediment, agricultural fertiliser, or other pollutants from extensive diffuse sources, and can also lead to downstream flooding. Environmental managers often try to mitigate these problems by encouraging interventions, such as changes in farming practice or the construction of physical obstacles, which delay runoff from rural catchments. DU geographers have worked with stakeholders to develop a family of flexible user-friendly computer modelling tools which predict and map the likely critical sources of pollution or flooding and the downstream locations that are most at risk. This helps environmental managers target the best locations for intervention and compare the effects of alternative interventions. The software tools have been used by regulatory bodies (e.g. the Environment Agency) and NGOs (e.g. Rivers Trusts) to plan mitigation works and benefit local communities and the environment in many parts of England.