Terrenus | Wee Notes & Breaking News

A wee rant on MGRA

William Hume — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 08:24:00 +0100

Forgive me, but sometimes you just know that a Planning action is; a) stupid, and b) will be repealed in due course. This of course does nothing to help the person who, in this case, is simply trying to put a small extension on their house in the North Lanarkshire area. What am I talking about? Well the crux of this is, how do you assess the risk of mine gas in an urban area?

Fairwell to Jonny

William Hume — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:23:00 +0000

Welcome to Alisha

William Hume — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:28:00 +0000

Update on EASR

William Hume — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 13:36:00 +0000

Many of you will already know about the changes to Environmental Authorisations in Scotland but a wee update is, I think, in order.

Focus on Edwina Dominic

William Hume — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 13:49:00 +0000

Social Bite - food for thought

William Hume — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:44:00 +0000

Many of you will know of the good work carried out by Social Bite throughout Scotland and beyond and Terrenus has over the past years made a contribution to their work prior to Christmas. Today I got a message from the Social Bite team explaining some of their numbers - here are a few during last year:

Terrenus Land & Water throughout Scotland

William Hume — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:49:00 +0000

On the Terrenus Server we have a folder called ‘Project Titus’ which plots all our projects in Scotland since we set up back in the year 2000. These projects are broken down into categories including flood risk, geo-technics, contaminated land and drainage and suffice it to say the map is now very cluttered with digital pins in all parts of the land. Looking at the map as a whole shows the extensive footprint of our work throughout Scotland from the Lewis to Eyemouth and from Portpatrick to Shandwick. I find this resource very useful as I look at our past work when assessing new sites and proposals.

Welcome to 2026

William Hume — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:46:00 +0000

Another year bites the dust and we emerge blinking into the sunlight of a new dawn. This may be pushing it in these current times however, there is much to look forward to in 2026. Here are some thoughts for the New Year.

Hard Hats and Interns

William Hume — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:40:00 +0100

After talking to one of our staff members, Gillian contacted us in the middle of last year from her Environmental Science course in the University of the Highlands and Islands. An opportunity had arisen to take a formal break from her studies for a placement in industry. Various discussions were then had with the university and with Gillian herself and we are now pleased to welcome Gillian to our staff for the next year or so.

Introducing Rachel Allen - Associate Director

William Hume — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:42:00 +0100

Rachel Allen BSc (Hons) FGS

Himalayan Balsam - the root of the problem

William Hume — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:08:00 +0100

At the start of Queen Victoria’s reign Himalayan Balsam was introduced as a garden plant. Having escaped the garden the plant is now impacting and out-competing native species in our wetland areas and thus it is affecting native insects, animals and birds. It is listed under Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it forms part of our check when carrying out a Stage 1 site investigation for any site. All our staff are trained in its identification along with other such plants as Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed.

Hard Hat Talks from Block Architects.

William Hume — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:41:00 +0100

A few weeks ago I was invited by Kenneth Martin of Block Architects to take part in his ‘Hard Hat Talks’. These interesting pieces aim to be ‘No Fluff. Just Real Industry Conversations’ and entail a chat between Kenneth and a guest.

Free Lunch!

William Hume — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:14:00 +0100

They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch and, depending on who you ask in Terrenus, I may agree with you. On a regular basis we have ‘Lunch and Learns’ where for the chance of food we meet and learn from one of our own about a technical subject. This week we are having no less that two events - the first was today and concerned WAT-PS-10-02. This may not mean much to many people but if you are considering developing a Brownfield site you should get to know it. SEPA has updated its guidance on the assessment of groundwater and this will have big impacts. I will post an in-depth briefing soon so watch this space.

Off to site.

William Hume — Wed, 28 May 2025 08:20:00 +0100

One of the prices of seniority in any organisation is that you reduce the opportunity to get out and do some of the things that drew you to the job in the first place. Some of my fondest memories at work were in the early days with a van going round the country organising and managing multiple site investigations. If you play your cards right you can use the travel as ‘downtime’ where you listen to the radio and more or less relax. True, the downside is that your office is the steamed up van on a wet day when your note book has turned to mush and the borehole location drawing looks like something regurgitated by the nearby cow but the pleasure is real none-the-less.

BIG Data for a Small Country

William Hume — Mon, 19 May 2025 11:17:00 +0100

Last week, we had meetings with a firm who carry out drone surveys. I may have mentioned previously that we in Terrenus use available LiDAR data in many parts of our work. This ‘Light Detection and Ranging’ type of data is essential for all of the detailed flood risk assessments that we carry out - providing a key part of the model inputs. Good quality information is available from Government - Scottish Remote Sensing Portal, at least in the Central Belt, however, in many other parts of the country, the data is patchy and we are currently investigating commissioning our own surveys to improve our hydraulic models.

Settlement or Subsidence?

William Hume — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 17:27:00 +0100

Our man in the south, George Shepherd, will take you to task if you get these two terms confused. In land development settlement is a normal function of the soil being compressed (via raised pore water pressure leading to the reduction in soil water content) when a load is applied. Such loads could be an embankment or a building or any other load. The settlement curve is well understood in geo-technics with the initial days showing the fastest settlement and the whole thing tending towards zero over time. Currently, we have sites in the west of Scotland where we are monitoring settlement over time following large scale earthworks over soft Clyde Alluvial soils. We know the area well and have been able to resolve the complex factors involved in the calculations, modelling and monitoring for each of a number of large sites successfully. The key is consistent attention with George being master of the modelling in this case.

Site Safety

William Hume — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:23:00 +0100

We have just finished our weekly Health & Safety meeting at Terrenus - a feature that involves the whole company and where we discuss how we stay safe and well during our work. This week our discussions went from safety around site investigation trial pits and the dangers of entering pits which could collapse through to being generally aware of our surroundings (last week one member of staff banged his head on a sign after plugging his car into a charger - the event was duly logged as an incident).

Hard Hat Talks

William Hume — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 10:08:00 +0100

Morning all,

Spring is Sprung

William Hume — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:02:00 +0100

Well the Spring equinox is past, the clocks have gone forward and Easter is just round the corner. Daffodils are out and the sunshine is becoming warmer. For those who are affected by seasonal adjustment disorder the year can finally begin. My wife suggested at the weekend that we should make our New Year resolutions now rather than in January since it is much easier to look forward at this time of year than it is in the dark days of Winter. - what would yours be if asked now?

Groundwater

William Hume — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:11:00 +0000

I was speaking to Alex earlier today about the problems of groundwater contamination. SEPA has updated and substantially changed its guidelines concerning the assessment of groundwater, particularly with respect to historic contamination.