iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 16/03/2026

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

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 20/02/2026

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... “‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question”

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

This was a very fun project to work on, with some neat stats & maths from fractals to fluid mechanics. We were surprised that for such a high profile dataset like sewage spills there had been such limited public statistical analysis until now! 💩 🧮 🧑‍💻 eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 8/8

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

What causes the heavy tail? When trying to replicate it using hydraulic models we can only do so by including infiltration of groundwater into pipes through cracks… this suggests that these long duration spills are *not* only occurring after heavy rain… eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 6/

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

We think this is driven by daily fluctuations in water usage (🚿 💩) which modulates the length of sewage spills… eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 5/

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

A total (and cool 🤓) surprise for us, was the discovery of a periodic variation of the misfit to this modelled trend, fluctuating around spills that are multiples of 24 hours long… what’s causing this? eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 4/

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

Statistically, this tail is well described by a stretched exponential distribution. It’s not quite as heavy as a power law, but much heavier than a vanilla exponential… eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 3/

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

We find that sewage spills follow a very heavy-tailed distribution. 10% of spills account for 85% of all spilling *time*. So, it’s not the infrequent, short spills we should care about, it’s the infrequent long ones… eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 2/

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/12/2025

In our 💫 new preprint 💫 Barney Dobson & I drill into the statistics behind “shitty” headlines like these about the number & duration of sewage pollution spills. We analyse a dataset of nearly 4 million individual #sewage spill events… 1/ eartharxiv.org/repository/v...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 15/11/2025

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” 🙄

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 16/10/2025

so pleased everyone is choosing such unique and distinctive typefaces

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 06/09/2025

The perfect conditions continue 😎 🌞!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 05/09/2025

Stunning conditions (and enthusiastic students!) for the first few days of the @es-ucl.bsky.social mapping course in North West Scotland! ☀️ ⛰️ ⚒️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🗺️ #fieldworkfriday

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 11/08/2025

Me to students: "Keep field notebooks legible, and only write down the most relevant information". My own notebooks:

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 05/08/2025

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…

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 31/07/2025

eartharxiv.org/repository/v... In our new preprint we describe in detail the software & workflows behind www.SewageMap.co.uk! One for the open environmental data nerds out there :) 💩 🧑‍💻 🏞️

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 04/06/2025

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?!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 28/05/2025

I don’t think this is true at all. Crushing rocks makes up 1% of all energy usage globally and is proportionally one of the biggest energy outlay of the entire mining sector (source: www.ceecthefuture.org/resources/mi...)

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 21/05/2025

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 ⛰️ 🏕️ 🌱

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 27/03/2025

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!!!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 12/03/2025

www.theguardian.com/environment/... The new government policy on bathing water status seems to be taking direct inspiration from the survivorship bias meme, for some reason?!?

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 10/02/2025

Question for #hydrology #dataviz and #webdev folks… has anyone seen a visualisation like the below from earth.nullschool.net (by @cambecc.bsky.social) but for river discharge not wind speed?? Sure I saw something similar previously but now can’t remember where!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 26/01/2025

…but as ever @jonnydawe.github.io and I have been stymied by most water companies limiting the data they release!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 26/01/2025

www.sewagemap.co.uk now has national coverage! North Devon getting a bit of a pasting right now 💩 💩…

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 18/01/2025

Working on some exciting updates to www.SewageMap.co.uk with @jonnydawe.github.io!!

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 09/12/2024

Now up! Come learn how cocaine enters rivers in London! (…and if someone could also bring me a coffee… ☕️)

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 07/12/2024

…and I am recruiting PhD students at UCL via the @treesdla.bsky.social to start Sept. ‘25! I am advertising a project with Matt Fox developing new inverse methods to map out river pollutants from geochemical/water quality data… www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/map...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 07/12/2024

Finally, On Thursday 08:30 - 12:20 I'm presenting a poster "A Role for Dynamic Topography in the Global Weathering Carbon Budget"... come learn why we think landscapes like these, uplifted by the mantle 🇦🇺 🦘⛰️🌋 , are important for controlling long-term climate! 5/5 agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 07/12/2024

Next up on Tuesday at 13:40 - 17:30, Matthew Morris is presenting his PhD work with a poster: "Seeing Through the Noise: Extracting Tectonic Histories from Naturally Noisy Landscapes" ⛰️🏔️ Does using red noise 📈 or blue noise📉 make a difference? 4/5 agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 07/12/2024

Later on Monday at 14:40 - 14:50 Fred Worrall is giving a talk about the use of Bayesian networks to "learn" connectivity from nested water quality measurements... 3/5 agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 07/12/2024

First off, on Monday at 08:30 - 12:20 EST I'm presenting our poster describing the use of inverse methods to map out pharmaceutical #pollution in a small urban river in London, UK 🧪🏙️... 2/5 agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 02/10/2024

Really pleased that my sewage pollution tracking package POOPy (github.com/AlexLipp/poopy) merged in its first public contribution (thank you github user JTC-0!), so that it can now map out polluted rivers in Wales (in real time!) 💩🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 02/11/2023

... and here is the history of when it has been discharging in a really visual way. 5/...

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Alex Lipp @alexlipp.github.io · 02/11/2023

We use a public API which provides real-time information on when sewage discharges are happening. We combine this with a hydrological model to highlight river stretches being polluted in real-time...

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