Flood risk research - Colin Thorne is Deputy Director of the EPSRC Flood Risk Management Research Consortium and leads the Consortium’s research on fluvial geomorphology and sediments, he was a work package leader on the OST Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence Project and is Principal Investigator for the China-UK Flood Study funded by NERC/OSI/DEFRA/FAO/UN. FRMC2 has now been funded until 2010.

Fluvial Geomorphology - Colin Thorne is the Principal Investigator for a 5-year Specific Cooperative Agreement with the USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory. The SCA is concerned with fundamental research on fluvial processes in general and stream bank erosion in particular. There is also considerable interest in applying the principles of fluvial geomorphology to rivers in the UK, with projects sponsored by HR Wallingford, the Environment Agency and Defra examining improved methods for river management and maintenance.

River restoration and ecohydraulics - Developing a strong science basis for the design of river restoration schemes has been an important area of activity for Nick Clifford. Some of this work has been carried out through NERC’s LOCAR and CONNECT B initiatives. Colin Thorne and Nick Clifford are co-PIs for research on sediment dynamics and morphological adjustments in the Lower Mississippi River funded as part of plans to divert water and sediment out of the river to restore coastal wetlands and provide improved hurricane protection to the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA). The development of engineering, geomorphology and computational fluid dynamics modelling is an area of future development.

Applying GIS to morphometric analysis and human impact on river channel dynamics - This is an area being developed by Nick Mount, with a particular focus on India.