Water Resources
This sub-theme focuses on understanding surface and groundwater dynamics and managing waterways sustainably in an uncertain future.
Our Water Resources staff and PhD students are conducting research on a range of topics, collaborating with staff from across the University of Nottingham, and a network of other global institutions and international campuses.
River restoration and flood risk management
Our group has extensive experience of managing and restoring rivers around the world. Currently, our focus is on working with natural processes when restoring rivers; the participation of stakeholders in management; and sustainable flood management, particularly in urban settings (for example, Blue-Green Cities). We are interested in identifying the multiple benefits of Blue-Green and Grey drainage infrastructure and evaluating public perceptions and behaviours.
Recent publications
- O’Donnell E., Thorne C., Yeakley A., Chan F. K. S. 2020. Flood risk and stormwater management in Blue-Green Cities; an interdisciplinary case study in Portland, Oregon. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 1-19, DOI:10.1111/1752-1688.12854.
- O’Donnell E., Thorne, C. 2020. Drivers of future urban flood risk. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 378: 20190216.
- O’Donnell E., Lamond J., Everett G., Maskrey S. 2020. Developing Implicit Association Tests to uncover hidden preferences for sustainable drainage. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 378: 20190207.
Water quality
We monitor, measure and model water quality in rivers and lakes, including work on emerging pollutants and hazards such as harmful algal blooms. Work on major river systems (Yangtze, Mekong, Ganges-Brahamputra, Red River) is focusing on delivering Sustainable Development Goals in rapidly developing regions. Current projects are investigating water temperature, nutrients, organic compounds, microplastics and heavy metals as modifiers of water quality.
Recent publications
- Krivtsov V., Arthur S., Buckman J., Kraiphet A., Needham T., Gu W., Gogoi P., Thorne C. R. 2020. Characterisation of suspended and sedimented particulate matter in blue-green infrastructure ponds. Blue-Green Systems 2, 214-236.
- Stanton T., Johnson M., Nathanail P., MacNaughtan W., Gomes R.L. 2020. Freshwater microplastic concentrations vary through both space and time. Environmental Pollution 263, 114481.
- Dugdale S.J., Kelleher C.A., Malcolm I.A., Caldwell S., Hannah D.M. 2019. Assessing the potential of drone-based thermal infrared imagery for quantifying river temperature heterogeneity. Hydrological Processes 33, 1152-1163
Hydrological modelling
Our work on hydrological systems ranges from global to local scales, with particular interest in the implications of climate change on hydrological systems. We use monitoring, as well as flume experiments and models. Current work is predicting geomorphological change in major systems (Mount St Helens, Brahmaputra-Ganges) to inform the management and restoration of rivers. We are also active in evaluating the performance of hydrological models and modelling human impacts on global water resources over a range of timescales.
Recent publications
- Major J. J., Zheng S., Mosbrucker A.R., Spicer K.R., Christianson T., Thorne C.R. 2019. Multi‐decadal geomorphic evolution of a profoundly disturbed gravel‐bed river system—a complex, nonlinear response and its impact on sediment delivery. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 124.
- Pokhrel Y, Felfelani F, Satoh Y, Boulange J, Burek P, Gädeke A, Gerten D, Gosling SN, Grillakis M, Gudmundsson L, Hanasaki N, Kim H, Koutroulis A, Liu J, Papadimitriou L, Schewe J, Müller Schmied H, Stacke T, Telteu C-E, Thiery W, Veldkamp T, Zhao F, Wada Y (2021). Global terrestrial water storage and drought severity under climate change. Nature Climate Change. 11: 226–233.
- Vanderkelen I., van Lipzig N. P. M., Lawrence D. M., Droppers B., Golub M., Gosling S. N., Janssen A. B. G., Marce R., Muller Schmied H., Perroud M., Pierson D., Pokhrel Y., Satoh Y., Schewe J., Seneviratne S. I., Stepanenko V. M., Tan Z., Woolway R. I., Thiery W. 2020. Global heat uptake by inland waters. Geophysical Research Letters 47, e2020GL087867.
Ecology-Environment interactions
Our group is interested in the interaction between ecological systems and fluvial/ limnetic environmental processes. This includes using ecological communities to monitor changes in water and habitat quality, understanding how organisms perceive, navigate and modify freshwater environments, and investigating the behaviour and distribution of freshwater species in response to physical habitats. We focus particularly on invasive invertebrate species and salmonid fishes.
Recent publications
- Dugdale S. J., Hannah D. M., Malcolm I. A. 2020. An evaluation of different forest cover geospatial data for riparian shading and river temperature modelling. River Research and Applications 36 (5), 709-723.
- Zieritz A., Taha H., Lopes-Lima M., Pfeiffer J., Wah G.S.K., Sulaiman Z., McGowan S., Rahim K.A. 2020. Towards the conservation of Borneo’s freshwater mussels: rediscovery of the endemic Ctenodesma borneensis and first record of the non-native Sinanodonta lauta. Biodiversity and Conservation 29: 2235–2253.
- Johnson M. F, Thorne C. R., Castro J., Kondolf M., Mezzacano C. S., Rood S. B., Westbrook C. (2019) Biomic river restoration: a new focus for river management and restoration. River Research and Applications 36, 3 – 12.