Pursuing a PhD degree

Research Area: Water, Ice, Landscapes

Supervisor: Brett Eaton

Degrees: BSc Durham University; MSc University of British Columbia

Entry Date: 2018

Research Statement: My doctoral research is centred on the response of steep, gravel-bedded rivers to floods and how best we may characterise this behaviour, using physically scaled models. Primarily, my work aims to improve how we can represent the more qualitative aspects of river character as quantitative by changing the focus of morphodynamics from form (e.g., channel shape) to process (e.g., channel change). Developing this framework provides a new methodology with which to conceptualise river character, using differences between river reaches through channel morphodynamics and process rather than the appearance of the river. Widening our ability to communicate changes in river systems improves our ability to understand and potentially predict the behaviour of hazards.