River Science
Our Research
Rivers satisfy multiple social needs in terms of resources and services. Yet, they are affected by a wide degree of human impacts, which reduce the environmental and societal services that rivers provide, and are often in need of restoration. Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health is committed to tackling these issues in the interdisciplinary framework of “River Science”, which stands at the interface of geomorphology, ecology, engineering, and social sciences. Sustainable river management requires a paradigm that considers social-eco-hydro-morphological processes and feedbacks determining river functioning.
Sediment Process and Morphodynamics
Our aim is to characterise the complex relationships between sediment sources at the basin scale, connectivity, sediment fluxes, and river morphodynamics, and to quantify the impact of human interventions on fluvial dynamics.
Ecological Functioning of Riverine Ecosystems
Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health aims to characterise the biodiversity of rivers and to understand how fluvial processes affect and are affected by fauna and flora at multiple scales.
Rivers and Society
Our research aims to determine human perceptions and aesthetic preferences towards several natural and artificial elements related to river systems, in order to understand the role of rivers in the collective identities of communities.
Rivers and Natural Hazards
LCWPH is working to develop a series of robust and practical tools for analysing flood hazards and risks associated also with vegetation and large wood in rivers.
Rivers and Energy
Rivers are a source of energy. In many countries the challenge is to rank potential sites for future developments considering ecological values and services.
Floodplain Sedimentary Archives
We aim to reconstruct multi-centennial length flood histories and undertake long-term flood frequency analysis by incorporating historical and palaeoflood data into flood series, and considering climate and land-use changes and the modification of channel capacity.
Key Personnel and Expertise
Dr Luca Mao - River processes and ecology
Professor Mark Macklin - River Systems and Global Environmental Change
Dr Dilkushi de Alwis Pitts - Spatial analysis and remote sensing
Dr Harriet Moore - River restoration and environmental behaviour
Dr Joseph Harwood - Analytical Geochemistry, sedimentology
Josephine Westlake - Hydrology, Geomorphology, Geophysical Hazards
Publications (with LCWPH affiliation)
| Team Member | Publication |
|---|---|
| Luca Mao |
Carvalho Carneiro de Mendonça B, Mao L, Belletti B (2021) Spatial scale determines how the morphological diversity relates with river biological diversity. Evidence from a mountain river in the central Chilean Andes. Geomorphology 372, 107447, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107447. |
| Mark Macklin |
Davies, Peter, Lawrence, Susan, Turnbull, Jodi, Rutherfurd, Ian, Grove, James, Silvester, Ewen and Macklin, Mark (2020) Mining Modification of River Systems: A case study from the Australian Gold Rush. Geoarchaeology . ISSN 1520-6548
Fuller, IC, Macklin, Mark, Toonen, WHJ, Turner, J and Norton, K (2019) A 2000 year record of palaeofloods in a volcanically-reset catchment: Whanganui River, New Zealand. Global and Planetary Change, 181 (10298). ISSN 0921-8181
Grove, J, Turnbull, J, Lawrence, S, Davies, P, Rutherfurd, I, Silvester, E, Colombi, F and Macklin, Mark (2019) Mining to mud: a multidisciplinary approach to understanding Victoria’s riverine landscape as a product of historical gold mining. Preview, 200 . pp. 44-56. ISSN 1443-2471
Longfield, Sean, Faulkner, Duncan, Kjeldsen, Thomas, Macklin, Mark, Jones, Anna, Foulds, Simon, Brewer, Paul and Griffiths, Hywel (2019) Incorporating sedimentological data in UK flood frequency estimation. Journal of Flood Risk Management . ISSN 1753-318X
Macklin MG, Lewin, J (2019) River stresses in anthropogenic times: Large-scale global patterns and extended environmental timelines. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 43(1), 3-23.
Wilem, Bruno, Canovas, Juan Antonio Ballesteros, Macdonald, Neil, Toonen, Willem H J, Baker, Victor, Barriendos, Mariano, Benito, Gerardo, Brauer, Achim, Corella, Juan Pablo, Denniston, Rhawn, Glaser, Rudiger, Ionita, Monica, Kahle, Michael, Liu, tao, Luetscher, Marc, Macklin, Mark, Mudelsee, Manfred, Munoz, Samuel, Schulte, Lothar, St. George, Scott, Stoffel, Markus and Wetter, Oliver (2018) Interpreting historical, botanical, and geological evidence to aid preparations for future floods. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 6 (1). ISSN 1939-5078
Briant, Rebecca M, Cohen, Kim M, Cordier, Stephane, Demoulin, Alain J A G, Macklin, Mark, Mather, Anne E, Rixhon, Gilles, Veldkamp, Tom, Wainwright, John, Whittaker, Alex and Wittmann, Hella (2018) Applying Pattern Oriented Sampling in current fieldwork practice to enable more effective model evaluation in fluvial landscape evolution research. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 43 (14). pp. 2964-2980. ISSN 0197-9337
Panyushkina, Irina P., Meko, D. M., Macklin, M. G., Toonen, W. H. J., Mukhamadiev, N. S., Konovalov, V. G., Ashikbaev, N. Z. and Sagitov, A. O. (2018) Runoff variations in Lake Balkhash Basin, Central Asia, 1779-2015, inferred from tree rings. Climate Dynamics, 51 (7-8). pp. 3161-3177. ISSN 0930-7575
Fuller, Ian C., Macklin, Mark G., Toonen, Willem H. J. and Holt, Katherine A. (2018) Storm-generated Holocene and historical floods in the Manawatu River, New Zealand. Geomorphology, 310 . pp. 102-124. ISSN 0169-555X
Byrne P, Hudson-Edwards KA, Bird G, Macklin MG, et al. (2018) Water quality impacts and river system recovery following the 2014 Mount Polley mine tailings dam spill, British Columbia, Canada. Applied Geochemistry 91, 64-74.
Davies, P, Lawrence, S, Turnbull, J, Rutherford, I, Grove, J, Silvester, E, Baldwin, D and Macklin, Mark (2018) Reconstruction of historical riverine sediment production on the goldfields of Victoria, Australia. Anthropocene, 21 . pp. 1-15. ISSN 2213-3054
Clement, A. J. H., Novakova, T., Hudson-Edwards, K.A., Fuller, I.C., Macklin, Mark, Fox, E.G. and Zapico, I. (2017) The environmental and geomorphological impacts of historical gold mining in the Ohinemuri and Waihou river catchments, Coromandel, New Zealand. Geomorphology, 295 . pp. 159-175. ISSN 0169-555X
Lam, Daryl, Thompson, Chris, Croke, Jacky, Sharma, Ashneel and Macklin, Mark (2017) Reducing uncertainty with flood frequency analysis: the contribution of palaeoflood and historical flood information. Water Resources Research, 53 (3). pp. 2312-2327. ISSN 1944-7973
Toonen WHJ, Foulds SA, Macklin MG et al. (2017) Events, episodes and phases: Signal from noise in flood-sediment archives. Geology 45(4), 331-334.
Naylor, Larissa A., Spencer, Tom, Lane, Stuart N., Darby, Stephen E., Magilligan, Francis J., Macklin, Mark G. and Moller, Iris (2017) Stormy geomorphology: geomorphic contributions in an age of climate extremes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 42 (1). pp. 166-190. ISSN 0197-9337 |
Projects
| Team Member | Project |
|---|---|
| Luca Mao | |
| Harriet Moore | |
| Mark Macklin | Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (New Zealand) Endeavour Fund award to Professor I C Fuller, Professor M G Macklin and Dr ST McColl for “Smarter Targeting of Erosion” $750,000 (New Zealand Dollars) |
| Dilkushi de Alwis Pitts | |
| Joseph Harwood | |
| Josephine Westlake | Improving flood risk assessment in the Yorkshire Ouse river using documentary and floodplain sedimentary archives (LCWPH-funded PhD studentship) |
Contact Us
Department of Geography, College of Health and Science
University of Lincoln, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7DW
Tel: +44(0)1522 835820