Landscape development, hydrogeology and geohazards

Jonathan Paul

Linking mantle convection to geohazards and sustainable groundwater development

I am a geophysicist with particular interests in landscape development, hydrogeology, and geohazards. My current research focuses on (i) developing new ways of reducing risk and building resilience to landslides and flooding, by leveraging new technology and participatory monitoring (e.g. “citizen science”); (ii) understanding the ways in which sub-lithospheric mantle convection has an impact on the Earth’s surface (i.e. dynamic topography) and immediate sub-surface (such as the development and of naturally fractured aquifers).

I have focused on several field areas, including Nepal and Madagascar; current effort is devoted towards east Africa, at the intersection between spatiotemporal changes in mantle convection, groundwater resource management, and sustainable development.

Community-level water resources management in central Tanzania.
(a) Vulnerability and capacity assessment with local farmers.
(b) Surveying potential locations to install a weather station.
(c) Installation of an automatic tipping-bucket rain gauge to complement existing government network.
(d) Calculating river discharge by measuring river cross-section and flow.

Testing a low-cost, self-built lidar river level sensor (using the Arduino platform) on the River Thames

Dramatic incision of Ruvuma river catchment, east Africa, in response to surface uplift pulses that are governed by changes in sub-lithospheric mantle convection

References