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Research group · ECS

Hydrology & Earth Surface Lab

Tracing water through landscapes and quantifying how climate, vegetation, and human activity shape the rivers, soils, and landforms that sustain ecosystems and societies.

Overview

The Hydrology & Earth Surface Lab investigates the coupled processes that govern water movement from precipitation to river discharge and groundwater recharge, the erosion and deposition of sediment that sculpt landscapes over decades to millennia, and the feedbacks between hydrology, vegetation, and the carbon cycle. The group applies a combination of field measurement, remote sensing, numerical simulation, and process-based statistical modelling to questions that range from flash-flood hazard in semi-arid catchments to long-term landscape evolution under tectonic and climatic forcing.

Field campaigns are a central feature of the group's identity. Members deploy wireless sensor networks for high-frequency soil moisture and stream-gauge monitoring, collect cosmogenic nuclide samples to date landform surfaces, and use ground-penetrating radar to characterise subsurface stratigraphy. These field datasets are integrated with satellite products (optical, SAR, and LiDAR-derived DEMs) and assimilated into spatially distributed hydrological models running on the Meridian HPC Cluster.

The group maintains active collaboration with the Atmospheric Dynamics Group on extreme precipitation and orographic effects, and with the Climate Informatics Group on downscaling precipitation projections to catchment scales. It contributes to Veyra's Contract Research & Consulting portfolio through commissioned hydrological assessments for infrastructure and water-resource clients.

Research themes

  • Catchment-scale water balance and streamflow generation mechanisms in diverse climates
  • Flash-flood hydrology in semi-arid and arid regions: prediction and hazard assessment
  • Fluvial geomorphology: bedload transport, channel incision, and alluvial fan dynamics
  • Cosmogenic nuclide dating of erosion rates and landscape evolution timescales
  • Hydrological consequences of forest disturbance, wildfire, and agricultural land use
  • Coupled vegetation-hydrology modelling for ecohydrological response to drought

Current projects

Active research programmes, 2024–2027

Project · VX-HES-01

FlashRisk: Flash-Flood Hazard Mapping in Arid Catchments

Deploying a network of 48 stream gauges and tipping-bucket rain gauges in three semi-arid catchments to characterise the rainfall-runoff response at sub-hourly resolution. Calibrates a distributed hydrological model capable of generating real-time probabilistic flood-extent maps from short-range rainfall forecasts.

Funding: VIAS Research Excellence Grant · 530,000 cr

Project · VX-HES-02

ErosionAge: Cosmogenic Nuclide Constraints on Drainage Basin Evolution

Measuring in-situ-produced ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al concentrations in river sand and bedrock samples from a series of tectonically active mountain ranges to reconstruct millennial-scale denudation rates and their sensitivity to climate oscillations. Combines field sampling with numerical landscape-evolution modelling.

Funding: External research consortium VX-GEO-22 · 410,000 cr

Project · VX-HES-03

EcoHydro: Vegetation-Hydrology Feedbacks under Drought Intensification

Using a coupled vegetation-hydrology model, eddy-covariance flux measurements, and SAR-derived soil moisture retrievals to quantify how progressive vegetation die-off during multi-year droughts alters catchment water yield and late-season low flows. Targets management-relevant thresholds for early warning systems.

Funding: VIAS–Industry Collaborative Fund · 280,000 cr

Selected publications

  • Whitlock C., Kaya N., Ström J. "Sub-hourly rainfall-runoff dynamics in ephemeral semi-arid catchments: a 48-gauge network study." VIAS Journal of Hydrology 612, 2024. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-4468
  • Whitlock C., Romero A. "Orographic precipitation gradients and their catchment-scale hydrological impacts." Veyra Hydrometeorology 23(7), 2023. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-4241
  • Ström J., Whitlock C. "Millennial-scale denudation rates from ¹⁰Be in three tectonically contrasting drainage basins." VIAS Earth and Planetary Science Letters 602, 2023. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-4093
  • Kaya N., Whitlock C. "Post-wildfire hydrological response: a review and framework for first-year runoff enhancement." VIAS Ecohydrology 15(4), 2022. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-3888
  • Whitlock C., Underhill S. "Coupling statistical downscaling with a distributed hydrological model to project 21st-century streamflow in mountain catchments." VIAS Climatic Change 169, 2021. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-3655
  • Ström J., Whitlock C. "Channel adjustment to episodic bedload pulses in a gravel-bed river: LiDAR survey and tracer-clast tracking." Veyra Geomorphology 388, 2020. DOI: 10.veyra/VX-3418

People

Group lead: Dr. Caius Whitlock · View all Veyra people

Postdoctoral researchers: Dr. Nilüfer Kaya, Dr. Jonas Ström.
PhD students: Abebe Girma, Valentina Moser, Saoirse Ní Fhaoláin, Tomasz Kwiatkowski, Rebeka Horváth, Arnav Mehta, Ines Correia.
Research staff: Dr. Björn Lindgren (field instrumentation), Amelia Rossi (GIS and remote sensing), Ekundayo Faleye (lab manager).

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