Water management relies on knowing how much water a river system can convey or store, yet flood and drought models routinely treat channel geometry as fixed. In reality, erosion during high flow and deposition during low flow continuously reshape the channel and floodplain, altering the hydraulic regime and the resulting capacity of the system to carry or store water.
This matters at national scale. Over 40% of the UK’s ~1,600 NRFA streamflow stations use the velocity-area method, which assumes a static cross-section to convert water level into discharge. Recent research has shown that sediment-driven channel infill can increase flood inundation volume (e.g., Santos et al., 2026; Wolstenholme et al., 2025; Thapa et al., 2024), and comparable sediment-flood amplification has since been documented in the 2024 Spain and 2021 Germany floods. Despite this, monitoring cross-sections continue to be treated as static, introducing systematic, unquantified error into both flood and drought severity estimates. Over half of velocity-area stations sit in catchments with high sediment mobility, yet current practice relies on reactive boat-mounted surveys after an event that are unable to resolve how the channel changed during it.
As climate change drives more frequent and severe hydrological extremes, this blind spot becomes increasingly costly. This PhD addresses it by pioneering low-cost sensing techniques (including bridge-mounted, bed-angled sensors and uncrewed aerial vehicles) to capture bathymetric change throughout the seasonal water cycle, working in partnership with the Floods & Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) project. Using the Upper Tweed (Scotland) as a primary field site, with comparative work on the River Soar, the project will establish whether emerging sensor configurations can resolve cross-section change at the resolution required for operational forecasting and define the thresholds at which ignoring that change materially distorts flood and drought predictions. The findings will directly inform how FDRI and arms-length bodies like the Environment Agency instrument future monitoring networks, supporting the shift from static to dynamic flood risk assessment.
Figure 1: NRFA station discharge calculation approaches (left). VA NRFA station locations (right). Colour in both panels represents potential sediment mobility score where 1 = low and 5 = high.
This project does not offer a CASE studentship
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The project follows a staged approach linking sensor development to network-scale forecasting implications.
DRs will be awarded CENTA Training Credits (CTCs) for participation in CENTA-provided and ‘free choice’ external training. One CTC can be earned per 3 hours training, and DRs must accrue 100 CTCs across the three and a half years of their PhD.
This research project provides comprehensive training in Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) deployment and processing, for measuring flow velocity and channel bathymetry in the field. Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operation and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry will provide skills in high-resolution topographic surveying. Training in hydraulic and hydrodynamic numerical modelling will equip the student to translate site-level observations into network-scale forecasting insight. Alongside these technical skills, the successful applicant will gain experience working directly with FDRI, building science-policy communication skills, and training in FAIR data management through deposition of outputs with the CEH Environmental Information Data Centre.
Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI)
This is a CASE studentship in partnership with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH). Nick Everard (UKCEH) will co-supervise the project, bringing expertise in hydrometric monitoring and operational data infrastructure. The student will also work closely with the Floods & Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) project throughout, gaining access to monitoring infrastructure and observatory sites on the River Soar and Upper Tweed. Engagement with the Environment Agency and SEPA is anticipated as findings develop, offering a route to embed results directly into UK flood and drought forecasting practice.
Year 1: Fundamental research skills training will include a comprehensive literature review, alongside hands-on training in Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) deployment and processing, and UAV/Structure-from-Motion survey techniques. Sensor testing and calibration will be conducted on the River Soar, benchmarked against reference profiling surveys, to validate the sensing configuration ahead of full field deployment.
Year 2: The refined sensor configuration will be deployed at a velocity-area monitoring station on the Upper Tweed, in partnership with the Floods & Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI), to capture continuous bed-level and cross-section change across a full seasonal cycle. Comparative monitoring will continue on the River Soar, and training in hydraulic and hydrodynamic numerical modelling will be undertaken alongside fieldwork.
Year 3: Observed cross-section variability from both sites will be propagated through stage–discharge rating curves to quantify resulting discharge error, and numerical modelling will extend these relationships across the wider velocity-area network to identify stations most exposed to sediment-driven forecasting error. The final year will focus on in-depth analysis of results, dissemination, and thesis write-up.
Santos, B., Yanites, B., DeLisle, C., Chuang, R., & Lin, Y. (2026). Extreme events reshape flood hazards through sediment-induced channel change in southern Taiwan. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2026GL122788. https://doi.org/10.1029/2026GL122788
Thapa, S., Sinclair, H. D., Creed, M. J., Borthwick, A. G. L., Watson, C. S., & Muthusamy, M. (2024). Sediment transport and flood risk: Impact of newly constructed embankments on river morphology and flood dynamics in Kathmandu, Nepal. Water Resources Research, 60, e2024WR037742. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR037742
Wolstenholme, J.M., Skinner, C.J., Hackney, C., Perks, M., and Parsons, D.R. (2025). ‘Flood hazard amplification by intra-event sediment transport’, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5554547/v1]
For informal inquiries about this project, please email Dr Josh Wolstenholme ([email protected]).
To apply to this project:
Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 6th January 2027.