Prospective Postgraduate Students

Research Interests

Sean's main area of research activity lies at the interface of Geography and Geology where he seeks to develop studies of contemporary geomorphological processes to enhance our ability to understand and reconstruct ancient environments.

At the University of Otago the glaciers and climate change research group has three primary foci:

• Understanding the thermal and mechanical processes that operate beneath glaciers;
• Understanding the behaviour of temperate glaciers in high energy alpine landscapes;
• Understanding the processes and postglacial of landscape development in alpine areas.
  

Student projects:

Projects suitable for student research include:

Landscape Development in South Westland

This research programmeis focussed on understanding how landscape development is driven by high magnitude storm events and co-seismic landsliding. The main approaches used in this work are analysis of the impacts of landsliding from aerial photographs and satellite images, using lake sediments are proxy records of catchment disturbance and monitoring the impacts of landsliding on alluvial fans and  rivers by conventional survey techniques. See Jamie Howarth's PhD page on this website for more information.

Determining sediment yields associated with disturbance events

In the 1980s the Waitangi-Toana River experienced a major avulsion and developed a new course which resulted in the river draining
 into Lake Wahapo. As a result of this avulsion Lake Wahapo changed from an organic-dominated lake to a turbid water body as millions of tons of sediment accumulated in the basin. We propose to use this event as a way of understanding how lakes record catchment disturbance events. The research will involve calculating a post-disturbance sediment budget for the lake using an echosounder to map the 3D geometry of the sediment and a Mackereth corer to retrieve samples of the lake sediment. This project would suit an MSc student interested in understanding landscape evolution processes.

Pollen signatures of disturbance events

Research on lake sediment cores from Lake Paringa in south Westland has identified a numbers of disturbance events which record episodes of accelerated erosion in the catchment. These sediments provide the opportunity to examine whether the vegetation in West Coast catchments changes as a result of landsliding forced by high maginitude rainfall or seismic shaking and whether such a record is preserved in lake sediments. The research will involve learning to identify pollen from the South Westland flora, sampling the sediment from the ake cores, processing the samples to extract pollen and examining changes in the pollen assemblages that may record disturbance events. This project would suit a person undertaking a BSc(Hons) project who is willing to learn new techniques and come to grips with understanding relationships between geomorphological change and vegetation.

Decision making for developments associated with environmental hazards

This potential project is based on the observation that in a series of recent development proposals the Environment Court has apparently overruled regional authorities and argued that the risks lie with the dwelling occupant and/or property developer. This project will involve an analysis of recent resource consent decisions in Otago that have been appealed and overturned by the Environment Court and interviews with key informants. The project would suit an MA, MPlan or MAppSc student interested in exploring the interactions between natural event systems and human use systems in the context of the RMA.

Glacier behaviour in New Zealand at the end of the Pleistocene

Recent developments in remote sensing technologies including high resolution satellite imagery such as QUICKBIRD and airborne LIDAR data have revealed new insights into the detail and complexity of environmental processes that are embedded in landforms. This imagery has provided exciting new perspectives on large Late Pleistocene moraines that formed at the margins of glaciers that flowed from the Southern Alps at the end of the last ice age. This study will be a remotely sensed-led investigation of features that formed as glaciers overwhelmed older outwash deposits. The study will be based on geomorphological mapping and sedimentological analysis of landforms supported by Ground Penetrating radar and detailed surveying. The project would suit an MSc student interested in harnessing new technologies to understand how glaciers modify landscapes.

Check out Glaciers@Otago

Research Interests

These are in the general field of environmental planning, notably:

• Planning for the natural environment; biodiversity and conservation planning, open space planning.
• Planning with children; children and young people's participation in planning and the environment and environmental education and
• Sustainable settlements; focusing on community planning and planning for the natural urban environment

Recent research projects undertaken, which include work in all the above areas, are as follows:

• Planning with children. A joint research project with the University of Auckland. The project explains the extent to which the ways that local authority planning departments in New Zealand involve children and young people in the planning process.
• Dunedin open space mapping project involves mapping the distribution and key habitat types characteristic of Dunedin City's open space resource.
• Sustainable settlements; this project, undertaken with Michelle Thompson-Fawcett, looks at developing sustainable communities in New Zealand. The first co-edited book Living Space (2003) focused on sustainable settlement. The second, Living Together (in press), focuses on developing more inclusive communities.

Research Interests

Tony’s doctoral research in 1974 was on the relationships between rural development and diamond mining in Sierra Leone, since when he has travelled and researched extensively throughout Africa. His research is mainly concerned with resource development and poverty alleviation, with particular reference to the dynamics of indigenous farming, pastoral and fishing food production systems. His recent work has focused on community-based development initiatives in South Africa, post-war community reconstruction in Sierra Leone and urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and Vietnam. He was instrumental in establishing three British Council sponsored higher education links with Bayero University, Kano, (Nigeria), Rhodes University, Grahamstown, (South Africa), and Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. These links provided opportunities for academic exchanges, collaborative research and writing, and valuable support for research students. He has also travelled widely through China and has developed numerous academic links. Tony has an active research interest in the teaching of geography and development education in schools and higher education, which developed during his fifteen years as Curriculum Tutor in Geography on the Sussex Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme.  Since moving to Otago, he co-founded in January 2005 with Philip Nel (Politics, Otago) the Otago-based ‘Poverty, Inequality and Development’ (PID) Research Cluster, which is now a well-developed multi-disciplinary network of academics and postgraduates across the University of Otago, and holds regular meetings and workshops on varied research themes.  During 2006, Tony was invited by the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission to serve as a member of the ‘Social Sciences and Other Cultural/Social Sciences’ Panel for the Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) Quality Evaluation Exercise. He served again on the PBRF Panel during 2012. In 2010, Tony was invited to join the Social Sciences Advisory Panel of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Research Interests

My core research interests are the understanding and management of human impacts on environmental systems, especially soils and vegetation.  I also have a strong interest in impact assessment, a fundamental environmental management tool.

The following issues or areas of interest are indicative: some might be developed as PhD topics, others are more specific and could be Masters or Hionours dissertation topics.  I'm happy to discuss any of these, or related topics, with prospective students.

Impact assessment (IA)

[this terms covers what is often called environmental impact assessment, but also includes more targeted forms such as health IA, ecological, IA, social IA, cultural IA, strategic environmental assessment, and so forth]

The role of the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in impact assessment processes.

What is an "adequate" assessment of environmental effects under the RMA?

What is the current status of: social impact assessment/ ecological impact assessment/ cultural impact assessment in New Zealand?

Are recent changes to the RMA endangering the impact assessment process?

Exploring the potential to use strategic environmental assessment under the Local Government Act.

How is health impact assessment being used in New Zealand?

The evolution of regulatory impact assessment in New Zealand.

The potential role of regulatory impact assessment as a form of SEA.

How effective is IA in the Pacific Island countries?

Adapting IA to Pacific Island needs and capacities.

Environmental management and communities

Using 1000Minds software to explore "valued environmental components" as a basis for regional environmental management and planning.

Role of communities in decision-making about environmental and planning issues.

Land use impacts on soil and related systems

Sources, and implications for terrestrial ecology, of heavy metals in soils of rural and urban environments: agricultural processes; timber treatment facilities; use of treated timber; playground equipment; automotive sources; diffuse aerial sources, etc.

Assessing childrens' exposure to heavy metals in play environments in urban areas

Copper accumulation in the soils of vineyards, orchards, and similar land uses sprayed with copper fungicides; the implications for soil health; implications for future land use change.

Assessing the legacy of past heavy metal contamination of orchards and horticultural areas in Central Otago.

Sulphur use in vineyards, and possible impacts on soil

Agriculture and forestry: nutrient changes, nitrate leaching from agricultural land, etc.

Ecology and dynamics of modified vegetation and introduced species

Thyme in Central Otago: helping or hindering rehabilitation of degraded landscapes?

Weed ecology in degraded or modified landscapes

"Tor ecology": microhabitats associated with tor outcrops; tors as safe sites for native vegetation

Forest dynamics and regeneration processes, in relation to human activities.

Research Interests

Etienne's research interests are as follows:

• Local Economic Development
• Urban Entrepreneurialism
• Community Economic Development
• Small Towns
• Economic Policy
• Marginal Regions
• Regional Development

Research Interests

Michelle's main areas of research interest lie in the exploration of contemporary approaches to planning and environmental management, in particular

• Innovations towards the sustainable management of urban form (with a focus on Britain, North America and New Zealand), including developments in sustainable settlements and urban growth management.
• The interface between iwi and planning authority resource management processes and strategies.
• The efforts of local government in urban and regional development and regeneration in Britain and New Zealand.

Research Interests

Nicolas' research interests are in all aspects of meteorology and climatology. The study of the atmosphere inevitably involves an understanding of other components of the global environment, which for Nicolas has been primarily the cryosphere.  Much of his research has focused on the interactions of the atmosphere with snow and ice surfaces in the high and mid-latitudes, as well as on a number of high mountains in the tropics (e.g. Kilimanjaro). Nicolas is also interested in the impacts of atmospheric processes on human behaviour, in particular air pollution meteorology, utilizing wind for energy through turbine development and issues related to climate change on local to global scales.  The research that Nicolas undertakes is dependent on a combination of field data, remote sensing observations and modelling.

Research Interests

South Asia (especially India)

Geopolitics and Transboundary Water Resources

Migrant labour

Ports, labour Restructuring and Maritime Trade

Rural Development and participatory governance in West Bengal

Urban transformation and Socio-Spatial segregation in India's megacities

Research Interests

(1) the geomorphology,ecology and management of sandy coasts, with a particular interest in:

• sand dune geomorphology;
• the dispersal, invasion and impact of European dune plants in the temperate dune systems of southeast Australia and southern New Zealand (particularly marram grass, sea wheat-grass, pyp grass and sea spurge) ;
• invasive species management and eradication in dune systems;

(2) processes of coastal management, including:

• coastal planning;
• coastal monitoring;
• conservation management; and
• coastal mining.

Research Interests

My research deals with the development of rocky shorelines and shore platforms. Understanding how contemporary processes operate to form shore platforms continues to be a key area of research. Recent work has focused on how geological setting influences morphology, erosion rates and processes on rock coasts.  This continues as a collaborative project with Dr Larissa Naylor (University of Exeter), we are working on the Glamorgan coast of south Wales, UK.  An extension of that work includes understanding the impact of storms on rock coasts and in particular the erosion and transport of boulders.   Currently I co-chair the International Association of Geomorphologists working group on Rock Coasts (contact me if you would like to join the group).

I have a broad interest in contemporary processes causing the development of coastlines. Other research has focused on rip currents and beach morphodynamics in fetch limited environments; rock weathering in coastal environments (collaboratively with Drs Lluis Gómez-Pujol and Joan Fornós, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain).  I work collaboratively in China where I am involved in a project examining the morphodynamic response of beaches to typhoon with Professor Zongyuan Chen of East China Normal University.

Further research and consultancy work has included the investigation of shoreline processes on lakes and lacustrine management. I have acted as a scientific advisory to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and for 9 years monitored shoreline response to lake operations at Lake Victoria (NSW).

My interests in coastal management includes erosion and hazard mitigation and conservation of coastal environments. I regularly provide coastal management advice to communities, councils and government. Consulting usually takes the form of hazard assessment, expert witness in planning tribunals, technical reviews, and environmental impact assessments.

 Student Projects

I am happy to supervise any student with an interest in coastal geomorphology, coastal processes, management and hazards.

Possible topics include (not exclusively):

Relative role of waves and weathering on shore platforms

Assessing erosion rates on rock coasts with a multiple scale approach (from microns to metres)

Rock weathering in coastal and terrestrial environments using field and laboratory approaches

Beach morphodynamics particularly in fetch limited environemnts (lakes and estuaries)

Geological control of rock coast evolution

Boulder transport by storm waves and tsunami

Testing the vulnerability of rock coasts to climate change, challenging assumptions about low vulnerability

Research Interests

My research interests lie in the field of hydroclimatology, and particularly in understanding large-scale climate variation and how this is linked to changes in river flow. I have worked both to develop better understanding of how present day climate variation leads to changes in river flow, and of the uncertainty associated with how river flow may respond under scenarios of climate change. This has involved:

(i) statistical analyses of historical river flow variation, with particular focus on the North Atlantic region, the role of atmospheric circulation patterns such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the combined ocean-atmosphere conditions than can lead to the development of hydrological drought

(i) offline coupling of catchment-scale hydrological models with climate model output, focussing on understanding the role of emissions, climate model and hydrological model-based uncertainty in shaping projections of 21st century hydrological change and associated implications for water resources. These interests have largely been pursued through the Global Scale Impacts of Climate Change project within the NERC-funded QUEST programme.

I would welcome inquiries from any student interested in topics based on investigating the link between climate variation and river flow, including either/or present day climate variation or projections of climate change, and particularly the development of hydrological drought. Specific projects that I am hoping to develop include:

- Uncertainty in potential evapotranspiration under climate change

- Spatial variability in the climate of Dunedin & links to large-scale climate

- Impacts of climate change on the Tonle Sap system in the Mekong river basin

- Hydroclimatological teleconnections across the North Atlantic region and predictability of river flow

Research Interests

I am interested in the following fields:

• Glaciology: My interests are in the fields of basal ice formation, regelation and sediment accretion in polar glaciers in Antarctica. My approach is to use stable isotope and solute geochemistry to inform basal ice processes. I am also interested in using traditional glaciological techniques to the field of ice accretion and the role of anchor ice (and sea ice) in sediment entrainment. I am a member of the International Glaciology Society (IGS) and involved in the local IGS branch Snow and Ice Research Group (SIRG), as well as part of the University of Otago's Polar Research Themes.
  
• Geomorphology:  My interests are in the role that glaciers have in landscape evolution in both temperate (NZ) and polar (Antarctica) environments, in particular, challenging the assumption that erosion and entrainment does not occur in subzero conditions.
• Palaeoclimatology: I am interested in landform construction during the Quaternary and employing sedimentological reconstruction techniques to understand past processes.
• Chemical Weathering: I am interested in the role that chemical weathering plays in alpine environments, stemming from my research in basal ice processes in polar regions, and expanding into contemporary weathering processes in active mountain belts.
• Water Quality: Understanding the geomorphological controls on the release and mobilization of solutes into waterways, and the importance of storm flow events on water chemistry.

I have several student projects that I am interested in supervising, including:

1. Origin of recharge to the Copeland Spring and it interaction of surface and subsurface flows;
2. Influence of riverine carbon load on a West Coast Lake;
3. Contribution of event flow to nutrient and sediment load on a West Coast Lake;
4. Silica flux in the eastern Southern Alps;
5. Impact of glaciation on silica production in the eastern Southern Alps;
6. Influence of precipitation on silica production in the Southern Alps;
7. Geomorphological controls on nutrient mobilization;
8. Meta-data analysis of the frequency and magnitude of high flow events on the West Coast.

Research Interests

My current research concerns environmental learning in colonial New Zealand and the environmental and ecological transformation of this country's extensive tussock grasslands with the aid of introduced plants and animals.

Those interests are reflected in my recent publications.

Research Interests

John's current research interests include a wide range of topics in environmental management and sustainable development fields.