Dr. Andrew Nicholas from the University of Exeter (chaired by Katerina Michaelides)

The drainage basins of the world’s ten largest rivers amount to 17% of the global continental drainage area and deliver 33% of the sediment load transported to the oceans. The way in which such rivers convey their vast water and sediment loads is hugely important in controlling flooding, bank erosion, nutrient cycling, channel morphology and floodplain construction. However, despite the environmental, social and economic importance of such rivers, our present understanding of their functioning and potential responses to natural and anthropogenic perturbations is severely limited. Moreover, the world’s largest rivers display an astonishing variety of fluvial styles, which existing theory and observations fail to explain. This seminar examines the diversity of large rivers and seeks to evaluate the potential for using numerical models to simulate and understanding their morphology, deposits and evolution.

This event is free and open to all