Dr Georgie Bennett
Associate Professor in Physical Geography
G.L.Bennett@exeter.ac.uk
01392 72 5866
Amory D439b
Amory Building, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ , UK
Overview
I am a geomorphologist using a combination of remote sensing, environmental sensor networks, and numerical modeling to investigate earth surface dynamics and hazards, predominantly in mountainous regions. I am the 2020 EGU Outstanding Early Career Scientist in Geomorphology.
My passion for geomorphology really started during a BSc and MSc in Geography at Durham University, where I studied glacial landsystems and paraglacial dynamics in Iceland with Dave Evans. In 2009 I moved to Switzerland to do my PhD with Peter Molnar at ETH Zurich. My PhD research focused on landslide and debris flow processes in a Swiss alpine catchment and culminated in a new model, SedCas, now being applied in other catchments to model sediment cascades and debris flow hazard. Following my PhD, I moved to the USA where I worked with Josh Roering at the University of Oregon on longer term landscape evolution in northern California and particularly the role of slow moving landslides. In a second postdoc at the US Forest Service and Colorado State University (2015 – 2016), I investigated the response of catchments in the Colorado Front Range to an extreme flood event and learned a lot about fluvial geomorphology whilst roaming around the Rockies with Sandra Ryan and Sara Rathburn.
I returned to the UK in 2017 as Lecturer in Physical Geography of Natural Hazards at UEA where I took advantage of the rich, interdisciplinary nature of the School of Environmental Sciences and started to build a research group. Since late 2019, I am a Lecturer and now Associate Professor in Physical Geography at the University of Exeter. I am currently a Co I on EXCESS: the role of excess topography and peak ground acceleration on earthquake preconditioning of landslides, SUPERSLUG: Deconstructing sediment superslugs as a legacy of extreme flows and on EvoFlood: The Evolution of Global Flood Hazard and Risk. I was previously PI on SENSUM: Smart SENSing of landscapes Undergoing hazardous hydrogeologic Movement; PI on BOULDER, investigating boulder hazard cascades in Nepal, and SCaRP, investigating cascading landslide hazards in the Philippines and a Co I on Project GLOP investigating glacial lake outburst hazard in Peru. You can read more about these projects and my geomorphology group at my external website.
Broad research specialisms:
Mountain and Coastal Geomorphology, Landslide hazards, Environmental Sensors and Remote Sensing
Qualifications
PhD in Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
BSc and MSc in Geography, Durham University
Links
Research group links
Research
Research interests
My Landslides Group at the University of Exeter studies earth-surface dynamics, hazards and sediment cascades predominantly in mountain landscapes. We use a range of techniques to quantify and monitor earth surface processes operating in these landscapes including remote sensing to detect landslides and passive and active sensors to track bedload transport in rivers. We are also actively developing spatially lumped, probabilistic models for simulating mountain basin sediment cascades and hazards. We are particularly interested in the response of landscapes to disturbances, whether that be a single extreme flood, an earthquake or longer-term climate change. We aim to both further understanding of earth surface processes and hazards and produce impactful research to enhance resilience to natural hazards. To that end, much of our research is based in developing countries, where populations are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards (e.g. past SCaRP and BOULDER projects and current EXCESS and SUPERSLUG projects).
Research projects
Current projects
EXCESS: the role of excess topography and peak ground acceleration on earthquake
preconditioning of landslides (NERC PtF, PI Sarah Boulton, Uni Plymouth) Co I
SUPERSLUG: Deconstructing sediment superslugs as a legacy of extreme flows (NERC PtF, PI Matt Westoby, Uni Plymouth) Co I
Tracking sediment waves through Himalayan fluvial cascades following extreme debris flows (NERC Seedcorn, PI Matt Westoby, Uni Plymouth) Co I
EvoFlood: The Evolution of Global Flood Hazard and Risk, (NERC Large Grant, PI Dan Parsons) CoI
Past projects
SENSUM: Smart SENSing of landscapes Undergoing hazardous hydrogeomorphic Movement, PI
BOULDER: Accounting for BOUlders in Landslide-flood Disaster Evaluation and Resilience, PI
SCaRP: Simulating Cascading Rainfall-triggered landslide hazards in the Philippines, PI
GLOP: Glacial Lake Outburst floods in Peru, CoI
Research grants
- 2024 NERC Std Grant
SUPERSLUG: Deconstructing sediment superslugs as a legacy of extreme flows - 2023 NERC Std Grant
EXCESS: the role of excess topography and peak ground acceleration on earthquake preconditioning of landslides - 2021 NERC
EvoFlood: Evolution of Global Flood Hazard and Risk - 2020 NERC
SENSUM: smart SENSing of landscapes Undergoing hazardous hydrogeologic Movement - 2019 NERC Newton Agham
SCaRP: Simulating Cascading Rainfall-triggered landslide hazards in the Philippines - 2018 NERC
BOULDER: Accounting for BOUlders in Landslide-flood Disaster Evaluation and Resilience - 2018 NERC
Project GLOP: Glacial lakes in Peru: Evolution, Hazards and impacts of climate change - 0 NERC
Tracking sediment waves through Himalayan fluvial cascades following extreme mass flows
Publications
Journal articles
Conferences
External Engagement and Impact
Awards
EGU 2020 Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award in Geomorphology
Teaching
I convene and teach part of GEO2233 Landscape Response to Environmental Change: from Source to Sink and contribute to GEO2334 Research Design in Physical Geography and GEO3321 BSc DissertationI also teach on the new GIS MSc at Exeter. I convene GEOM185 Applied Project (Academic) and contribute to GEOM183 Spatial Data Science.
I supervise dissertations mainly on topics related to landslide hazards and coastal erosion.
At UEA in my past lectureship, I contributed to modules on Geohazards, Geomorphology and Research Topics in Earth Science.
Modules
2023/24
- GEO2233 - Landscape Response to Environmental Change: from Source to Sink
- GEOM185 - Applied Project (Academic)
Supervision / Group
Postdoctoral researchers
- Martina Egedusevic
- Kyle Roskilly
- Ellie Vahidi
- Jo Wood
Postgraduate researchers
- Kate Newby
Alumni
- Claudia Abanco
- James Christie
- Miles Clark
- Benedetta Dini
- Joshua Jones
- Diego Panici
- Serena Teasdale
Office Hours:
Term 3. 2023/2024-
Office hours in Amory D439b or on Teams*:
Wednesdays 10.00 - 11.00. Please book a 15 minute slot here*
Thursday 10.00 - 11.00. Please book at 15 minute slot here*
*I will assume you are coming in person, but if you would like to meet online, just send me an email and I will send you a Teams link.