Skip to main content
Overview

Professor Jeff Warburton

Professor


Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Professor in the Department of GeographyS103+44 (0) 191 33 41952
Professor , Catchments and RiversS103+44 (0) 191 33 41952
Professor , Hazards and Surface ChangeS103+44 (0) 191 33 41952

Biography

My research is concerned primarily with fluvial geomorphology, sediment budgets, shallow landslides, mountain sediment systems and geocryology. Work is in progress on sediment transfer processes in upland and mountain streams in northern England. This research is closely allied to investigations of upland peat erosion. Particular emphasis is placed on the transport of peat blocks, mass movements and wind erosion of bare peat. Interest in peat mass movemnts is part of a wider interet in shallow landslides in upland areas. Current investigations into geocryology are focussed on characterising upland frost climates and process monitoring of active frost-sorted patterned ground. I have a continued interest in hydraulic modelling of braided gravel-bed rivers and geomorphological laboratory experiments. As part of a more general interest in sediment transfer and the geomorphology of coarse-bed mountain streams and upland bedrock rivers. I am involved in several longer-term projects in Colorado and New Zealand. I have served on the Executive Committee of the British Geomorphological Research Group and together with Dave Higgitt I was Joint-Chair of the BGRG Working Group on Upland Sediment Budgets. In 2000 I was made a Millennium fellow for my work on 'Understanding the Landscape of the North Pennines'.

Research interests

  • geomorphology of braided rivers and mountain streams
  • mountain sediment systems
  • geocryology
  • experimental geomorphology

Research Projects

  • Accelerated Upland Erosion Following Recent Wildfire Damage, Northern Lake District
  • Landslide Assessment and Flood Erosion Risk from the North Yorkshire Floods
  • Microscale Modelling of Debris Flow Super Elevation
  • Peat Mass Movements and Geomorphological Impacts of Extreme Rainfall

Awarded Grants

  • 2013: Sediment fingerprinting of the incoming stream(s) and lake sediment at Buttermere SSSI(£19650.30 from Natural England)
  • 2012: Patterns of soil instability and sediment delivery from Red House Gill, Durham(£9328.00 from Environment Agency)
  • 2010: Immediate geomorphological impact and fluvial system response to the Cumbria floods November 2009(£31401.13 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2010: Peat bog restoration: erosion and sediment...(£14450.00 from North Pennines AONB Partnership)
  • 2009: Quantitative comparison of slope and river sediment dynamics(£10978.01 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2008: SIGNIFICANCE OF MACROSCALE PEAT FLUX(£28821.26 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2006: BASSENTHWAITE LAKE FLUVIAL SEDIMENT(£5000.00 from Environment Agency)
  • 2005: ASSESSMENT OF SPATIAL CONTROLS(£24188.79 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2003: ACCELERATED UPLAND EROSION(£18333.01 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2003: PEAT MASS MOVEMENTS(£13854.60 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2002: INVESTIGATION INTO ENTRAINMENT LARGE PEAT BLOCKS(£1227.00 from The Nuffield Foundation)
  • 2002: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SHEEP GRAZING PRESSURE(£2000.00 from The Yorkshire Agricultural Society)
  • 1999: EROSION OF UPLAND PEAT BY WIND(£7379.00 from The Royal Society)
  • 1998: EVOLUTION OF THE NORTH PENNINES(£5757.00 from The Royal Society)

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Earth Sciences: Damage caused by flooding and landslides in mounatain areas, particularly the UK
  • Geography: Damage caused by flooding and landslides in mounatain areas, particularly the UK
  • Environmental change: Damage caused by flooding and landslides in mounatain areas, particularly the UK
  • Landscape systems: Damage caused by flooding and landslides in mounatain areas, particularly the UK
  • Environment: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands
  • Landscape & buildings: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands
  • Weather & climate: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands
  • Geography: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands
  • Environmental change: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands
  • Landscape systems: Peat erosion and recent environmental change in the uplands

Publications

Authored book

  • Evans, M. & Warburton, J. (2007). The Geomorphology of Upland Peat: Erosion, Form and Landscape Change. London.: Blackwell Publishing.

Chapter in book

  • Warburton, Jeff (2021). Peat landslides. In Landslide Hazards, Risks, and Disasters. Davies, Tim & Rosser, Nick Elsevier. 165-198.
  • Warburton, J. (2020). Peat hazards: compression and failure. In Geological hazards in the UK: their occurrence, monitoring and mitigation. Giles, D.P. & Griffiths, J.S. London: Geological Society. 29: 243-257.
  • Harrington, Laura & Warburton, Jeff (2018). A Snapshot in Time: The Dynamic and Ephemeral Structure of Peatland Soils. In Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene. Toland, Alexandra Stratton Noller, Jay & Wessolek, Gerd Boca Raton: CRC Press. 199-209.
  • Warburton, J. (2006). Mountain Environments. In Environmental Sedimentology. Perry, C. & Taylor, K. Oxford: Blackwell. 32-74.
  • J. Warburton (2004). First order streams. In Encyclopedia of Geomorphology. A. Goudie Routledge. 1: 370-372.
  • J. Warburton (2004). Contributing Areas. In Encyclopedia of Geomorphology. A. Goudie Routledge. 1: 185-188.
  • V.J. Holliday, D.L. Higgitt, J. Warburton & S. White (2003). Reconstructing upland sediment budgets in ungauged catchments from reservoir sedimentation and rainfall records calibrated using short-term streamflow monitoring. In Erosion prediction in ungauged basins: integrating methods and techniques. de Boer, Dirk 279: 59-67.
  • R.M. Johnson & J. Warburton (2003). Regional assessment of contemporary debris flow activity in Lake District mountain catchments, north England: occurrence, scale and process. In Debris-flow Hazards Mitigation: Mechanics, Predication and Assessment. D. Rickenmann & G.L. Chen Millpress. 965-976.
  • Danks, M. & Warburton, J. (2002). Historical river channel change - Swinhope Burn, Upper Weardale. In The British Uplands: Dynamics of Change. Burt, T.P., Thompson, D.B.A. & Warburton, J. JNCC. 125-126.
  • A. Mills, J. Warburton & D.L. Higgitt (2002). Peat mass movements: a World and regional database. In The British Uplands: Dynamics of Change. T.P. Burt, D.B.A. Thompson & J. Warburton JNCC. 166-167.
  • Higgitt, D.L. & Warburton, J. (2002). GPS: A tool for mapping the uplands. In The British Uplands: Dynamics of Change. Burt, T.P., Thompson, D.B.A. & Warburton, J. JNCC. 134-135.
  • Burt, T.P., Warburton, J. & Allison, R.J. (2002). Eroding upland landscapes? Past, present and future perspectives. In The British Uplands: Dynamics of change. Burt, T.P., Thompson, D.B.A. & Warburton, J. Peterborough.: JNCC. 319: 60-66.
  • Johnson, R.M., Warburton, J. & Burt, T.P. (2002). Torrent erosion in Lake District mountain cathments. In The British Uplands: Dynamics of Change. Burt, T.P., Thompson, D.B.A. & Warburton, J. Peterborough.: JNCC. 319: 139-140.
  • Macklin, M., Maas, G., Warburton, J., Woodward, J., Meldrum, E. & Preston, D. (2001). Una historia de la formacion de los paisajes de Tarija. In Historia, Ambientey Sociedad en Tarija, Bolivia. Beck, S., Paniagua, N. & Preston, D. 1-7.
  • J. Warburton, G. Marrs, M. Macklin, J. Woodward & E. Meldrum (2001). A 300 year history of flooding in an Andean mountain river system: the Rio Alizos, Southern Bolivia. In River Basin Sediment Systems: Archives of Environmental Change. D. Maddy, M. Macklin & J. Woodard Balkema. 297-323.
  • Higgitt, D. L., Warburton, J. & Evans, M. (2001). Sediment transfer in upland environments. In Geomorphological Processes and Landscape Change: Britain in the Last 1000 years. Higgitt, D. L. & Lee, E. Blackwell. of 190-214.

Conference Proceeding

  • Johnson, R. & Warburton, J. (2006). Episodic discharge of coarse sediment in a mountain torrent. Sediment Dynamics and the Hydromorphology of Fluvial Systems, Dundee., IAHS.

Journal Article

Report

  • Beylich, A.A. & Warburton, J. (2007). Analysis of Source-to-Sink-Fluxes and Sediment Budgets in Changing High-Latitude and High-Altitude Cold Environments: SEDIFLUX Manual.
  • Burt, T.P., Thompson, D.B.A. & Warburton, J. (2002). The British Uplands: Dynamics of Change. JNCC Report 319. Peterborough, UK, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Supervision students