Staff profile

Sim Reaney’s research is centred on the movement of water through the landscape and the representation of these hydrological processes within both simulation models and geospatial analysis. His work includes the impact of diffuse pollution from the landscape on water quality, catchment hydrological processes and working with natural processes approaches to flood risk management. The connection between these different areas of work is the concept of hydrological connectivity. The testing and representation of how different parts of the landscape connect via hydrological pathways is key to the understanding of these different environmental pressures.

The importance of hydrological connectivity is embedded within the SCIMAP diffuse pollution risk mapping toolset. SCIMAP uses geospatial analysis to map source areas for sediments, nutrients and microbial pollution to enable effective catchment management. In this analysis, SCIMAP calculates detailed connectivity and source maps at the landscape extent with sub field detail. The SCIMAP water quality work spans sediment, nutrients (N and P), microbial pollution and flood risk. The approach has been widely adopted within the UK and overseas and is supported by a series of user group meetings.

Sim Reaney designed and developed the CRUM3 catchment model that has been used to research how geomorphology and rainfall patterns lead to the connection and disconnection of different parts of the landscape. This model has been used to represent how natural flood risk management mitigation schemes disconnect surface water flows that least to flood events. The model has also been used to represent how projected climate change may affect river flows and how the changing climate may affect the strength of the hydrological connectivity. Research projects, government agencies and industry have used either the model directly or predictions from the model to inform decision making.

Sim Reaney is currently working on the measurement and modelling of flood risk in Java, Indonesia, and in Nepal and refining approach to landscape managmeent within the UK. He is supervising postgraduate research on flood risk reduction in Nepal and Java and on water quality modelling in the UK. He is applying detailed drone mapping to produce fine-scale topographic maps that capture small scale features in the landscape that effect the generation and export of diffuse pressures. He is teaching on hydrological processes, catchment management and simulation modelling of catchment hydrology and flood risk. More details of his work are on his website and Twitter. 

• Minimal complexity approaches to environmental problems
• Catchment based hydrological modelling
• Connectivity of environmental flows
• Flood hazards
• Agricultural diffuse (non point) pollution - N, P and fine sediment
• Physical hydrological processes

• Catchments and Rivers
• Institute of Hazard, Risk & Resilience (IHRR)

• Built Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC)
• Built Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC)
• Risk-Based Modelling of Diffuse Agricultural Pollution

• SCIMAP Project Website

• 2019: EA Land Use Change 2018(£33050.00 from Environmental Agency)
• 2018: Eden DTC Phase III(£16343.14 from )
• 2018: NERC Indonesia - Java Flood One(£24732.56 from Natural Environmental Research Council)
• 2018: Would It Be Feasible To Migrate Nitrate Losses Under Climate Change And Land-use Change?(£0.00 from )
• 2017: Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk: transition to a user-ready toolkit (ViPER II)(£5668.00 from Natural Environmental Research Council)
• 2015: Demonstration tests catchment River Eden Phase 2(£132141.00 from DEFRA)
• 2014: A Catchment Based Approach to Flood Risk Management in the Roe Beck Catchment, Cumbria(£7996.00 from Eden Rivers Trust)
• 2014: Development of Effective Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction using Natural Techniques on Tutta Beck, County Durham(£10000.00 from Tees Rivers Trust)
• 2014: Pathogen Risks in Agricultural Catchments: Towards International Collaboration And Learning in Modelling (PRACTICAL Modelling)(£5958.00 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
• 2011: Pilot Virtual Observatory(£16118.00 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
• 2011: Spatially Targeted and Coordinated Regulation of Agricultural Externalities: An Economic Perspective(£19915.78 from ESRC)
• 2009: The River Eden Consortium design and implementation of monitoring approach at catchment scale and development of catchment conceptual model(£324447.06 from DEFRA)

Available for media contact about:

• Plants & agriculture: Flooding, water quality, diffuse pollution and environmental simulation modelling
• Pollution: Flooding, water quality, diffuse pollution and environmental simulation modelling
• Weather & climate: Flooding, water quality, diffuse pollution and environmental simulation modelling
• Environmental change: Flooding, water quality, diffuse pollution and environmental simulation modelling
• Landscape systems: Flooding, water quality, diffuse pollution and environmental simulation modelling

Journal Article

• Rahayu, Rahmawati, Mathias, Simon A., Reaney, Sim, Vesuviano, Gianni, Suwerman, Rusmawan & Ramdhan, Agus M. (2023). Impact of land cover, rainfall and topography on flood risk in West Java. Natural Hazards 116(2): 1735–1758.
• Pearson, C. J., Reaney, S. M., Perks, M. T., Hortobagyi, B., Rosser, N. J. & Large, A. R. G. (2022). Identification of floodwater source areas in Nepal using SCIMAP‐Flood. Journal of Flood Risk Management 15(4): e12840.
• Lashford, Craig, Lavers, Tom, Reaney, Sim, Charlesworth, Susanne, Burgess-Gamble, Lydia & Dale, Jonathan (2022). Sustainable Catchment-Wide Flood Management: A Review of the Terminology and Application of Sustainable Catchment Flood Management Techniques in the UK. Water 14(8): 1204.
• Reaney, Sim M. (2022). Spatial targeting of nature‐based solutions for flood risk management within river catchments. Journal of Flood Risk Management 15(3): e12803.
• Mathias, Simon A., Reaney, Sim M. & Kenabatho, Piet K. (2021). Transmission loss estimation for ephemeral sand rivers in Southern Africa. Journal of Hydrology 600: 126487.
• Sinha, Pammi, Rollason, Edward, Louise, J. Bracken, Wainwright, John & Reaney, M. Sim (2020). A new framework for integrated, holistic, and transparent evaluation of inter-basin water transfer schemes. Science of The Total Environment 721: 137646.
• Rosanna A. Lane, Gemma Coxon, Jim E. Freer, Thorsten Wagener, Penny J. Johnes, John P. Bloomfield, Sheila Greene, Christopher J. A. Macleod & Sim M. Reaney (2019). Benchmarking the predictive capability of hydrological models for river flow and flood peak predictions across over 1000 catchments in Great Britain. Hydrology and Earth System Science 23(10): 4011-4032.
• Reaney, S.M., Mackay, E.B., Haygarth, P.M., Fisher, M., Molineux, A., Potts, M. & Benskin, C. McW.H. (2019). Identifying critical source areas using multiple methods for effective diffuse pollution mitigation. Journal of Environmental Management 250: 109366.
• Snell, M. A., Barker, P. A., Surridge, B. W. J., Benskin, C. McW. H., Barber, N., Reaney, S. M., Tych, W., Mindham, D., Large, A. R. G., Burke, S. & Haygarth, P. M. (2019). Strong and recurring seasonality revealed within stream diatom assemblages. Scientific Reports 9(1): 3313.
• Porter, Kenneth D.H., Quilliam, Richard S., Reaney, Sim M. & Oliver, David M. (2019). High resolution characterisation of E. coli proliferation profiles in livestock faeces. Waste Management 87: 537-545.
• Adams, R., Quinn, P., Barber, N. & Reaney, S. (2018). The Role of Attenuation and Land Management in Small Catchments to Remove Sediment and Phosphorus: A Modelling Study of Mitigation Options and Impacts. Water 10(9): 1227.
• Oliver, David M., Bartie, Phil J., Louise Heathwaite, A., Reaney, Sim M., Parnell, Jared A.Q. & Quilliam, Richard S. (2018). A catchment-scale model to predict spatial and temporal burden of E coli on pasture from grazing livestock. Science of The Total Environment 616-617: 678-687.
• Porter, Kenneth D.H., Reaney, Sim M., Quilliam, Richard S., Burgess, Chris & Oliver, David M. (2017). Predicting diffuse microbial pollution risk across catchments: The performance of SCIMAP and recommendations for future development. Science of The Total Environment 609: 456-465.
• Perks, M.T., Warburton, J., Bracken, L.J., Reaney, S.M., Emery, S.B. & Hirst, S. (2017). Use of spatially distributed time-integrated sediment sampling networks and distributed fine sediment modelling to inform catchment management. Journal of Environmental Management 202: 469-478.
• Ockenden, M.C., Deasy, C.E., Benskin, C.McW.H., Beven, K.J., Burke, S., Collins, A.L., Evans, R., Falloon, P.D., Forber, K.J., Hiscock, K.M., Hollaway, M.J., Kahana, R., Macleod, C.J.A., Reaney, S.M., Snell, M.A., Villamizar, M.L., Wearing, C., Withers, P.J.A., Zhou, J.G. & Haygarth, P.M. (2016). Changing climate and nutrient transfers: Evidence from high temporal resolution concentration-flow dynamics in headwater catchments. Science of The Total Environment 548-549: 325.
• Oliver, D.M., Porter, K.D.H., Pachepsky, Y.A., Muirhead, R.W., Reaney, S.M., Coffey, R., Kay, D., Milledge, D.M., Hong, E., Anthony, S.G., Page, T., Bloodworth, J.W., Mellander, P-E., Carbonneau, P., McGrane, S.J. & Quilliam, R.S. (2016). Predicting microbial water quality with models: Over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments. Science of The Total Environment 544: 39-47.
• Perks, M.T., Owen, G.J., Benshin, C.McW.H., Jonczyk, J., Deasy, C., Burke, S., Reaney, S.R. & Haygarath, P.M. (2015). Dominant mechanisms for the delivery of fine sediment and phosphorus to fluvial networks draining grassland dominated headwater catchments. Science of The Total Environment 523: 178-190.
• Greene, S., Johnes, P.J., Bloomfield, J.P., Reaney, S.M., Lawley, R., El Khatib, Y., Freer, J., Odoni, N., Macleod, C.J.A. & Percy, B. (2015). A geospatial framework to support integrated biogeochemical modelling in the United Kingdom. Environmental Modelling & Software 68: 219-232.
• Pattison, I., Lane, S.N., Hardy, R.J. & Reaney, S.M. (2014). The role of tributary relative timing and sequencing in controlling large floods. Water Resources Research 50(7): 5444-5458.
• Snell, M. A., Barker, P. A., Surridge, B. W. J., Large, A. R. G., Jonczyk, J., Benskin, C. McW. H., Reaney, S., Perks, M. T., Owen, G. J., Cleasby, W., Deasy, C., Burke, S. & Haygarth, P. M. (2014). High frequency variability of environmental drivers determining benthic community dynamics in headwater streams. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts 16(7): 1629-1636.
• Reaney, S.R., Bracken, L.J. & Kirkby, M.J. (2014). The importance of surface controls on overland flow connectivity in semi-arid environments: results from a numerical experimental approach. Hydrological Processes 28(4): 2116-2128.
• Bracken, L.J., Wainwright, J., Ali, G.A., Tetzlaff, D., Smith, M.W., Reaney, S.M. & Roy, A.G. (2013). Concepts of hydrological connectivity: Research approaches, pathways and future agendas. Earth-Science Reviews 119: 17-34.
• Ali G. Oswald, C., Spence C., Cammeraat E. L. H., McGuire K J., Meixner T. & Reaney S. M. (2013). Towards a unified threshold-based hydrological theory: necessary components and recurring challenges. Hydrological Processes 27(2): 313-318.
• Milledge, D.G., Lane, S.N Heathwaite, A.L. & Reaney, S.M. (2012). A Monte Carlo approach to the inverse problem of diffuse pollution risk in agricultural catchments. Science of The Total Environment 433: 434-449.
• Oven, K., Curtis, S., Reaney, S., Riva, M., Stewart, M.G., Ohlemuller, R., Dunn, C., Nodwell, S., Dominelli, L. & Holden, R. (2012). Climate change and health and social care: Defining future hazard, vulnerability and risk for infrastructure systems supporting older people’s health care in England. Applied Geography 33: 16-24.
• Wall, D., Jordan, P., Melland, A.R., Buckley, C., Reaney, S.M. & Shortle, G. (2011). Using the nutrient transfer concept to evaluate the European Union Nitrates Directive National Action Programme. Environmental Science & Policy 14(6): 664-674.
• Reaney, S.M., Lane, S.N., Heathwaite, A.L. & Dugdale, L.J. (2011). Risk-based modelling of diffuse land use impacts from rural landscapes upon salmonid fry abundance. Ecological Modelling 222(4): 1016-1029.
• Lane, S.N., Reaney, S.M. & Heathwaite, A.L. (2009). Representation of landscape hydrological connectivity using a topographically driven surface flow index. Water Resources Research 45(8): W08423.
• Reaney, S.M. (2008). The use of agent based modelling techniques in hydrology: determining the spatial and temporal origin of channel flow in semi-arid catchments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 33(2): 317-327.
• Reaney, S.M., Bracken, L.J. & Kirkby, M.J. (2007). Use of the connectivity of runoff model (CRUM) to investigate the influence of storm characteristics on runoff generation and connectivity in semi-arid areas. Hydrological Processes 21(7): 894-906.
• Lane, S.N., Brookes, C.J., Heathwaite, A.L. & Reaney, S.M. (2006). Surveillant Science: Challenges for the Management of Rural Environments Emerging from the New Generation Diffuse Pollution Models. Journal of Agricultural Economics 57: 239-257.
• Kirkby, M.J., Bracken, L.J. & Reaney, S. (2002). The influence of land use, soils and topography on the delivery of hillslope runoff to channels in SE Spain. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 27(13): 1459-1473.

Report

• Thomas, I. Bruen, M. Mockler, E., Werner, C. Mellander, P. Reaney, S. Rymszewicz, A. McGrath, G. Eder, E. Wade, A. Collins, A. & Arheimer, B. (2021). Catchment Models and Management Tools for Diffuse Contaminants (Sediment, Phosphorus and Pesticides): DiffuseTools Project. Irish Environmental Protection Agency.