ProfessorJames Brasington

I study how rivers change and what drives their response to floods, human activity and climate change.  As Professor of River Science at the University of Canterbury and Director of the Waterways Centre, I connect research on river processes with the challenges of managing flood risk, erosion and freshwater habitats.

My expertise is in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology and remote sensing, with a particular focus on high-energy, braided rivers.  Their shifting channels and gravel bars are shaped by interactions between flow, sediment transport and bank erosion, which also create and renew habitats.  I investigate how these processes sustain braiding and how changing flood regimes, sediment supply and human interventions alter river behaviour. This understanding helps anticipate changes in river form and processes, and their consequences for flood and erosion risk, ecosystem functioning and the cultural values and services these rivers support.

I develop methods to measure and explain river dynamics, combining bathymetric lidar, satellite observations and numerical modelling to quantify channel change and sediment budgets over timescales from individual floods to decades.  I use these observations to investigate river processes and assess future risks under alternative climate and management scenarios.  A central concern is establishing what we can predict reliably and how uncertainty should inform management and adaptation.

Through the Waterways Centre, I lead a joint university programme of interdisciplinary water research and postgraduate education.  I work with iwi, regional councils, government ministries and agencies and international research partners to bring evidence of river processes and change into decisions about flood management, river restoration and freshwater environments.  Across this work, my focus is on providing a rigorous scientific basis for managing changing river landscapes and adapting to future risks.