Water research at Bristol Professor Paul Bates, School of Geographical Sciences

Water at Bristol ~25 academic staff in 12 Departments from 5 Faculties engaged in water research Archaeology and Anthropology, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Continuing Education, Earth Sciences, Engineering Management Group, Geographical Sciences, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Policy Studies, Social medicine Engineers Without Borders is one of our largest student groups ? Strong commitment as an Institution to developing solutions to major societal problems related to water.

AQUATEST Aims to develop a low-cost test for microbial contamination of water sources in developing countries. Major funding (to Stephen Gundry) from the EU and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Prompted the University to create a Water and Health Research Centre now recognised by the WHO

MoSSaiC Management of Slope Stability in Communities Development of cost effective protection against landslide risk for Caribbean communities Funded by Organisation of East Caribbean States, USAID and the World Bank

Havana Water Project An EWB-Bristol project Aims to install leak control for water supply systems serving 5000 people in Havana, Cuba Bristol alumni funded Winner in the Mondialogo Engineering Awards 2005 for contributions to poverty reduction

LISFLOOD-FP 2D flood inundation model developed at Bristol Predicts dynamic flooding along river valley, estuaries and coasts Scales ranging from urban areas to major continental rivers

Main interest: flood modelling and risk

Enabling technology: fusing LiDAR and map data

10 Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar classified at a spatial resolution of 1m, using a statistically active contour (Snake). Can also use LiDAR data to help constrain retrieval of shorelines

Carlisle case study – 10m model Performance measures: Inundation correctly predicted = 90%, rmse elevation = 0.32 m

Study area LISFLOOD-FP Amazon

Comparison of model inundation extent with JERS-1 imagery dark blue = areas inundated in both the JERS-1 image and the model prediction, red and cyan = over- and under-prediction by model, respectively black = uncertainty in the JERS-1 image. Low water, F= 23% High water, F=73%