Research

Research success

Published 24 January 2011

Phil Ashworth, Professor of Physical Geography in the School of Environment and Technology, has been successful with a recent application to the National Environment Research Council (NERC).

He said: "Our team project is led by Dr Dan Parsons (Leeds) together with Dr Richard Hardy (Durham) and Jim Best (Illinois, USA).

"The grant is worth a total of £512,000 and Brighton will receive staff costs and field expenses to support three field seasons on the Mississippi River (USA) together with a series of laboratory scale-modelling experiments that will be undertaken at Leeds."

The beds of most alluvial river channels are not flat, but comprise a series of undulating sedimentary accumulations termed 'bedforms' that include ripples and dunes.

Ripple bedforms with bird footprints

Professor Ashworth added "The project is entitled 'Quantification and modelling of bedform dynamics in unsteady flows'. It will run for three years starting in the summer 2011".

This is the fifth NERC grant submitted by Professor Ashworth whilst at the university and all have been successful.