Professor Alan Werritty

Research Interests

Much of my current research is focused on climate change and flooding and societal responses to increased flood risk. Given the short length of many instrumental records, I am developing (with PhD students and colleagues in Dundee and the USA) a variety of proxy methods which can extend flood series back several hundred years. This involves the use of reliable historical records (from contemporary accounts in archives and libraries), flood marks on bridges and buildings and sediment archives from abandoned channels in flood plains. Since one of the key drivers for changes in flooding patterns in NW Europe is the behaviour of the North Atlantic Oscillation, I am also exploring (with Andrew Black) potential links between changes in flood risk and values for the NAOI in the 19th and 20th centuries.

My interest in the societal response to changing flood risk arises from my recent work for the Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence project funded by the OST and work for the Scottish Executive on Sustainable Flood Management. This area of work is also supported by an UKRC-funded Academic Fellow working on "Sustainable Flood Management".

Other areas of research which I continue to undertake include projects within the NERC-funded CHASM project (Catchment Hydrology and Sustainable Management) focused on the River Feshie in the Western Cairngorms (joint with Aberdeen University), river basin management (with colleagues in Dundee) and the stability of gravel-bed rivers (joint with Glasgow University).

I am currently the Director of Dundee's Centre for Research on Water - a University Interdisciplinary Research Centre which seeks to integrate water-based research across physical geography, law and civil engineering.

Recent Research Grants

Academic Background

Appointments

Professional Memberships

• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1997
• Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
• British Geomorphological Research Group
• Royal Scottish Geographical Society
• British Hydrological Society
• Scottish Hydrological Group

Professional Roles

• British Geomorphological Research Group: Hon Secretary 1983-86, Chair 1998-99
• Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers): Vice-President and Chair of Conference 2003, Member of Council 1998-2004
• Royal Society of Edinburgh: Member of Fellowships Committee (Section E) 2001-3
• Member of Editorial Board Transactions Royal Society of Edinburgh 2001-3
• Planning Committee for 30th International Geographical Congress, Glasgow 2004
• UK National Delegate to the International Geographical Union 2004-6
• Member of Scientific Unions' Committee of the Royal Society 2004-6
• Chair of the Council of British Geography 2004-6
• Scottish Executive: Member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Flooding 2003-4, Member of the Flooding Issues Advisory Committee 2005 -

Werritty A and Leys K F (2001) The sensitivity of Scottish rivers and upland valley floors to recent environmental change, Catena, 42, 2-4.

Werritty A (2002) Living with Uncertainty: climate change, river flows and water resource management in Scotland, The Science of the Total Environment, 294, 29-40

Ferguson R I, Bloomer D J, Hoey T B and Werritty A (2002) Mobility of river tracer pebbles over different timescales, Water Resources Research, 38 (5), 3.1-3.8

Werritty A, Black A R, Duck R W, Finlinson W, Thurston N, Shackley S and Crichton D (2002) Climate change: flooding occurrences review, Report to the Central Research Unit, Scottish Executive.

Werritty A and McEwen L J (2003) The 'Muckle Spate of 1829'- reconstruction of a catastrophic flood on the River Findhorn, Scottish, Highlands, in Palaeofloods, Historical Data and Climatic Variability: Applications in Flood Risk Assessment, Thorndycraft V R, Benito G, Barriendos M and Llasat M C, (eds.) Proceedings of the International Workshop, Barcelona, Spain October 2002, pp. 125-130.

Werritty A, Paine J L and Rowan J S (2003) Developing proxy flood records from sediment stacks in palaeochannels the 'Bloody Inches' on the River Tay, Scotland, in Palaeofloods, Historical Data and Climatic Variability: Applications in Flood Risk Assessment, Thorndycraft V R, Benito G, Barriendos M and Llasat M C, (eds.) Proceedings of the International Workshop, Barcelona, Spain October 2002, pp. 45-51.

Werritty A and Hoey T B (2003) Geomorphological changes and trends in Scotland: river channels and processes, Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report FOOAC107B.

Werritty A with Chatterton J (2004) Future Flooding Scotland, Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence Project, Office of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, 65p.

Werritty A (2005) Review of Councils' Biennial Flood Reports, Report to Scottish Executive, 16p.

Werritty A, Paine J L, Macdonald N, Rowan J S and McEwen L J (in press) Use of multi-proxy flood records to improve estimates of flood risk: lower River Tay, Catena

Werritty A (in press) Valley side slopes and drainage basins: geometry and evolution, in The History of the Study of Landforms, Volume 4, Burt T B (ed), Routledge

Werritty A, Hoey T B and Black A R (in press) The geomorphology and management of a dynamic unstable gravel-bed rivers: the Feshie-Spey confluence, Scotland in Catchment Dynamics and River Processes: Mediterranean and other Climatic Regions, Batalla R B and Garcia, C (eds.), Elsevier